"The Virgin of Small Plains" by Nancy Pickard

This is mastery of the art of Great American Storytelling.  Nancy Pickard takes the reader into a seldom heard, yet commonplace setting, delivers a prickling mystery, mixes in an otherworldly ghostly element, and sprinkles everything with Kansas charm.  Following the first several chapters, I did worry this might be just another regurgitated NY/LA coastland soap opera transplanted to the Kansas plains; however, when the tornado struck it became an experience of the Midwest.  People sounded like the people I know; events played out like the experiences I have undergone.  Every character tells their story through distinct voices that mature with their aged selves.  The teenagers of 1987 (from where the story’s genesis flows) never sound like their 2004 adult counterparts.  In other words, Pickard allows her characters to age.  Bravo.