Mary Jo Adamson's writing is beautiful. She really brings the world of the Shakers alive for her readers. Her research is very thorough and her character development impeccable. I recommend this book!

One of the most enjoyable mystery novels I've read in a long time. Emphasis on both "mystery," and "novel." It could go in either genre. On one level, a simple murder mystery set in the timeless world of the Shakers at Hancock Village Massachusetts (which is still there as a living museum, and can be visited--it rightly has earned the name the City of Peace). If you have ever been to Hancock or any other Shaker village, you will love this book. If you have never had that treat, this book will really capture the flavor of the place.

On a second level, the book is a novel, a meditation on the meaning of love.

I can hardly wait for the second book in this series. This is the product of a very talented writer.

Though there are fewer than ten Shakers extant today, this communal sect, officially named the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, once numbered some six thousand at their peak around 1830, spread among several villages in the eastern United States. In Mary Jo Adamson's riveting mystery, "The Blazing Tree," a structural fire--the latest and most frightening in a series of unexplained blazes in the Shaker community of Hancock Village, Massachusetts--has resulted in the death of an elderly man. Boston newspaperman Michael Merrick, on orders from his publisher, is propelled into impromptu undercover detective work at the village in the hope of unmasking the arsonist. Merrick's assignment quickly becomes a race against a clever murderer who will not hesitate to kill again. With richly textured prose and striking characterizations, Ms. Adamson takes the reader into the midst of everyday life in an 1840s Shaker village, weaving a compelling and suspenseful tale. Moreover, her comprehensive research brings powerful verisimilitude to the descriptive and narrative elements of the story, and summons a long-lost era back to colorful life. Whether as novel or as mystery, this is a first-class read.