Product Description

Sister Mary Helen and her Irish friend, Sister Eileen, need some R&R away from the pressures of their inner city vocation. A week at the idyllic St. Colette's Retreat House, snuggled amid towering redwoods 65 miles from San Francisco, sounds like heaven. Unfortunately the muddled sisters mistakenly arrive a week too early and find that St. Colette's is hosting a convention of hard drinking, high spirited priests. And when the serenity is further shattered by the murder of a former seminary student, suspicion falls on the holy fathers. But Sister Mary Helen has another theory about the perpetrator, and in her inimitable way she intends to uncover the deadly secrets and passions that the flesh is heir to...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229330 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-19
• Released on: 2004-04-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Poor Sister Mary Helen! After her eventful trip to Spain (Murder Makes a Pilgrimage), the septuagenarian and her cohort, Sister Eileen, find more trouble only 65 miles from their San Francisco college home. Arriving at St. Collette's Retreat House in Santa Cruz a week earlier than scheduled, the two meet the harried administrator, her antagonistic cook and young assistant. They decide to stay for the night and have dinner with the five priests who are beginning their week's retreat. The next morning, as she walks around the grounds, Sister Mary Helen stumbles on the body of a young man who, she learns, was the cook's assistant's boyfriend, a former activist seminarian well known to the other priests. As in past books, the good sister's curiosity nags her into discovering who stabbed the young man to death. She elicits the help of Kate Murphy, her SFPD homicide inspector friend, to find out about the man's mother and befriends local Detective Sergeant Bob Little, who shares information, some of it personal, with her. Sister Mary Helen's gentle insights inform this story about age-old prejudices with a quiet wisdom.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Accidental sleuth Sister Mary Helen literally stumbles across another corpse while attending a religious retreat. When Sister Mary Helen and her bosom companion, Sister Eileen, arrive at St. Colette's Sanctuary, they are dismayed to discover that they are actually an entire week early for their scheduled conference. Undaunted, they join the retreat for diocesan priests already in progress. While taking an early morning stroll, Mary Helen uncovers the lifeless remains of a former seminarian familiar to all of the priests temporarily residing at St. Colette's. Employing her uncanny flair for detection, the energetic old nun resolves to expose the true identity of the murderer before he or she has the opportunity to strike again. Another delightful installment in this breezy and entertaining series of mysteries. Margaret Flanagan

Review
"Move over Miss Marple, here comes super-sleuth Sister Mary Helen, a nun with an unusual habit of solving murders." -San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

"Sister Mary Helen's gentle insights inform this story about age-old prejudices with a quiet wisdom." -Publishers Weekly

"[An] excellent mystery series...hard to put down." -Booklist

More Praise For The Sister Mary Helen Mystery Series:
"Another delightful installment in this breezy and entertaining series of mysteries."-Booklist

"Sister Mary Helen handles her cases with bustling efficiency and an elfin sense of humor."
-New York Times Book Review

"O'Marie continues her delightful Sister Mary Helen series with another suspenseful whodunit set in a seedy corner of San Francisco...one more entertaining...installment in an unfailingly cozy mystery series."-Library Journal on The Corporal Works of Murder

"O'Marie twines the strands of these disparate lives with humor and sympathy." --Publishers Weekly on Requiem at the Refuge

"Another first-rate installment in an unfailingly entertaining series."--Booklist on Requiem at the Refuge

"Enlivened by its series of incisive character studies-and sure to please the Sister's legion of fans."--Kirkus Reviews on Death Takes Up a Collection

"O'Marie delivers compelling characters and sophisticated plotting in her best effort to date."
--Publishers Weekly on Death of an Angel

"[An] excellent mystery series...hard to put down."--Booklist on Death of an Angel

"The author's handy mix of humor and suspense again proves irresistible."
--Publishers Weekly on The Missing Madonna
-- Review

Customer Reviews

Actually maybe 3 1/2 stars but enjoyable reading so 4 stars
This was a one of those mysteries that is enjoyable but not because it's a pageturner with a complicated plot. No, I enjoyed the descriptions of people and settings, and it takes you into an interesting world, which the author understands well. It's also better written than many of this genre.

The story begins with the detective character, Sister Mary Helen, going on a retreat with her friend Sister Eileen. Unfortunately, they arrive at this beautifully located California retreat house a week early (mixup with dates) and there's a priests' retreat going on. They intend to just spend the night and return home, but a murder means that they must remain in residence while the law enforcement officers are investigating the case. The police detectives are convinced it's one of the people on the property at that time that committed the crime, so they're basically looking at nuns and priests -- a small group, who we get to know fairly well.

Sr. Mary Helen is the one who finds the body, and she is unable to restrain herself from conducting her own investigation -- not that I blame her, because I'd want to know who among the people I was with was a killer (although questioning possible killers is not a good idea, if you ask me.)

I read a lot of mysteries, so that may explain it, but I had a hunch who the killer was from the front. I kept waiting for an explanation of the motive, because I think people don't kill without good reason, but even at the end, the motive just didn't seem adequate -- which is probably why I enjoyed reading the book but came away a bit disappointed by the ending.

This is my second book by this author and I intend to read more.

good read
The saga of Sister Mary Helen and friend Sister Eileen continues as Sister Mary Helen finds yet another body. Sister Mary Helen's talents aren't in the finding of the body (too convenient) but in the discovery of clues and the ability to get people to tell her things and the thoughtful putting together the information she has gathered. Her escapades are fun to read and makes a quick read as well. Sister Mary Helen is never boring.

Easy reading mystery novel
I have enjoyed all of the books written by this author. It is easy reading and very relaxing.