Killer Diller

you will enjoy this book. Edgerton taught there and the similarities between the fictional Baptist university and CU are difficult to miss.

Eight years after the events of Walking Across Egypt, Edgerton resumes the story of now twenty-four-year-old Wesley Benfield, ex-con resident of a Baptist halfway house called BOTA (Back On Track Again). This sequel does what few sequels can: it outshines the original. I frequently laughed out loud and near the end, I was moved almost to tears. Edgerton is a Christian who can respectfully mine the foibles and humor of organized religion, specifically of his fellow Baptists, and more specifically of the men running Baptist colleges. The pompous Sears twins, Ted and Ned, are brilliantly drawn in their endless fund-raising and insensitivity to the genuinely disadvantaged. I was so pleased to find out that Mattie Rigsby was still alive at age 86, and that Wesley had promise despite his rocky start. As in Walking Across Egypt, though, Edgerton leaves us with a less than satisfying conclusion. Will Mattie be able to resume taking care of herself? Will Wesley end up back in jail? This time, there's no sequel, at least not yet.

Personally, I liked Raney and Walking Across Egypt better than this one, but it's still pretty damn good. Wesley , the delinquent sort of adopted by Mrs. Mattie Rigsbee in Walking Across Egypt, is now 24, and still a bit of a handful. He's a resident in a Christian halfway house in rural North Carolina. There's a love interest, a band, and there's Vernon, who 'bout steals the show when he appears on the page. And of course Mattie herself, who is older still but still cooking up a storm.Good story, great author; sequel to follow, surely.

this book is real funny. With a few different angles it gives a taste of religion with a twist. The book can be graphic at times though