As I posted on Amazon: This is a really fun read.... The author has peopled her book with a bunch of true characters - a slightly crazy undertaker with a mummy in his chifferobe, a mystical, absent mother, a fiddle playing "special" boy, a conjurer woman with special healing powers, a bitter old woman, a dead man who comes back as a ghost, and on and on. It shifts back and forth between time periods and people, and it can get confusing as to who is doing what when and related to who. It would have been extremely helpful for the author to have included a family tree! But it all ties up neatly in the end, you figure out who is related and who is not (which pretty much everyone is related somehow, except for the town whore, who also happens to be the preacher's wife). The supernatural portions are centered around the Stradivarius and what happens to it, as well as the ghosts, conjurer, faith healer, etc. The book is well-written, and worth tracking down!
