Here's The Church Here's The Steeple

by Tempa Pagel

Andy Gammon, former Detroiter, has managed to blend nicely into everyday life in a small Massachusetts seaport with her dyed-in-the-wool Yankee husband, Gus, their two children, and her crusty mother-in-law Mayta. At first, updating the history of the First Parish Church for its tricentennial celebration is just one more way for the former social studies teacher to get involved in her adopted community. Then a storm damages the steeple of the First Parish, revealing a skeleton and a silver tankard that has been missing from the church plate since 1811. When the police show little interest in solving a crime so old, Andy, with her background in historical research, decides to mount her own investigation. The mystery spills over into the present when a second body - this time a very recent one - is found at the church, and a fire is set on Andy's property, leading Andy to wonder if tragedies of the past are being recreated in the present. Despite growing resistance of those who think she is sullying Newburyport's forefathers, Andy remains steadfast in her commitment to historical truth, solving both murders, and ultimately to finding her niche in this New England town.
Debut novelist Tempa Pagel and her husband reside in Newburyport, Massachusetts, with their son and daughter.

Genres: Mystery

297 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Tempa Pagel is a middle school teacher residing in the historic city of Newburyport, Massachusetts. It was her intrigue with all things historical (has been known to hang out in old burying grounds) that spawned the Andy Gammon mystery series. She has two grown children whose early antics often find their way onto the pages of her books.

Reviews

[Judy]

Quick moving, fun and easy read.

[Ron Kerrigan]

Easy to read, but boring as well. I gave up about 80 pages in, after plodding through passages about the narrator's trip to McDonald's with her children and six pages of she and two elderly companions climbing the treacherous stairs of the steeple during a storm to investigate a noise they heard. Too many detours from what promised to be an interesting plot line.

[Beth Pearson]

I liked this book. The first part was good and interesting but then it dragged for me for about 100 pages, so I'm not giving it more than 3 stars.

Andy is a girl from Detroit married to a man from one of the original families of a small New England village. She is involved in lots of committees and clubs in a way to try to not be such an outsider. Research was her specialty in college so she readily agrees to help research the early history of their church. When a dead body from long ago is discovered, Andy really wants to find out who he was and why he was hidden...even if it implies one of the founding families has a murderer in their family tree.

I liked that this book was clean with no sex or bad language and I liked the premise and story line. I was even a little creeped out at the end and was really involved and interested then to see Whodunnit!

[Susan]

I picked this up at half price books not knowing anything about the author or anything else she might have written. The plot revolves around Andy, a woman who is researching local history and stumbles on a several hundred year old skeleton in her church's steeple. Later, a church employee is also murdered, and she feels there is a connection. I found the plot fairly interesting, although the pieces fit together just a bit too conveniently for my taste. The characters aren't very well developed. Some of the historical info about what it might have been like to live in New England in the early 1800s was fairly interesting. I wouldn't necessarily seek this book out, but it was entertaining enough while waiting in the train station to pick up my parents.

[Jan]

Tempa Pagel writes a story about a small village called Newburyport in Massachusetts. Andy Gammon married into the community, and becomes a community asset. Joining several different organizations, volunteering at her children's school, and a very active member of her church, Andy is always stepping up to the plate to volunteer.

However, when she volunteers to help research the churches history, murder is a foot, trying to resolve a 200 year murder, when a skeleton is found in the steeple, a second murder ensues....who dun it!

Nice story of a mum, her mother in law and her family, in her adopted city. Hope more Andy Gammon books are in the authors future, as I would love to read them.

[Leslie aka StoreyBook Reviews]

This is a new cozy author and her first book. It is about a former teacher now SAHM with 2 kids (hubby is a teacher) in a small town on the East coast. She is helping the church write the history on it from the early 1800's and she and the other committee members find a dead body in the steeple. She finds that her research is tied to the skeleton that is found and why someone might be trying to dissuade her from getting down to the fine details.

[Courtney Mroch]

The mystery part of this cozy was only so-so in my eyes, and the pacing moved a little slow for my taste, BUT I fell in love with Andy Gammon and her family. Especially her spunky mother-in-law, Mayta. And the setting? Got to get a good feel of a small, tight-knit, long-established Massachusetts town. Fun read. Heavy on the cozy, which was what I'd been craving at the time I read it.

[Renee]

A good story and a great setting. It just took a long time for the plot to get anywhere. Didn't match the hype of it's own blurbs. And, yet, I can't disrespect it. It was a better read as a popular history of early American settlements.

[Cat1]

Good book...easy to read. It took me a while to finish this book because I only read it on my lunch hours.

[Seneca Massie]

It was a little hard to get into at first but well worth it for a mystery novel!

[Renee]

This is a good cozy mystery. It keeps you guessing to the end. I didn't guess who done it.

[Kerri Kennedy]

This was a slow read. It was a good book, but a lot of unneeded info/details.

[Gina Van]

It was fun for its historical info but often times drones a bit and didn't always follow through on clues introduced. ending too convenient for me.