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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: 47121
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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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.
Rated by buyers -
This being a loaner from a friend, I tried desperately finish it. I was very much caught up in the actual mystery of the story, but the emotions were VACANT. There was too much anticipation, and not enough LIVING of the emotions of the characters. All of the emotions between characters were expressed through inner dialog as opposed to actions between people. It was like - internal, internal, inaternal, then external, then three internal again. Very hard to stay interested in a story when most of the action is happening on the inside of the characters as opposed to between them. Very frustrating as a reader.
Rated by buyers 
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I've read all of Nancy Pickard's novels, and this is one of the most intriguing. The suspension of disbelief required is considerable, so the fact that she still carries off a real page-turner is all the more impressive.
Rated by buyers -
This is the very first I read of this author but noticed it because of the Agatha award. I am just about finished and I could not put it down (except to come to work today). I am looking forward to finishing it tonight and think I figured out the ending but don't know quite yet. I would have given it 5 stars but I am very stingy with those. This is a good read for anyone who likes mysteries or Kansas or both.
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