Christian Book Notes

Fraser, Gail.  The Lumby Lines.  New York: New American Library, 2007.  320 pp.  $14.00.  Purchase at Amazon for less than $5.00 !

Introduction

The Lumby Lines is the first book in the Lumby Series.  You can find much more about the series at Gail’s website, Lumby Books.  Gail herself is a former senior executive at a Fortune 500 company.  She left the business world to become a novelist and for that, I am thankful.  She and her husband, artist Art Poulin live on Lazy Goose Farm where Lumby comes to life each day.

Summary

We are introduced to the small, quaint and quirky town of Lumby located in the Pacific Northwest in The Lumby Lines.  The main characters of the story are Mark and Pam Walker, visitors from the East Coast who decide to sell everything in their corporate world and move to Lumby in order to renovate a burned out monastery and make it into an inn.  As they get deeper and deeper into the renovations, they find they are striking a nerve in some sections of the city while being an encouragement in others.

Throughout the book you will find news articles and police blotters from the Lumby Lines–the name of the local newspaper.  Those alone will have you in stitches, trust me!  The mayor, Toby, will leave you scratching your head (maybe it is the fleas?) as to what exactly he could be doing as mayor in the first place.  You will also meet Hank, the personified bald eagle (stop it, Hank! You are what you are!) plastic pink flamingo.  Hank is something else.

I could spend all day telling you of the town of Lumby and you would not get bored.  The best thing I can tel you is to simply read it for yourself.

Review

The Lumby Lines is well-written and extremely enjoyable.  It kind of reminds me of a Hazzard County of Dukes of Hazzard fame without a cool car.  The only real critique I have the Lumby Lines is the use of “God” as a sort of expletive.  I was raised Catholic (now am a Southern Baptist minister) and can recall being told that saying God was not necessarily a bad thing.  Regardless of what I was told, after reading Scripture and seeing the regard God has for His name, I struggle to find any good reason to use God as an expletive.  An example from the book of what I am talking is, “God, what is that smell?”  This sort of thing occurs more than a few times though not in every chapter.  Nonetheless, it occurred often enough for me to notice it.

The positive to the book is that the characters are all developed very well.  You are able to get into the story line and in a real way, escape to Lumby whenever you are reading.  Truly, there were scenes in the book that had me rolling with laughter and rereading to my wife and others in the room.  The story line is believable and one that is captivating at the same time.  What is more, there are “curve balls” throughout the book all the way to the last page.

Recommendation

Even with the use of God as a sticking point for me, I can recommend the book to all readers.  It is a fun little book that will keep you interested and wanting more.  Book number 5, Lumby on the Air is due to be published in July and can be pre-ordered now at Amazon.  I will have a review forthcoming on book 5.  In the meantime, do yourself a favor and purchase one or all of the Lumby Series and get to reading today.