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The Dog in the Chapel #1
The Dog in the Chapel
Now also available as an audio-book, read by the author. The tragic-comic story of two young men, aged 21 and 18, who fall in love in the summer of 1962, but who have the misfortune to be working as teachers in a Catholic preparatory school at the time. Their names are Tom and Christopher. In the opposite corner to them stands Father Louis, the elderly headmaster. It is his conviction that the sixties will go down in history as the decade which sees the earthly triumph of the Catholic Church. Life becomes more complicated for Tom and Christopher when Miss O’Deere, the art mistress, decides to paint the pair as David and Jonathan and to enter the result in a public exhibition… To say nothing of the inconvenient attentions paid to them by 13-year-old Angelo Dexter.
311 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 3, 2014
91 people are currently reading
430 people want to read
About the author
Anthony McDonald
68 books106 followersAnthony McDonald studied history at Durham University. He worked very briefly as a musical instrument maker and as a farm labourer before moving into the theatre, where he has worked in almost every capacity except those of Director and Electrician.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.
His first novel, Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet, was published in 2001 and his second, Adam, in 2003.
Orange Bitter, Orange Sweet became the first book in a Seville trilogy that also comprises Along The Stars and Woodcock Flight.
Other books include the sequel to Adam, - Blue Sky Adam - and the stand-alone adventure story, Getting Orlando.
Ivor's Ghosts, a psychological thriller, was published in April 2014.
The Dog In The Chapel, and Ralph: Diary of a Gay Teen, both appeared in 2014. Anthony is the also the author of the Gay Romance series, which comprises ten short novels.
Anthony McDonald's short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic
He has also written the scripts for several Words and Music events, based around the lives and works of composers including Schubert and Brahms, which have been performed in Britain and in Portugal.
His travel writing has appeared in the Independent newspaper.
After several years of living and teaching English in France McDonald is now based based in rural East Sussex.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
August 16, 2014
As a young boy at a British preparatory boarding school, my terrifying headmaster was a brilliant at chapel sermons, so much so that we boys thought he was a better priest (he wasn't ordained) than the local vicar. On one occasion he drew a parallel between two words that were constructed from the same three letters, only reversed, and it revolved around ensuring that we would devote our young lives to discovering God in the manger, not Dog in the manger. I was immediately struck by the title of Anthony McDonald's latest novel, and the way it brought back that homily.
For Britain the past was certainly a different country—almost a different planet—in the pre-Beatles era, in the months before The Swingin' Sixties happened… in the decade before gay liberation. Anthony McDonald has set his latest novel in 1962 when the word "gay" meant only "bright" and "jolly." It was not a good time to be a poof, a nancy boy, and it is to the story's credit that the other word, the one beginning with q, never makes an appearance, for I am sure none of the characters in this wonderful novel would have used it (and in Britain then, as now, "fag" is slang for cigarette).
For young male lovers like the engaging Tom and Christopher ("not even my mother calls me Chris"), having of the nature of their relationship discovered meant a criminal charge, possibly prison for 21-year-old Tom and certain ruin for 18-year-old Christopher. In fact they would have had to wait 32 years before their actually having sex (which they do, often but never in any revealing detail) would cease being a criminal act. (Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1967 for consenting males who had both attained the age of 21; the age of consent was lowered to 18 in 1994, and 16 in 2000.)
In addition to the legal barriers of the period to their burgeoning love, being teachers in a Roman Catholic boarding school for boys aged 7–13/14 is hardly conducive to the smooth path of homosexual love. For a start, Christopher is barely five years older than the senior boys he teaches and often feels his teenage empathy for them is stronger than his role as an adult guide to morality and probity. Tom has started his new teaching job because of an "incident" at his previous school, and he and Christopher are jointly replacing a master who has left his post "under a cloud." In this taut atmosphere it isn't surprising that both in their own different perspectives constantly fear being discovered and that their burgeoning relationship will eventually propel them in the same direction as their predecessor—which according to the terrifying headmaster, Father Louis, is to Hell.
