MURDER IN ORDINARY TIME
by Carol Anne O’Marie
San Francisco's elderly, sleuthing Sister Mary Helen is once again barging in where Police Inspectors Kate Murphy and Dennis Gallagher have begged her not to go (Advent of Dying, etc.). This time, Sister Mary Helen was among others waiting to be interviewed on a local TV news program when newswoman Christina Kelly died of cyanide poisoning, having eaten the only tainted cookie in a plateful from an unknown donor. It's soon apparent that Christina was not the intended victim, but the reader will have latched onto the murderer long before the police are led to the solution by Sister Mary Helen. Strained and tedious, padded with chitchat on menus, interior decor, weather, the Super Bowl, Catholic ritual, and the imminent birth of Kate Murphy's baby. In all: unpretentious but unrewarding.