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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780345471000
ISBN number: 0345471008
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: May 29, 2007
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: May 29, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 65777
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Product Description:
Small Plains, Kansas, January 23, 1987: In the midst of a deadly blizzard, eighteen-year-old Rex Shellenberger scours his father’s pasture, looking for helpless newborn calves. Then he makes a shocking discovery: the naked, frozen body of a teenage girl, her skin as white as the snow around her. Even dead, she is the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. It is a moment that will forever change his life and the lives of everyone around him. The mysterious dead girl–the “Virgin of Small Plains”–inspires local reverence. In the two decades following her death, strange miracles visit those who faithfully tend to her grave; some even believe that her spirit can cure deadly illnesses. Slowly, word of the legend spreads.
But what really happened in that snow-covered field? Why did young Mitch Newquist disappear the day after the Virgin’s body was found, leaving behind his distraught girlfriend, Abby Reynolds? Why do the town’s three most powerful men–Dr. Quentin Reynolds, former sheriff Nathan Shellenberger, and Judge, Tom Newquist–all seem to be hiding the details of that night?
Seventeen years later, when Mitch suddenly returns to Small Plains, simmering tensions come to a head, ghosts that had long slumbered whisper anew, and the secrets that some wish would stay buried rise again from the grave of the Virgin. Abby–never having resolved her feelings for Mitch–is now determined to uncover exactly what happened so many years ago to tear their lives apart.
Three families and three friends, their worlds inexorably altered in the course of one night, must confront the ever-unfolding consequences in award-winning author Nancy Pickard’s remarkable novel of suspense. Wonderfully written and utterly absorbing, The Virgin of Small Plains is about the loss of faith, trust, and innocence . . . and the possibility of redemption.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Rated by buyers 
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I have never read any books by this author. I wasn't sure if I liked this book until I got about half way through it. Then I wanted to see where the story was going. It actually was a pretty decent read. Nice surprise.
Rated by buyers -
On the midwest expanse of Kansas the summers are sweetly mild, the winters brutal, and that grey and white, light and dark mirroring is an apt setting for this suspense / mystery novel from Nancy Pickard.
The story gets going right out of the chute and draws the reader right in with the vision of a half-clothed elderly woman wandering through a snowstorm in the present, then flashing back to a similar night more than a decade earlier, when a young woman with no face and no identity is found in a snowdrift. The nameless, faceless girl is buried in the town's cemetery and over the years her gravesite becomes a sort of shrine, her spirit rumored to be an angel of sorts who will grant miracles to the desperate.
On the night the girl is found, three teenagers - Abby, Mitch and Rex - on the brink of adulthood become unknowingly embroiled in the sins of their fathers (and mothers), so to speak, with consequences that will reverberate years into the future, consequences none of them fully understands. By mere chance Mitch witnesses something he shouldn't have, although he doesn't understand exactly what he sees. The very subsequent day he is whisked out of town forever with no explanation to anyone, leaving girlfriend Abby and best friend Rex confused and dismayed. Years later, Mitch's return to the small town reawakens the long silence around that one fateful event which had shaped all of their lives so long ago, and a deeply buried secret finally comes to light, despite the efforts of those who would do anything to keep it hidden.
Well done, fast-paced, with a little something for everyone - a lot of suspense, a little romance, and a good balance of past and present. I've always been drawn to stories about past events that continue to touch lives in the future, especially in ways the participants themselves are not even fully aware of. I only know of Pickard through the `cozy' mystery genre when she was contracted to pick up and continue a popular culinary mystery series from Virginia Rich when Rich passed away, so I was curious to see how she would come across to me in this more serious vein. The skill of a long and respected career is evident: the characters were fairly well fleshed-out, which can be difficult to do with multiple viewpoints, and the construction was seamless, without the bottlenecking and jolting effect that past/present jockeying can present with a less experienced author. Nice addition to any mystery fan's library.
Rated by buyers -
On the night a blizzard rocked a tiny Kansas community in January 1987, the frozen body of a murdered teenage girl was found in a farmer's field. It was also the last time a local teenage boy, Mitch Newquist, was ever seen again.
Fast forward to 2004, when the Virgin, as the mysterious girl has come to be known, is a local legend of such heightened lore that residents swear she's healed their sick. Mitch, too, has become something of local lore -- like many people departed before their time, people have remembered him as a local hero, endlessly skilled in every area from sports to academics.
The death of Nadine Newquist finally brings back her long-lost son, and with his return, a series of events rocks the tiny town irreversibly. Just what did teenage Mitch see -- or do -- the night the Virgin was found dead? Why was he sent away and where did he go all those years? More importantly, who WAS the Virgin? How did she die, and at whose hands? Why, in such a tiny community, did no one ever claim the young girl or even recognize her?
Pickard weaves an intriguing story of past and present in a close-knit Midwest community, unable to move past a tragedy that has shaped many of their lives -- and, in some ways, helped them grow as individuals. Readers will be drawn into the story, unable to resist navigating the various twists and turns of Pickard's satisfying murder mystery.
Rated by buyers -
Tornados and Kansas, since the 1930's forever linked in the American imagination, pair up in this novel about love, loss, secrecy, and betrayal. Who is "the Virgin" buried in the unmarked grave? Who killed her? Can you go home again? The romance characteristics of this book are trite, but the mystery wound round the main characters is compelling enough to make it worthwhile. The tornado itself is among the active characters, causing "coincidences" that might not have otherwise been plausible. Read The Virgin of Small Plains with a mind open to a bit of the magical, and it's a pretty good story. But a hard nosed murder mystery it is not.
Rated by buyers -
There are a lot of things about this book I could point to and say I didn't like, and yet, it was very readable. I didn't like the characters, and am unsure if I really buy that people would act/react that way - though I've been told it is very possible by people who have lived in small towns, I think people who haven't will have a much harder time relating and believing it. I didn't like the plot. I found it predictable and unsatisfying, especially the last-minute, overly-sanctimonious, beat-you-with-the-happily-ever-after-stick ending. That seemed far too contrived.
On the other hand, the writing was very good. It was fluid and easy to read, engaging despite the lack of interest I had in the story. For the second time I'm stuck trying to rate a book where I think the author is a talented writer that wrote a bad story, and I'm not sure how to do that. I'd give the story itself two stars, and the writing four, so we'll average it out to three. It's a decent book, will keep you reading, but in the end, it's nothing spectacular.
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