This book is very nice. You keep thinking that something dire - or exciting - is going to happen, but it never does. I read the first one of these a number of years ago. I loved the opening in which (as I recall) the rather stiff new Episcopal priest in the village of Mitford is assaulted, accosted, and adopted by a large unkempt dog eventually named Barnabas - no doubt for some Biblical reason which I have totally forgotten. This is the tenth (or twelfth) of the Mitford or Father Tim books and Barnabas is still in there, although he is now frequently referred to as "the old gentleman."
The action (so to speak) only covers a few months, so if that is a pattern, I suppose it is reasonable that Barnabas is still kicking around. So - here is a series in which the dog doesn't die. I suppose I should like it better for that reason alone. Still, not much happens - and it is all so very, very nice.
If I have a serious complaint, it would be that she never lets a character go. The village is going to sink to overpopulation since no one ever leaves. The actual problem with the writing is that she continually makes reference to events from previous volumes in the series which leaves the less than devoted reader occasionally wondering if she (the reader) skipped a page or two. My other problem was with the number of sections that began without making it clear who is thinking or talking or (rarely) doing whatever. Possibly some of that is "Kindle artifact" - but not all, I think.
Still, I did not have to force myself to read it, and managed to get teary over a couple of the more sentimental passages. "Consider it done."
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