The book's sales pitch puts the premise perfectly and succinctly. What it doesn't do is portray just how much this story is about friendship and how it can cross the boundaries of age to bring both comfort as well as potential disgrace. This is a not M/M Romance, not in sentiment, structure, or feeling, it is a gay man's romance, which isn't to say it won't appeal widely to ardent M/M Romance readers. But I suspect many who adhere to the unbending rules of "creative writing"—never head-hop, don't have mixed POVs, preferably only have one POV—will find fault. I can only say that if these "rules" are applied to everything the result is likely to be sterility. If Frank Herbert had stuck to them the masterpiece Dune would never have been written; highly successful authors in the mainstream like Jeffrey Archer, Bernard Cornwell, and Simon Scarrow, to name a few, head-hop between the thinking processes of different characters all the while, and I defy any reader to ever be confused for one moment as to who is thinking what in Anthony McDonald's thoroughly engaging novel.
For Britain the past was certainly a different country—almost a different planet—in the pre-Beatles era, in the months before The Swingin' Sixties happened… in the decade before gay liberation. Anthony McDonald has set his latest novel in 1962 when the word "gay" meant only "bright" and "jolly." It was not a good time to be a poof, a nancy boy, and it is to the story's credit that the other word, the one beginning with q, never makes an appearance, for I am sure none of the characters in this wonderful novel would have used it (and in Britain then, as now, "fag" is slang for cigarette).
For young male lovers like the engaging Tom and Christopher ("not even my mother calls me Chris"), having of the nature of their relationship discovered meant a criminal charge, possibly prison for 21-year-old Tom and certain ruin for 18-year-old Christopher. In fact they would have had to wait 32 years before their actually having sex (which they do, often but never in any revealing detail) would cease being a criminal act. (Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1967 for consenting males who had both attained the age of 21; the age of consent was lowered to 18 in 1994, and 16 in 2000.)
In addition to the legal barriers of the period to their burgeoning love, being teachers in a Roman Catholic boarding school for boys aged 7–13/14 is hardly conducive to the smooth path of homosexual love. For a start, Christopher is barely five years older than the senior boys he teaches and often feels his teenage empathy for them is stronger than his role as an adult guide to morality and probity. Tom has started his new teaching job because of an "incident" at his previous school, and he and Christopher are jointly replacing a master who has left his post "under a cloud." In this taut atmosphere it isn't surprising that both in their own different perspectives constantly fear being discovered and that their burgeoning relationship will eventually propel them in the same direction as their predecessor—which according to the terrifying headmaster, Father Louis, is to Hell.
The book's sales pitch puts the premise perfectly and succinctly. What it doesn't do is portray just how much this story is about friendship and how it can cross the boundaries of age to bring both comfort as well as potential disgrace. This is a not M/M Romance, not in sentiment, structure, or feeling, it is a gay man's romance, which isn't to say it won't appeal widely to ardent M/M Romance readers. But I suspect many who adhere to the unbending rules of "creative writing"—never head-hop, don't have mixed POVs, preferably only have one POV—will find fault. I can only say that if these "rules" are applied to everything the result is likely to be sterility. If Frank Herbert had stuck to them the masterpiece Dune would never have been written; highly successful authors in the mainstream like Jeffrey Archer, Bernard Cornwell, and Simon Scarrow, to name a few, head-hop between the thinking processes of different characters all the while, and I defy any reader to ever be confused for one moment as to who is thinking what in Anthony McDonald's thoroughly engaging novel.
August 15, 2014
"Praying’s about the only thing you can do in this world that never does any harm to anyone."
I want to go to France and find Tom and Christopher just to be their Pal. Let them know everything will be OK.
I loved these guys and the rest of the cast of Characters as well.
I can't say it enough about Anthony McDonalds books. They are just so damn wonderful.
I want to go to France and find Tom and Christopher just to be their Pal. Let them know everything will be OK.
I loved these guys and the rest of the cast of Characters as well.
I can't say it enough about Anthony McDonalds books. They are just so damn wonderful.
March 21, 2025
Het verhaal is af en toe voorspelbaar en sommige dingen worden wel erg gedetailleerd beschreven, maar oooooh wat is dit een mooi boek. De karakters zijn zo goed uitgewerkt en de emoties zo invoelbaar. En de r.k. rituelen zo herkenbaar dat ik de wierrook bijna ruik.
Tom en Christopher (not even his mother dared to call him Chris) hebben beide hun tekortkomingen en zwakten maar ik hou van hen allebei. En nog 2 delen te gaan, heerlijk.
Tom en Christopher (not even his mother dared to call him Chris) hebben beide hun tekortkomingen en zwakten maar ik hou van hen allebei. En nog 2 delen te gaan, heerlijk.
