Thursday, August 14, 2008

Book Reviews: The Alto Wore Tweed and The Baritone Wore Chiffon

The Alto Wore Tweed and The Baritone Wore Chiffon
are two "liturgical mysteries" that offer hilarious sendups of modern church life and the detective story literary genre.

I had just finished The Alto before going to the Synod meeting and took The Baritone with me, finishing it on the plane while it circled for an hour over Houston. Tears of laughter were running down my face as the plane bumped around over a rainstorm. It was just what the doctor ordered to lift my mood!

The protagonist of the series is Hayden Konig, part-time choir director and full time police detective in a small North Carolina mountain town. He calls himself a "liturgical detective." The author has been a church musician himself, and it shows.

Between the two books I've howled in laughter over the satiric depiction of a Re-imagining Conference for Wimmyn Priests; a Clown Eucharist; the Feng Shui Altar Guild; the Edible Last Supper featuring the Mary Magdalene Coffee bar; the Penguin at the Manger and --drumroll please--The Weasel Cantata.

Sample lyrics from The Weasel Cantata (from The Baritone Wore Chiffon):
'The Weasel Cantata, it's not a sonata
You cannot eat weasel, though it may taste fine
Or lizards or vermin, 'cause they commence to squirmin'
Leviticus: eleven, verse twenty nine."

What more can I say? I've ordered the rest of the books in the series and recommend them as just the thing to restore your mental/emotional equilibrium after church meetings of any type.

9 comments:

Lori said...

Gonna have to read these! "Feng Shui Altar Guild" indeed. LOL

ROBERTA said...

sounds fabulous - just ordered it...

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to read 'The Mezzo Wore Mink'!

PresbyG

Anonymous said...

I've read the Alto Wore Tweed & plan to order the others -
I actually have the sheet music to the Gloria for the Pirate Eucharist if you want it - it alone is enough to bring me to my knees in laughter!! My word & worship prof gave it to us - the citation led me to the book series!!

zorra said...

Oh, thank you for this review. These sound like they are right up my alley.

Jules said...

Sold! Bought 'em!

Rev Kim said...

One of the local Episcopal priests gave me these last year. After your review, I'm definitely moving them up on the "to read" list!

Mary Beth said...

I'll be buying these today! My choir director needs a good laugh (and so do I)

Reformed Catholic said...

FWIW ... just getting back from vacation and catching up on blogs. Saw the review, went to Amazon, and the book is sold out !!!

Way to go Oprah, er, QG !!