Search Audiobook Review: A Slow-Moving Church Committee Becomes a Page-Turner
A character-driven slow burn that turns committee politics into the most entertaining, most book club-worthy pick you’ll read this year.
My Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars: Excellent)
- Author: Michelle Huneven
- Category: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
- Published: 2022
- Runtime: 13 hours
How can a fictionalized story about a slow-moving church committee be a suspenseful page-turner? Somehow, Search is exactly that. Years after I first read this, it’s still one of my favorite books. Author Michelle Huneven secretly took notes during her own real-life church committee experience, then fictionalized it into the story of Dana P, a locally-famous food critic in her mid-fifties who’s tired of everything, scrounging around for her next book topic. She’s startled and flattered when two church leaders show up at her door, asking her to find out when their pastor plans to retire. A lover of secrets, Dana is instantly intrigued and realizes she’s found her next book topic. She lands a spot on the pastoral search committee, expecting boring material and an easy story. She’s wrong, at least about the boring part.
What makes this book work is Dana herself. She’s a gem, sharing her thoughts from sincere to sly to petty in a way that feels so unfiltered I suspect they’re the author’s actual reactions. Dana conspires with a friend to get people thrown out for forming factions, then muses about starting a cabal of her own. Prying for gossip, she admits, “I was dying to get her take but didn’t want to seem like the avid gossip hound I am.” She is not a saint, and that’s exactly why she’s so easy to love and so fun to spend thirteen hours with.
But the deeper trick of the book is that even as Dana gets pulled into the pettiness, she’s astonished by how much she actually cares about the outcome. The committee’s politics turn serious fast, and the future character of the church hangs in the balance. You feel every up and down right alongside her, as favorite candidates advance or get mercilessly eliminated. By the moment of decision, Dana wonders why she cares so much. I was right there with her, caring deeply and wondering why.
The supporting cast is almost, though not quite, as delightful as Dana. The personalities contrast so sharply it’s hard to believe a real group of people could be this perfectly imperfect: a chairwoman with a flawless bob who can’t keep the room in line, a young member who uses sheer audacity to push her favorite candidates through, old guard versus new guard sniping at every turn. As people expose their foibles and still earnestly try their best (just like in real life), you find yourself loving them and unable to stand them, often in the same paragraph.
There’s a layer of real-life mystery running underneath all of it, too. Huneven drops hints throughout that this is an echo of something that actually happened to her. When a friend suggests Dana should write a book about the committee, Dana reacts with innocent surprise, then goes on to imagine, once or twice, how a fictional love interest from the group might play out. The preface notes that “talk of lawsuits has subsided.” Whether that’s true or just one more bit of intrigue, I desperately want to know what really happened on the author’s actual committee.
A bonus for the professionals in all of us: Search doubles as an extraordinary case study in group dynamics and management — better, honestly, than a lot of business books I’ve read. The missteps pile up fast, and almost no one is blameless. It’s lesson after lesson in holding people accountable, mediating discussions with objectivity, and enforcing data-driven decisions.
One note: this is a book about people, not a book about religion or even, really, about church. Whatever your stance on religion and church, you’ll be able to relate to and hopefully laugh about the committee dynamics, because we’ve all sat in some version of this room.
The Audiobook Experience
★★★★★
Cassandra Campbell narrates and adds emphasis and depth to Dana’s voice without ever tipping into performance.
Typical fiction multitasking potential.
Audio or print? Audio if you’re on the fence for Campbell’s narration.
Read It or Skip It?
Read it if: you love character- and relationship-driven stories, you want the ultimate book club pick, or you’ve ever experienced a dysfunctional group and want someone to finally say the quiet part out loud.
Skip it if: you don’t gravitate toward conversation-driven books — this one is slow by design, and the tension comes from people, not plot.
Related: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, for another patient, character-first literary novel written as a series of letters. Whistler by Ann Patchett for a delicious and bittersweet reflection on long-lost friends.
Book Club Guide
Search is an exceptional book club pick, populated by people you’ll want to argue about and with enough humor and tension for most readers.
- Dana joins the committee partly out of curiosity and partly to mine it for material. Did her dual motive change how you read her? Where do journalistic curiosity and actual care start to blur for her?
- The committee divides early along generational lines, with one younger member using audacity and persistence to push her preferred candidates through. Who did you side with?
- The chair has a great resume and a perfect bob, yet can’t keep the room in line. What does the book suggest about the difference between authority and actual leadership?
- Huneven based this on her own real church committee experience. What do you think is from real life, and what is fiction?
- Dana ends up caring more than she expected to. Have you ever been surprised by how much you ended up cared about something you started half-heartedly?
Listen Now
I only recommend audiobooks and resources I’ve personally experienced. This post contains affiliate links — if you purchase through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