July 15, 2022
5 - Stars
The Dog in the Chapel is brilliant.
Reading this first novel in Anthony McDonald’s trilogy of the same name is like reading a great British Victorian romance novel for the first time. Filled with realistic characters of different social classes, real-world settings, a reverence for nature, and a plot focused on long-standing conflicts in areas of religion, politics, and sexuality, The Dog in the Chapel mirrors the world at the time.
The story of two young teachers, 21-year old Tom Sanders and 18-year old Christopher McGing, is so perfectly written for a Masterpiece Theater mini-series adaptation, that it’s hard to understand why one has not yet been produced.
The Dog in the Chapel introduces readers to Tom and Christopher, their friends in England and France, their superiors and peers at the Star of the Sea Roman Catholic preparatory school in East Kent where they teach, the students they work with and in one instance become too close to, the scandal caused by a portrait of them painted by a colleague where they appear as David and Jonathan from the Bible, and one long weekend in Boulogne
on the Côte d’Opale between Calais and Normandy on the French side of the English Channel where they experience what life as a gay couple could be that was incomprehensible in England in 1962.
At its heart, The Dog in the Chapel is a beautiful story of developing love, friendships, and learning to trust.
The Dog in the Chapel is brilliant.
Reading this first novel in Anthony McDonald’s trilogy of the same name is like reading a great British Victorian romance novel for the first time. Filled with realistic characters of different social classes, real-world settings, a reverence for nature, and a plot focused on long-standing conflicts in areas of religion, politics, and sexuality, The Dog in the Chapel mirrors the world at the time.
The story of two young teachers, 21-year old Tom Sanders and 18-year old Christopher McGing, is so perfectly written for a Masterpiece Theater mini-series adaptation, that it’s hard to understand why one has not yet been produced.
The Dog in the Chapel introduces readers to Tom and Christopher, their friends in England and France, their superiors and peers at the Star of the Sea Roman Catholic preparatory school in East Kent where they teach, the students they work with and in one instance become too close to, the scandal caused by a portrait of them painted by a colleague where they appear as David and Jonathan from the Bible, and one long weekend in Boulogne
on the Côte d’Opale between Calais and Normandy on the French side of the English Channel where they experience what life as a gay couple could be that was incomprehensible in England in 1962.At its heart, The Dog in the Chapel is a beautiful story of developing love, friendships, and learning to trust.
November 8, 2018
While this novella may not be for everyone, The Dog in the Chapel transported me to my own early years of secular and religious training as a student and as a teacher. Some of the errors that the two novice instructors make, particularly Christopher, are understandable; some are not. And while Tom and Christopher and the friends who help them out are well wrought, it is the description of the sea and the surroundings that enlivens their stumblings. This is the first third of a trilogy, all of which I intend to relish.
October 18, 2019
Excellent read
Excellent story line, very realistic for the generation in which it portrays and the workings of a religious school life. I am definitely reading the rest of this trilogy!
Excellent story line, very realistic for the generation in which it portrays and the workings of a religious school life. I am definitely reading the rest of this trilogy!
April 5, 2015
It's a perverse tribute to how tolerant we've become as a society that a story of illicit love at a Catholic boys' school could be so dull.
April 2, 2021
A BIT IMPLAUSIBLE AND MAYBE TOO PREDICTABLE, BUT...
A prodigious author, I believe this is Anthony McDonald's first coming out trilogy. I read his second more recent trilogy first - the Adam series. No surprise then that I recognize his lyrical writing style in this first effort. His prose is wonderfully descriptive of the scenes in which he places his well crafted characters. It's easy to immerse yourself in the story.
As to the story, however, it's plausibility is somewhat lacking in my view. Another reviewer found it a bit unrealistic that a parochial boarding school in 1962 would hire an eighteen year old (Christopher) as a resident teacher. I agree. It is, perhaps more realistic that the school has also hired a twenty-two year old teacher (Thomas) as resident staff. It is too convenient to the plot line that both young men are housed in adjacent rooms on the upper floor of a dormitory that is presently not in use.
Obviously, (it is a coming of age tale after all) that the two young teachers find they are very attracted to one another. This is the set-up for a conflict that ultimately is just too obvious. That these two hotties spend all their free time together, never a visiting girlfriend, or even the mention of one at staff breakfasts, and for a couple of months, they get away with sharing a single bed in one of their rooms without ever being discovered... it is just asking us to accept too much.
