MURDER AT THE MONK’S TABLE

A lethal Irish road trip for Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen.

Sister Eileen’s relatives have treated her to a holiday in Ballyclarin for the Oyster Festival. As a special surprise, they’ve included her dear friend, Sister Mary Helen. The two Sisters happily plunge into all the activities set up for the festival, meet the local characters and listen to the local gossip. An undercurrent of tension that runs beneath the cheerful surface prepares for Sister Mary Helen’s discovery of the body of Willie Ward in the ladies’ loo at the Monk’s Table, their favorite eatery. Willie is, or was, a journalist with a nasty reputation and a long list of enemies. When DI’s White and Reedy get an earful by the San Francisco police about the nuns’ former involvement with murder, they give the Sisters a stern warning to mind their own business. Although Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen try to stay out of trouble, they keep stumbling over clues the police have missed. They soon find the lovely widow Cox, bloody but alive, on their front lawn. A mad whirl of races, games and dances produces yet more clues and eventually a solution.

The killer is no surprise, but devotees will presumably enjoy another of the Sisters’ travel adventures as much as they would postcards or photo albums.