Boo by Rene Gutteridge - A Book Review

Rene Gutteridge penned a sweet romantic comedy named Boo a couple of years ago. Strange title, strange town, strange people - but oh, so much fun to read. Rene is an artist, pure and simple, in the creation of touching comedy.

Boo is the nickname the townspeople of Skary, Indiana have given to the town's favorite celebrity, Wolfe Boone. Wolfe is a world-renown horror writer who has chosen to settle in Skary. The town is small and was on the verge of dying like many tiny places in America when the interstate highways bypass them. They have nothing to draw tourists to the businesses populating the town. So one by one the proprietors close out, shut down and fade into oblivion.

But, when Wolfe Boone moves into town things changed. Business owners renamed their establishments to reflect Boo's writing genre. A local, once ordinary diner formerly called Sylvia's, is now known as The Haunted Mansion and serves such ghoulish fare as "Bloody Fingers", French fries doused in ketchup, and "Queasy Quesadillas", a disgusting mixture of cheese, red tortillas, mashed green chilies and black bean paste.

Other shop owners joined the horror revolution turning Skary into the horror capital of the world, or at least rural Indiana. Pretty much everyone in town became gung ho on the horror train, except Ainsely Parker that is. Skary's version of Shirley Temple is completely turned off by the town's embracing of Wolfe Boone's eerie writing genre.

Ainsley refuses to join her fellow townspeople in adoring Wolfe's books. In fact she doesn't like him, even though she's never actually met him. She's seen him, of course, around town and in The Haunted Mansion, where she works as a waitress. But she refuses to serve him herself. Instead she makes anyone else working at the restaurant when he comes in as a customer wait on him.The renovation of Skary into a museum of sorts in honor of Wolfe's books brings tourists to town in droves, in the form of horror fans wanting to buy Boo's latest book in the town where he lives. They spend their money and their time there in hopes of catching a glimpse of Wolfe.

But now, there are a couple of problems. Wolfe is not the man of the reputation the town has created. Instead he's a kind and gentle person who's really lonely. He only has his pet German shepherds, Goose and Bunny, as close friends. It wasn't what he had foreseen when he moved into town. And it surely wasn't what he wanted. Now something's happened that has changed his life forever and is going to affect the future of the town - Wolfe Boone has become a Christian and plans to write horror no more.

Ainsley Parker, Martha Stewart's number one fan, and town do-gooder can't believe the change in Wolfe is for real. She feels like his "conversion" is a publicity stunt and that his true nature will surface once again, soon. Then she is forced to become acquainted with Wolfe and begins to see through the outer layers into the true man inside.

Throw into the mix a would-be suitor for Ainsley in the guise of Garth Twyne, local veterinarian, and Miss Missy Peeple, town busybody, and then top the whole thing off with more cats running loose than any town has a right to have, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Missy Peeple, who knows all the dirt on all the townspeople, uses her knowledge to her advantage to try to get Wolfe to return to his old ways. If he stops writing, then Skary will start dying again, and Missy is not about to let that happen. Using blackmail, she enlists various people around town into helping her.

Garth Twyne is pretty much stalking Ainsley, and there's nothing she can do about it. The sheriff, her own father, thinks there's nothing wrong with Garth's pursuit of Ainsley. In fact, he's all for it. Garth has hung around so long, that Sheriff Parker can't understand Ainsley's reticence in regard to his frequent efforts to get her to date him.

How will it all end? Will Missy Peeple succeed in causing Wolfe to backslide? Will the town really be destroyed if he never again pens another horror tale? Will Garth win the love of his life and get Ainsley to marry him?

Once more, Ms. Gutteridge has created a group of characters that could live right in your own town. I got so involved in the lives of the people of Skary that by the end of Boo I wanted to throttle Missy Peeple and kick Garth Twyne in the shins.

I would have felt bereft at the end of Boo because there was no more to read about Skary and it's people, but I didn't have to - there are already two more books in the series in print! Boo was released in 2003. It was followed by Boo Who in 2004 and Boo Hiss in 2005, and they will be followed by Boo Humbug in 2007.

Sitting in my to-be-read library are copies of the two released sequels in the Boo series. They came in the mail today. I'm going to start on Boo Who as soon as this entry is posted. I can't wait to get back to Skary, Indiana.

kmparis