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Excuse me, Motherless Jones Girls, for stealing your title, but I love it. I am going to review the book I just finished. It was great. It is "Home to Holly Springs". It is the first of a series of the Father Tim books. I became a fan of Father Tim when I discovered "At Home in Mitford". I picked the book up because I thought it was a mystery. I was wrong. The Mitford books have become a great change from the gruesome crime novels I read.

Father Tim is a bachelor Espiscopal priest in Mitford, NC. The town is full of the quirky characters that you find in southern literature -- most of them archetypes. Father Tim over the years is adopted by a big dog, takes in a surly abandoned teenager, counsels his flock and finds the love of his life at the age of 62. All this time, he recognizes God's grace in all the good and bad that happens in his life. He is prone to quoting scripture -- especially I & II Timothy, which he feels was written directly to him by Paul.

Over the years he marries, finds the family of the surly abandoned teenager and then adopts him, retires, goes out to substitute for a pastor in another parish, does missionary work and continues on with his good life.

Well, I always knew Father Tim had a back story. His past is often eluded to in the Mitford, but not enough to let us know too much. In "Holly Springs" he returns to his old home town in Mississippi is response to a cryptic, anonymous note asking him to return home. Here he faces the painful and loving past that he had and solves several mysteries that he didn't have the answers to as a child or adult. It is a wonderful story of grace and forgiveness and love and I must, must, must recommend it. It gets a little sappy at times, but a little sap is good for the soul.

Home to Holly Springs -- 2 thumbs up!!