The Mountain Town of Mossy Creek, Georgia, the Present

Those wonderful citizens of Mossy Creek are back to tell us all about their wild and wacky Valentine weekend. And if some of them were planning romantic trysts, well....

The area inns and motels are all filled for the holiday weekend when a bus full of circus performers breaks down on the road into town. Now Creekites are hospitable folk, and Sheriff Amos Roydon and Mayor Ida Hamilton Walker don't hesitate to ask them to house three dozen stranded wayfarers. These are not the ordinary clowns and animal trainers they might expect, however. Instead, they belong to the Cirque d'Europa (like the Cirque du Soliel only smaller). As Amos tries to sort them out, the air rings with a mélange of languages, least of which is English.

Now Amos has hankered after the attractive mayor for years, but, never mind their two hot kisses -- twenty years apart -- Ida rebuffs the much younger man. In fact, she's keeping company with Del Jackson, a retired colonel near her own age of fifty. As Amos looks over the passengers, he sees a chance to put Del's nose out of joint and sends the distinguished, charming, and French, leader of the troupe of jugglers to stay with Ida. Has Amos just shot himself in the foot?

With a first glance at the back cover copy of AT HOME AT MOSSY CREEK, two questions arise: What is going to happen when a bus full of exotic foreigners is plunked down in the middle of a small town whose motto is ain't goin' nowhere and don't want to? And how can eleven voices produce a coherent novel? Well, the second question is the easier. The short answer is, beautifully! The long answer has the various writers speaking in first person for the different characters, some of them familiar from previous Mossy Creek books, many new. Also, talent and good editing are obvious in the result.

As for the first question, that's where the fun comes in. Take the case of Win Allen, the owner and chef of the Bubba Rice Diner. Win/Bubba is preparing elegant Valentine dinners for his customers when he's assigned two mimes in full white-face who insist on waiting tables completely mute, gestures only. How romantic is that? <G>

Sunday will be newlyweds Harry and Josie's first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. You can imagine their chagrin when given an aging Russian ex-animal trainer/foot juggler as houseguest in their tiny cabin. Yet the weekend turns magic for all three.

Several romantic stumbling blocks are resolved in Mossy Creek for both Creekites and visitors, with cupid taking various disguises. Two such cupids are the town's eldest citizen, Eula Mae, at 101, and first-grader Charlie. One interesting visitor needing cupid's aid is a fellow American. Quinn James was a champion acrobat who joined the circus after college. Then a recurring case of vertigo put paid to that and she became the circus owner's second in command. Quinn suffers unrequited love for her former partner, Erik, whose new partner hangs onto him like a leech...a sultry, heavily made up and overly perfumed leech. Quinn's world tilts in more ways than one.

Why does that mysterious New York photographer hang around the library staring at Hannah the librarian? What dire secret is Louise keeping from her husband Charlie? Sagan Salter is back from visiting his Cherokee ancestors; will he stick around this time? Each character takes turnabout in telling his or her own story in this engaging tour de force full of warmth and wit. Whether or not you've read any of the previous titles in the Mossy Creek Hometown Series, you're sure to enjoy AT HOME AT MOSSY CREEK.

Jane Bowers