Plain Heathen Mischief is just plain fun. The Rev. Joel King has just been released from prison following his guilty plea for molesting a young girl in his parish what actually happened comes out later.) Reviled by the community and his wife, now suing for divorce, he is taken under his wing by Edmund Brooks. Joel, unable to find work, is courted by Brooks, into an insurance scheme. In the meantime Christy Darden, the underage girl he supposedly had sex with, is suing the church for several million dollars. Joel, attempting to protect his church, and feeling guilty as sin, meets with Christy, only to discover that she is part of a larger insurance scam created by Brooks that used Joel as the fall guy. The whole mess becomes complicated as Joel attempts to con the con men but becomes snared in a quagmire of his own making. It’s very funny with serious overtones. ( )

Not since Bonfire of the Vanities, has the hero of a book taken a wrong turn and gotten into such a world of trouble. Good characters, convoluted but satisfying plot, guilt and sin abound in this book about Joel King, a Baptist preacher, fallen, defrocked, encarcerated, and redeemed. ( )

I'm not sure what genre to lump this book into, other than just simply
"fiction." It's the story of Joel King, a middle-aged defrocked
Southern Baptist minister who succumbed to temptation and her obvious
efforts at seduction, and kissed a girl he knew was only 17. Call it a
lapse in judgment, or pass it off as a mid-life crisis, a man trying to
reassure himself that he still had what it takes to attract a female.
She accused him of having sex with her, even had DNA evidence (pubic
hair!) and he decided to plead guilty to contributing to the delinquency
of a minor, which he felt he had certainly done. But it was an
admission of complete guilt as far as his wife and congregation were
concerned. Six months in the county jail later, he walks out into a new
day, only to be slapped with divorce papers and a civil lawsuit for five
million dollars from the girl in question.

Devastated and down on his luck, Joel plans to head to Montana where he
will stay with his only sister, a struggling single mother. He meets up
with a rather shady character, a sometimes member of his former flock,
who exists in life perpetuating one insurance scam after another. The
logic this con man presents him with, that he is simply working "the
sag" (that massive amount of money shilled off the top by dishonest
insurance companies) and not really hurting anybody begins to make sense
to the good Reverend after facing the harsh reality of being an ex-con
living off his sister in her spartan basement and trying to find honest
work.

Joel becomes embroiled in an insurance scam, telling himself and his God
that he is only doing it so he can help his poor sister out and not be
such a burden on her. He convinces himself that Life might indeed be
full of "gray areas" and not so crystal black and white as he had always
be taught it was. One of his old theology professors had declared once
that "That's just bunk, my boy. Life is very much black and white. The
rest is just plain heathen mischief." But, like everybody else in the
world, Joel won't see the wisdom in that statement until he's been down
a few dark and dangerous roads.

The scam is far deeper than he ever dreamed. Joel finds himself conning
the cons and telling himself that it will all work together for good in
the end. There's nobody completely trustworthy in this book, but it's a
study in morals and human nature.

I think the author was aiming for humor in some places, charm in others,
and a bittersweet poignancy throughout. But he missed the boat, as far
as I'm concerned. It was rather entertaining, but hardly engrossing.
Some plot twists and turns that some people might find intriguing, but
honestly, by the time I got that far, I really could have cared less.
Part of it could be that I'm coming down with the flu while I read it, I
guess. I picked it up from Quality Paperback Book Club, in their
"quirky" fiction section, but it didn't live up to my expectations.
Another case where the critics' blurbs on the back cover were hugely
inflated, IMO.

I'd give it a 3, and I'll take a pass on anything else written by this
particular author. ( )

By the time I finished this book I had already forgotten what most of it was about. Nearly 400 pages of stiff, disjointed writing. ( )

An interesting novel about a minister struggling with his faith after resigning from his pulpit in a sex scandal. This is a novel of ideas about faith, but it also is a suspenseful novel about con-men, with a plot that keeps moving. Occasionally wooden characters (especially the minister's sister), but a good read. ( )