A Stillness in Bethlehem

Jane Haddam

Bethlehem, Vermont, presents a week long Christmas pageant for three weeks in December. This Christmas celebration appeals to tourists and funds the small city for the rest of the year, keeping residents' taxes low. The town is fairly quiet the rest of the year (although from personal experience, it's also full during autumn leaf season).

This year Gregor Demarkian visits Bethlehem as a favor to his friend, Father Tibor Kasparian, They are joined by Bennis Hanaford, another friend. Tibor had recently been overwhelmed with the arrival of a secret group of Armenian immigrants and the problems that go with it. Now they are getting him away for a break. He has wanted to see this pageant, so here they are.

The quiet town of Bethlehem has had some excitement this year. The day the pageant opened, Tish Verek, a transplant from New York City, decides to go file an injunction against the pageant for discrimination against other religions. But as her lawyer pulls up to pick her up that warm December morning, she is shot and killed. One of the life time residents, an eighty-plus woman, is also killed in a separate incident. The state police rule both deaths from hunting accidents.

The police chief isn't satisfied with the ruling. So when the famous Gregor Demarkian comes to town, Franklin Morrison decides to pull him in to solve the crime. Gregor is uneasy with the fame that now surrounds him yet can't ignore Franklin's request. He tries to avoid the notice of the townsfolk who have all heard about him. Gregor starts asking questions and looking around.

Jane Haddam has successfully tapped into the small town psyche for A Stillness in Bethlehem. There is the "us vs. them" attitude of the people who have lived in the town all their lives against the "flatlanders" - the people who moved from other areas to get away from it all and back to nature. People who didn't grow up in Bethlehem are suspect. Even the newspaper editor who grew up there, but then moved away for many years and was a successful international newspaper journalist, is suspect because he was gone for so long.

This detective novel keeps the reader involved. The point of view shifts around to different residents of Bethlehem as well as Gregor Demarkian, and it takes about a third of the book to keep straight who is who. The characters are varied - from a woman whose husband beats her daily to an ex-Viet Nam vet who still carries the memories to a rude, self-indulgent artist from the Outside. Haddam believably works through the connections and relationships of these people and keeps the reader guessing why the two women were killed. When a third woman is also killed, the clues start coming together.

This is not the first book in the series, but I was able to pick up the relationship between Gregor, Bennis, and Tibor with the explanations Haddam provides. It has nothing to do with the mystery other than it solidifies Gregor's fame and the reason the three are in Bethlehem as this time. A Stillness in Bethlehem stands very well on its own.

Not a Creature Was Stirring
Precious Blood
Act of Darkness
Quoth the Raven
A Great Day for the Deadly
Feast of Murder
A Stillness in Bethlehem
Murder Superior
A Festival of Deaths
Bleeding Hearts
Dear Old Dead
Fountain of Death
Baptism in Blood
And One to Die On
Dearly Beloved
Skeleton Key
True Believers
Somebody Else's Music
Conspiracy Theory
The Headmaster's Wife
Hardscrabble Road
Glass Houses
Cheating at Solitaire