So there's little doubt what's coming - a massive collision between humanism and the rigid dictates of the Roman Catholic Church. The suspense is just how this crisis will unfold and how bad it will be in the end. I suppose that's enough to keep our interest. It did mine. McDonald does throw us a few unexpected surprises as things come crashing down around Christopher and Thomas. He also provides a very seamless transition to the second book which I am now reading. The given circumstances of what may next happen to Christopher and Thomas are much more "in the air" in this one, leaving us wondering what's going to happen to them.
A prodigious author, I believe this is Anthony McDonald's first coming out trilogy. I read his second more recent trilogy first - the Adam series. No surprise then that I recognize his lyrical writing style in this first effort. His prose is wonderfully descriptive of the scenes in which he places his well crafted characters. It's easy to immerse yourself in the story.
As to the story, however, it's plausibility is somewhat lacking in my view. Another reviewer found it a bit unrealistic that a parochial boarding school in 1962 would hire an eighteen year old (Christopher) as a resident teacher. I agree. It is, perhaps more realistic that the school has also hired a twenty-two year old teacher (Thomas) as resident staff. It is too convenient to the plot line that both young men are housed in adjacent rooms on the upper floor of a dormitory that is presently not in use.
Obviously, (it is a coming of age tale after all) that the two young teachers find they are very attracted to one another. This is the set-up for a conflict that ultimately is just too obvious. That these two hotties spend all their free time together, never a visiting girlfriend, or even the mention of one at staff breakfasts, and for a couple of months, they get away with sharing a single bed in one of their rooms without ever being discovered... it is just asking us to accept too much.
So there's little doubt what's coming - a massive collision between humanism and the rigid dictates of the Roman Catholic Church. The suspense is just how this crisis will unfold and how bad it will be in the end. I suppose that's enough to keep our interest. It did mine. McDonald does throw us a few unexpected surprises as things come crashing down around Christopher and Thomas. He also provides a very seamless transition to the second book which I am now reading. The given circumstances of what may next happen to Christopher and Thomas are much more "in the air" in this one, leaving us wondering what's going to happen to them.
June 20, 2016
Another excellent offering from Mr McDonald. Admittedly for some readers in the M/M genre they could find the prose a bit on the dry side and also non English readers might find the story of a Catholic boarding school difficult but I would urge them to "give it a go". The setting is in 1962 before the repeal of the homophobic 1885 Labouchere Act (lesbianism not being made illegal because Queen Victoria could not believe ladies capable of such acts) - so 5 years before the decriminalisation of "male love". The mindset of gays in this time was of fear and self loathing which is brought out extremely well in this novel where even being alone in the same room with a person of the same gender put people under suspicion. Single sex boarding schools have always been hotbeds of experimentation between boys who had no access to girls even though most went on to be heterosexual, which is also alluded to in this novel.
The story revolves around two young teachers, Tom aged 22 and Christopher 18 both starting at a Catholic boarding school for boys between the ages of 7 and 14. The two teachers fall into a relationship which can be hidden from the rest of the school as their rooms are apart from the rest of the accomodation. They are befriended by the nearby pub landlord who is also gay and in a relationship with a younger local man. Between the goings on at school, the pub with secret access to a hidden local beach and a brief sojourn in Boulogne the story draws the reader into this secret world until the awful denouement.
Just purchased the second book in this story to find out what happens to Tom and Christopher after the end of this part of their story.
4 Stars
The story revolves around two young teachers, Tom aged 22 and Christopher 18 both starting at a Catholic boarding school for boys between the ages of 7 and 14. The two teachers fall into a relationship which can be hidden from the rest of the school as their rooms are apart from the rest of the accomodation. They are befriended by the nearby pub landlord who is also gay and in a relationship with a younger local man. Between the goings on at school, the pub with secret access to a hidden local beach and a brief sojourn in Boulogne the story draws the reader into this secret world until the awful denouement.
Just purchased the second book in this story to find out what happens to Tom and Christopher after the end of this part of their story.
