This is a "cozy mystery," the first in a series. This book didn't exactly suck me in and point of view issues didn't help. Most of the first chapter was skimmable backstory told in narrative summary, and Faith Sibley, our sleuth, didn't come alive to me as a person.
Faith is a caterer and minister's wife in the small Massachusetts town of Aleford. She's heaving "Victorian sighs" because she's homesick for New York City and bewailing nothing has happened in Aleford since 1775. (I found Faith rather whiny in general.) Then, of course, she finds the body of bad girl Cindy Shepherd near the historical belfry--and the scandal over whether Faith should have rung the bell "almost eclipses" the murder in the town.
Even after we get into the meat of the story though, something about the style (like lots of infodump) and the main character made this a slog--the further I got in, the harder I found it to keep going until I crawled to a stop halfway.
