The Undoing of Saint Silvanus

The Undoing of Saint Silvanus by Beth Moore    Audio Book:  12 hrs., 20 mins   Paperback Book:  496 pages                  

I enjoyed this story a lot.   I could picture this being turned into a film with Niecy Nash or Jennifer Lewis playing Adella Atwater.   Jillian Slater lives in San Francisco with her mother.  She hasn’t seen her father in 20 years.   Her mother never had a good word to say about him but when Jillian was a child she loved her father and remembers bits and pieces of time spent with him at her grandmother’s home in New Orleans.   Out of the blue Jillian receives word from her grandmother that Jillian’s father has died and that if she would like to attend his funeral, her grandmother will provide a roundtrip airline ticket for her to come and will provide a room for her to stay as long as she likes.   Jillian thought of her father as a ne’er do well and worse, compliments of her mother’s feelings about him.   Jillian’s mother had always referred to her mother-in-law (Jillian’s Dad’s mother) as the witch or the Ice Queen because the woman never allowed herself to show any emotion and never expressed any compassion toward anyone.    Jillian’s grandmother had been loving and happy when she was a young wife with a baby boy in tow, but, her husband’s philandering and under-handed business dealings hardened her to life and she got harder and more distant with every passing year.    She hired a woman named Adella Atwater to oversee her property and Adella took to the position like a duck to water.   Lots of mystery and intrigue, people with two-faces and loads of ulterior motives.    Jillian decides, what the heck and takes her Grandmother up on the free trip to New Orleans and once she arrives things take a number of freaky turns.   Throw in a bit or two of Tarot, some beignets and you have a strange Cajun brew oh yes, and lots and lots of French Press coffee, too.   Things aren’t always what they seem, and Jillian is not always the nicest person you want to meet.   Past and present class.   Some reputations are earned, some seem one way but not necessarily so.   Good book keeps you interested cover to cover. 

 - Shirley J.