Tracey Buchanan's first novel, Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace, combines humor, inspiration, and small-town quirk in a story of healing and forgiveness. In 1950s Paducah, Ky., 52-year-old widow Minerva Place teaches piano lessons, hangs around the local cemetery, and worries she might be losing her mind. Her research into the lives of the people interred in the graveyard has taken a strange turn--her deceased subjects sometimes appear and speak to her. These possible ghosts or possible hallucinations aren't the only ones haunting her. Young widower Robert McAlpin has just moved into town with his son, George, and the child can't seem to leave Minerva alone, despite her distinct veneer of unfriendliness. In a moment of weakness, she agrees to give the child piano lessons, even though he is too young, too unruly, and, worst of all, a boy. "[B]oys were unreliable, messy, and often uncooperative," according to Minerva. An unlikely friendship blossoms among the prickly widow, the headstrong boy, and his young father. Then a sudden tragedy threatens Minerva's newfound happiness, causing her to reflect on the pain of her past, the secrets of the buried, and the power of grace and forgiveness.
Minerva is a delightful cactus of a protagonist, her cantankerous, judgmental exterior hiding her vulnerability and the emotional scars left by her upbringing and marriage. Interstitial monologues to Minerva from her departed research subjects give life and color to Paducah. This folksy portrait of a quintessential American hometown charms. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads