STEALING LUMBY by Gail Fraser

Read: June 16 - June 20
Format: Trade Paperback 300 pages
Source: Barnes & Noble
Subject: hostile takeovers, stolen art,
Challenges: 101020, 75 Book
Category: Niagara Falls - Overflow Category#9 Books found - Internet/thru LT/library/bookstore
Genre: Fiction
Stars: 4

In the second installment of the Lumby series, the little town of Lumby is thrown into an upheaval when the priceless painting of the Barns of Lumby (considered a national treasure) by Dana Porter is stolen while in transit to the London Museum. Reporters descend on the town to get background for the story of the year.

Mark and Pam Walker's B&B is filled to capacity by the reporters who arrived determined to drag out any little morsel of scandal that can even remotely be associated with the theft to garner "a scoop". However, Lumby and its residents stand firm in their uniqueness and eventually the reporting mass sinks away.

While the story centers on the art theft and its effects on the town's inhabitants, the reader is introduced to a few new characters. The reader is also reminded of the unusual locale with little scraps of information throughout about Hank, the plastic flamingo, saving a little girl from drowning, the travels of a stone Owl to the Space Needle in Seattle and the Opera House in Sydney, the renovation of a bus stop including skylight, sofa and carpeting, a farm powered by cow manure, and a boat "sailing" down Main Street.

The most amazing part is the truthfulness of lines such as "from the Lumby Lines (newspaper) that it's almost unbelievable that we live in the same country. Their stories (Comparison to NY Times) cover stolen pension funds and murders, and ours are about wiener-dog races and a bovine Iditarod." These characters just see life in an entirely different genuineness which is why the series is so delightful to read and make you want to just laugh out loud. I wish the town Lumby really existed because I'd love to visit not just in books but in actuality.

I was worried that the second book would not be able to live up to the playful scenario that was depicted in the first book, The Lumby Lines. No problem here, the residents in the town just picked up where they left off and continued to amuse and delight this reader.