Midsummer Melody is book 9 in the Tales From Grace Chapel Inn series about three sisters who run a bed-and-breakfast from their maternal ancestors' Victorian house in the village of Acorn Hill, Pennsylvania. Their late father, Daniel Howard, had been the pastor of nearby Grace Chapel, hence the name.

Widowed Mrs. Louise Howard Smith teaches piano as well as keeping the inn's books. Alice Howard is a part-time nurse. Divorced Jane Howard was a professional chef in San Francisco. She does the cooking and gardening. They share in housekeeping tasks.

These books have a formula: there will be a main problem and one or more problems for subplots. Guests and/or townspeople will be involved. Faith will play a part in resolving the problems.

Louise is the sister who gets the spotlight this book. She's going to be performing at the Pine Valley Music Festival. She would like to finish 'Reverie: Concerto in A Minor,' which had been intended as an anniversary gift for her beloved Eliot, but cancer claimed him first. She's having trouble with the middle. (See chapter 14 for the concerto's title change.)

Jane has been invited to speak about gardening on a radio show, but she's feeling inadequate because she can't catch a mole that has invaded her garden.

Alice has been helping at a nearby summer camp where four of the counselors need a place to stay because of a cabin problem that's not their fault. Luckily, Aunt Ethel is away visiting. She's willing to let the counselors stay in her carriage house. (Imagine Louise's horror when she discovers the counselors are members of a Christian rock band called Rock the Ages.)

Another problem is Patrick Stoddard, grandnephew to frequently-obnoxious parishioner Florence Simpson. When cause of his misbehavior is revealed, well, let us hope a lesson is learned.

I enjoyed the solving of the various problems, including an article about one of Louise's former pupils, Maggie Landau, now a successful composer. There's an uncomplimentary quotation about Margaret's teachers that doesn't help Louise's confidence.

NOTES:

Chapter 2: See book 7, Home For the Holidays (a really good entry), for the incident of the stranded tour group.

Chapter 3 has advice for dealing with keyboard keys sticking.

Chapter5 names some natural garden pest remedies. There's even an interesting idea to flush out moles.

Chapter 6 has an elderly couple receive some advice after the wife has a stroke.

Chapter 9 explains why planting Euphorbia lathyris, also known as caper spurge, gopher plant, gopher spurge, mole plant, or paper spurge; is not a good idea.

Also, if you've never heard of Love Canal, that's the Niagara Falls, New York neighborhood where hundreds of residents were made ill because of the toxic chemicals that had been dumped on the grounds. This led to the passing of the Superfund law.

Chapter 10 has the lyrics (so far) of a Christian Rock song Gabriel, one of the musicians, is composing.

Chapter 14 has some information about do-it-yourself home improvement.

Chapter 15 mentions how Louise's pupils, Sissy and Charles Matthews, fared in a pie-eating contest. There is also information about Japanese beetles. (My parents controlled them by paying me a penny per beetle, later per two beetles because I was too industrious, to pick them off and kill them. That, and babysitting, gave me the money I used to buy comics, paperbacks, and records. Yay, Japanese beetles!)

I enjoyed Louise coming to terms with the concept of Christian Rock, the music festival, and the final chapter. (If Louise were Catholic, she could have mentioned to Gabriel's father the example of the 12th century father who disapproved of the direction his son's life was taking. That son later became Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the ecology. I think of him whenever I read about parents who want their children to become something those children don't want.)

I've read only 15 of the 48 (as of this review) books in the Tales From Grace Chapel Inn series, but this one is one of my favorites.

The recipe for this book is Lancaster County Crumb Cake.

Cat lovers, Wendell, the Howards' big gray tabby, does appear. ( )