4 Stars
December 23, 2022
McDonald, Anthony. The Dog in the Chapel. 2014. Anchor Mill Publishing (UK)
This review is not an endorsement of amazon.com or any business owned by Jeff Bezos. Books for my reviews were checked out from a public library, purchased from a local brick-and-mortar book shop, or ordered from my favorite website for rare and out-of-print books.
While I’m not enamoured of McDonald’s prose or writing style, I’ll grant that he’s taken a fresh approach to the subject of gay relationships: they don’t have to end just because the book has reached its conclusion. I’m really eager to plow into the next book in this series.
And just in case you thought, as I did, that the set of circumstances at the Catholic boarding school that brought Tom and Christopher to the same bed was contrived, think again. Who suffered the greatest public embarrassment? Two of the school’s star students, Angelo and Simon. Their curiosity about sexuality was perfectly normal, considering that it was a boy’s boarding school. Moyse’s journal puts everything in the proper perspective, even if the adults are unable to do so.
Most of the male staff, priests and lay, are terminated and disappear immediately, following “the strange event of the dog in the chapel.” No happy days lie ahead for the students who remain behind at Star of the Sea, though, because the new headmaster is Father Claude. His appointment by the abbot to run the school is McDonald’s last word on the dysfunctionality of English boarding schools in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular. Pick up a copy of The Dog in the Chapel to find out what I’m talking about.
This review is not an endorsement of amazon.com or any business owned by Jeff Bezos. Books for my reviews were checked out from a public library, purchased from a local brick-and-mortar book shop, or ordered from my favorite website for rare and out-of-print books.
While I’m not enamoured of McDonald’s prose or writing style, I’ll grant that he’s taken a fresh approach to the subject of gay relationships: they don’t have to end just because the book has reached its conclusion. I’m really eager to plow into the next book in this series.
And just in case you thought, as I did, that the set of circumstances at the Catholic boarding school that brought Tom and Christopher to the same bed was contrived, think again. Who suffered the greatest public embarrassment? Two of the school’s star students, Angelo and Simon. Their curiosity about sexuality was perfectly normal, considering that it was a boy’s boarding school. Moyse’s journal puts everything in the proper perspective, even if the adults are unable to do so.
Most of the male staff, priests and lay, are terminated and disappear immediately, following “the strange event of the dog in the chapel.” No happy days lie ahead for the students who remain behind at Star of the Sea, though, because the new headmaster is Father Claude. His appointment by the abbot to run the school is McDonald’s last word on the dysfunctionality of English boarding schools in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular. Pick up a copy of The Dog in the Chapel to find out what I’m talking about.
January 16, 2022
1962, Tom, 21, and Christopher, 19, with birthdays on the same day, are both teachers at a Catholic boarding school in southern England. They fall in love at a time when it is still dangerous to do so. This is like Barbara Pym for the LGBT crowd and I loved this book. It is the first in a trilogy, but I don't know if I will pursue reading the other volumes as I just might prefer to leave these two young men where they end up in my memory. Anthony McDonald, author of the Adam books, has written such a charming and for the most part gentle little romance that veers toward the end in a direction I think I'd rather not go. One can't recapture a lost youth, but one can imagine almost any kind of future, and his writing is so good even if at times a little too good to be true but does feel authentic enough that I may let him take me along for the ride through further episodes. Did I mention how much I love this book? My only nitpick is when the author steps up to the mic and says things like, "back then, one couldn't..." reminding us that this is indeed fiction. Still, it is highly recommended.
March 22, 2018
Loved this! Thoroughly enjoyable read. How far we have come in the liberation of our LGBTQ community but how far we still have to go!
June 17, 2019
Enjoyable and an easy read but not an interesting story in terms of plot, and especially in terms of a gay love story—in those terms, it’s a story we have all heard before to the point of exhaustion. Beautiful sentiment and imagery that is constantly overshadowed by the hate and bigotry of the time, as if there is no other part of the story to tell. This is just Brokeback Mountain in a different place with different characters, told in a much less poetic way.
February 17, 2018
Good story line and character development.
Easy read for a cold afternoon. Good story line and character development. Will consider Book two as soon as I finish the book I am on currently.
Easy read for a cold afternoon. Good story line and character development. Will consider Book two as soon as I finish the book I am on currently.
May 29, 2019
It is a good read with positive images for young men in figuring themselves .out
December 31, 2020
This is my favorite book of 2020.
