I’m not even sure this is a book, but I figured the TN universe might have someone who remembers it too. I recently read Cyteen and while doing so, had intense déjà vu of a book I read when I was in my young teens.

That book was similar in plot but I remember distinct differences. The book involved a clone (a girl) whose original had died; there was a murder mystery of who killed the original. The girl had two friends — both boys — and all three of them were teenagers. Throughout the book, the girl starts having dreams that she thinks are memories of the original person.

I know, it sounds just like Cyteen, but there is no way I would have read a 600-page book in my teens, and I certainly wouldn’t have forgotten it. I read it in the ’80s. Googling doesn’t help. Any help would be appreciated!

Not sure if this is a real memory

*****

I’m going nuts trying to figure this out, and have tried Googling this to no avail.

I read a short story some years back that was based around the weird phenomena of Jesus statues on their crucifixes suddenly coming to life, ripping themselves off the crosses, and running screaming down the aisles. If I remember correctly, watchers are assigned to keep an eye on the statues, and if a Jesus breaks free, are supposed to grab him, drag him back to the cross, and re-nail him to it. If they don’t, and the Jesus makes it out of the church, bad things will happen, but I can’t remember what.

Yeah, it’s gross and disturbing, but I don’t think I’ve embellished the basics too much. Anyway, my friends are thinking I’m crazy, but I know this story exists. I keep thinking it might be by Stephen King? But searches haven’t brought anything to mind.

Can you help?

KM

*****

Hello Sarah,

I’m trying to track down an English murder mystery I read about 25 years ago, as a paperback (probably out of print even then, though I would suspect it didn’t appear earlier than 1970 or so). I must have loaned it to a friend after reading it and never gotten it back. Its title was A VILLAGE MURDER or maybe A VILLAGE MYSTERY, something along those lines.

Unfortunately Googling on that phrase, even in quotes, brings up tons of hits that are all about other things (the concept conveyed by such titles is a pretty common one in English mysteries).

And I’m going to have to spoil the ending in order to ask about it. Apologies for that.

It took place in an English village, as you might guess, but a more or less modern one (i.e. not a “cozy” 1930-ish sort of setting). A man is murdered, and one of his friends tries to figure out what happened, taking on the role of detective. In the end he figures it out and instead of going to the authorities, he travels abroad to where the widow is now living (Sicily?), and he finds her settled down romantically with another woman from the village — they had been in on it together, and nobody had suspected.

He explains everything, and says he can understand why they did it. One of the women replies, “But you’ve never come out” (I had thought all along that my notion of him having a crush on the dead man was my own imagination, but I was just picking up the author’s clues). When he drives away at the end, we get the impression that they’ve tampered with the car while he visited, and he isn’t going to survive to tell anyone else.

I ought to have been able to find this, knowing an approximation of the title and given the specialized mystery websites available. But so far, no luck. All help gratefully appreciated!

Mystery Lover

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