The Choir Director by Carl Weber ****

The Choir Director by Carl Weber opens with the departure of a mega-church's choir director, immediately leading to a decline in attendance (and offerings) and a financial crisis. As might be expected from a fast-moving romance/thriller, things get worse both for the personal lives and the church. The romance centers around the new choir director - the sexy Aaron Mackie - and three women: spoiled rich girl Simon, slutty Porche, and prime and proper Tia. In addition to the ubiquitous "romance," there is plenty of mayhem: murder/suicide, embezzlement, fraud, and blackmail. For the final quarter of the book, I couldn't put it down.

For thriller fans, the plot has many twist and turns and surprising reveals, much from characters (and the reader) making mistaken assumptions leading to detrimental consequences. For the romance fans, a warning: the author is male, thus the women are perpetually in heat and the men in control.

Finally, the book can be easily improved by skipping the prologue, which I imagine was added late in the game to satisfy some aging, out-of-touch editor, and includes much irrelevant and embarrassing gay bashing.