August 26, 2021
Recently, a volleyball coach at a christian high school was told he had two options: Denounce being a gay man or leave the position. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
December 9, 2022
good story
Well written and plausible story of two young men learning about life. I will read more in series to follow characters
Well written and plausible story of two young men learning about life. I will read more in series to follow characters
September 2, 2022
A story of two young men, 21 and 18, who fell in love in the summer of 1962 but who had the unfortunate circumstance of being employed as instructors in a Catholic preparatory school at the time, is at the center of this tragic-comic tale. Tom and Christopher are their names. Father Louis, the senior headmaster, is standing in the corner opposite them. He believes that the 1960s will be remembered as the decade in which the Catholic Church achieved its heavenly victory. When Miss O'Deere, the art mistress, decides to paint Tom and Christopher as David and Jonathan and put the finished product in a public exhibition, Tom and Christopher's lives become more complicated. Not to mention the bothersome attentions that 13-year-old Angelo Dexter gave them.
November 19, 2018
I read this book because of the Sorolla-like cover.
A strange experience to say the least. The author seems to be very well-versed on Catholic schools and I suspect that the book is very autobiographical in some ways. Having been brought up in that atmosphere (in the US not the UK) it all smacks of memories.
I found the characters well-drawn but rather standard and predictable. The actions and reactions are the usual and there is a cross section of typical gay characters - older and wiser, young and foolish, faithful and promiscuos - they are all there.
The writing style is easy to read and nicely descriptive. The plot is a little short on conflict and I found myself bored half-way through and had to push myself to finish the book. (One of my reading rules: if you start it you must finish)
It does comes to a fast dramatic climax and that is satisfying.
This not a book that I would quickly recommend unless you are especially drawn to gay literature. To me, it did not open up new avenues of thinking about relationships, hetero or homosexual, but maybe I have just been around the block a few too many times.
I have the other two novels in the trilogy but am not sure if I will spend the time and effort yet. On the upside, I must admit the author is very accomplished and easy to read.
A strange experience to say the least. The author seems to be very well-versed on Catholic schools and I suspect that the book is very autobiographical in some ways. Having been brought up in that atmosphere (in the US not the UK) it all smacks of memories.
I found the characters well-drawn but rather standard and predictable. The actions and reactions are the usual and there is a cross section of typical gay characters - older and wiser, young and foolish, faithful and promiscuos - they are all there.
The writing style is easy to read and nicely descriptive. The plot is a little short on conflict and I found myself bored half-way through and had to push myself to finish the book. (One of my reading rules: if you start it you must finish)
It does comes to a fast dramatic climax and that is satisfying.
This not a book that I would quickly recommend unless you are especially drawn to gay literature. To me, it did not open up new avenues of thinking about relationships, hetero or homosexual, but maybe I have just been around the block a few too many times.
I have the other two novels in the trilogy but am not sure if I will spend the time and effort yet. On the upside, I must admit the author is very accomplished and easy to read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2016
The Dog in the Chapel didn't really pick up for me until Tom and Christopher's trip to France. Prior to that, the pace was kind of slow. But the trip moved their relationship to another level and also forced them both to deal with a series of problems. Both men were woefully unprepared both mentally and emotionally ready to deal with being in a same sex relationship during the early 1960's nor did they seem able to handle teaching young men who were only a few years younger than they were. From the start, I knew things weren't going to be all sunshine and rainbows. I enjoyed reading Anthony McDonald's Adam series of books and I'm looking forward to reading the next installment of the Dog in the Chapel books also.
August 8, 2015
I read like a chapter or two a day, maybe that's the way it's supposed to be read as no, it's not a page-turner. But still, I like the writing, the characters, the environs, and the story, especially the intriguing journal entries at each chapter's end. I really liked it, the way it all tied together as it all fell apart. Anthony had a lot of balls up in the the air and he didn't drop a one. The ending wrapped things up nicely, neither HEA nor too heavy.
September 22, 2014
Characters were likable but story was pretty boring
August 24, 2016
You could do worse
The story is interesting even if predictable. It did drag in the middle for a bit, but ended swiftly with a good amount of action.
The story is interesting even if predictable. It did drag in the middle for a bit, but ended swiftly with a good amount of action.
November 7, 2017
Nice period piece looking at gay life abroad.
September 11, 2018
Cheating! Multiple incidences of pedophilia! Idiotic behaviour! Oh no!
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews