A Town Called Immaculate »

Peter Anthony is a freelance sportswriter and columnist, and a former software engineer. He divides his time between Switzerland and Rochester, Minnesota.

Still traumatized by his time in Vietnam, Ray’s world has shrunk—to the boundaries of his small hometown of Immaculate, and the warmth of his adored family: his young sons Jacob and Ethan, and his wife Renee—the woman who waited for him during his wartime hell. But as the snow accumulates, so do the townspeople’s stories, and the suspicions Ray has harbored for years start to resurface, along with his demons. As midnight approaches, and young Jacob vanishes into the deadly storm, Ray realizes that some generosity has been motivated by something more than neighborly kindness. Snow, it seems, can bury everything but the past; hour by hour, as Christmas Day approaches, Ray Marak begins to lose control. This haunting novel explores family and fidelity, and the fragility of the things we take for granted.

Publishers Weekly

Fans of Jan Karon's Mitford novels will best appreciate Anthony's debut, a religious soap opera set one eventful Christmas Eve in the town of Immaculate, Minn. Farmer Ray Marak, a Vietnam vet wounded both in body and spirit, has built a family with his librarian wife, Renee, who years earlier left college in order to care for Ray as well as her widowed father. Given their debts, Renee fears this Christmas will be the last they spend on the farm. Meanwhile, bank manager Josh Werther, who once had a thing for Renee, can't resist the flirtatious advances of a much younger female teller. Aware that a huge snowstorm is bearing down on the community, Father Dimer warns his flock not to venture out on dangerous roads to attend midnight Mass. A series of contrived coincidences, which lead to a dramatic and violent confrontation, may invoke groans from those unable to buy into the author's themes of trial and redemption. (Mar.)