"Chainsaw Nativity" by S.W. Hubbard

From: Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine, January/February 2008.

I couldn't resist the title. Hubbard's series protagonist Frank Bennett, police chief of the upstate New York town of Trout Run, investigates when the statue of Joseph is stolen from a Presbyterian church's Nativity scene.

Not especially violent, the story's title alludes to the fact that the scene is carved entirely with a chainsaw. The story itself has some funny moments as well as some poignant ones as it explores Joseph's often overlooked role in faith history. Bennett finds the statue playing a similar role for the story's culprit.