Testing the Spirits
By: R. K. Bohm

Recurring graffiti on a church and a New Age shop put the pastor in league with the shop owner as they try together to track down the culprit in Tocksville, a small town in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains undergoing a major social change as it becomes a bedroom community for New York City. The pastor’s friendship with the New Age shop owner and the church youth group’s involvement and subsequent experimentations with a Ouija board polarize the congregation and plunge it into conflict. Other local clergy lend their support to the pastor. The assistance of Tocksville’s own chief of police is compromised because his son is a suspect not cleared until he’s almost fatally attacked in the drug hang-out on the wooded hill between the church and shop, a “locked room” situation under the youth group’s surveillance. Finally, at a congregational meeting called to address the congregational polarization and conflict, a member of the youth group realizes there are enough clues to solve the “locked room” problem, identify the graffiti writer, and help to quiet the congregation down until the next mystery occurs.