The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Tom Perrotta's trademark.

Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid

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"Esther Ann Hicks is the youngest child on Six for Hicks, a reality television phenomenon. She's grown up in the spotlight, both idolized and despised for her family's fire-and-brimstone brand of faith. When Essie's mother, Celia, discovers that Essie is pregnant, she arranges an emergency meeting with the show's producers: Do they sneak Essie out of the country for an abortion? Do they pass the child off as Celia's? Or do they try to arrange a marriage--...

When charismatic evangelist Malachi Hope arrives in Maggody to set up a religious theme park called City of Hope, Arly Hanks, the local lady sheriff smells trouble once more. Two dead women later, she knows she is right.

The story of Nathanael Vickery who from a rough beginning believes himself to be one of God's chosen, a belief he manifests in wide ambition and religious hysteria, only to come to a humble conclusion informed by his intimate relationship with God.

The third book in this cozy mystery series, Paint the Town Dead displays all the wry humor fans of Judge Jackson Crain have come to expect. When local real-estate mogul Tom Delgado is found murdered in his office, the police suspect his wife, Dovie. She had plenty of motive after finding out Tom changed his will to include another woman, but Jackson's gut tells him the newfound widow is innocent.

In Britain, Inspector Liz Graham receives an official reprimand for flirting with a travelling preacher whose oratory provokes a riot and lynching after police release a murder suspect. It happens during an investigation into the slaying of two girls, both of whom had their throat cut. By the author of A Bleeding of Innocents.

Joe Mahaffey, a garrulous, natural-born salesman, meets Buck Brody, a similarly minded Southerner, and together they ignite a wild scheme involving the selling and reselling of anyone or anything.