A New Name (The Grace Livingston Hill Series, No. 42)

Rating:
Summary: A New Name
Review: I encountered this book 20 years ago in a rooming house in a foreign country, one of a few books in English left behind by former occupants. I have been wishing ever since I could read it again (which is the reason I was searching for it here). This is one of Hill¹s more fascinating novels. The premise: A young man about town, rich, worldly, and something of a rake, believes he has killed the lovely unspoiled (Christian) ingenue in a drunk driving accident. He flees the scene to avoid punishment and ends up in a distant town where by a series of coincidences involving a train wreck he is mistaken for the young minister expected to arrive that day to take up a post in the local church. He now feels his only chance to avoid prosecution for murder is to assume this man¹s identity, but to do this he has to ³assume virtues that he has not² and, like Paul on the road to Damascus, assume a new name. Back in the 20¹s or 30¹s when this book was written, communications were not very good and it is entirely believable that he could get away with this impersonation without his picture being broadcasted on TV, etc. So, lodged with the respectable matron who was to have provided a home for the young minister, the rake has to give up his worldly ways, starting immediately with smoking -- a dead giveaway, as the young minister, a paragon of Christian virtues, would never have had such a vice. Soon the rake finds himself leading the youth groups, conducting prayer services, etc. An interesting psychological setup that Hill resolves in a satisfying manner. There are the usual stock characters--the saintly hardworking mother of the saintly ingenue, the rich man (father of the rake) who at heart sees his riches cannot buy happiness and is longing for the simple godly life -- symbolized for him by glimpses of aforesaid saintly mother making pancakes in her humble but clean kitchen. That¹s okay. It¹s part of this genre. I am not a Christian and was reading this as an outsider -- but I loved this book. I¹ve since read every other GLH novel I have come across, but this is the best of them all.