Who would think that the story of a dumpy and word-obsessed widower would have anything of interest to offer? Trust Jamie Langston Turner to show, in her novel Sometimes A Light Surprises, that it does.
Ben has never recovered from the murder of his wife Chloe over 20 years ago. Her death was especially hard to take because of how he treated her in the weeks just preceding. If he’d hoped to jolt her out of the religious kick she was on with his sarcasm and silence, it hadn’t worked.
The murder aftermath was so traumatic, he couldn’t be blamed for giving over the parenting of their four children to his mother, could he? Trouble is, these many years later he and his kids are still estranged.
When young home-schooled Kelly Kovatch applies for a job at the Bazaar he owns and manages, he surprises himself by hiring her. Maybe it’s more curiosity than anything, because she has the same last name as the religious woman who befriended and beguiled Chloe just before her death.
After Kelly comes to work things begin happening. His daughter plans a family holiday and invites Ben. He takes up Chloe’s Bible again. When Kelly’s own mother dies, he makes a point of finding out how her father is coping and gives his strategy a try. Little changes become big ones as he thaws in the warmth of Kelly’s shy concern and compelling advice.
The book is full of wonderful characters. Caroline, Ben’s secretary, is convinced Ben is a little crazy with his obsession over the origins of phrases and his office littered with lists. She, herself, has a hate on for men but a love of mysteries. Some of Ben’s family, especially his driven eldest daughter Shelly, and the bitter Erin, are interesting studies. Then there’s Kelly herself -- earnest, sincere, devout, likeable — but so naïve and sheltered it’s almost as if she’s from another galaxy.
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