Curse IV

Alan Grant's Smallville: Curse (New York, 2004) is enjoyable and also substantial, certainly by any criteria that can reasonably be applied to a novel based on a TV series. If this had been one of the slighter Smallville novels, then its title theme, the Curse on Smallville, would have been stated and resolved, curtain.

However, Curse is bulkier than some other volumes in the series with more going on:

Pete Ross is alienated from Clark after learning about his alien powers;
Lex, staying in a hotel while his mansion is restored (after damage sustained in the previous Alan Grant Smallville novel?), does some historical research and shares some of his findings with Smallville High sophomores;
Chloe causes an urban panic by publicizing the "curse," which seems to be coming true;
a wrestling show comes to town;
one wrestler, a habitual thief, steals the old journal containing the curse but his thievery is stopped by his manager without any input from either Clark or the police;
another wrestler has business with Clark in the ring and with Lex out of it.

The account of the wrestling show is a particularly good read. Clark, choosing between costumes, turns down a red and blue "S"-suit previously worn by SavageMan.

I am puzzled about the minister's lucky charm, described as a green cross and, just once, as a crucifix. Is it a star-shaped meteor rock or a cross carved from meteor rock? (A crucifix would be a cross with an image of Christ carved on it.)