SINE QUA NUN

Another case based on the purported power and intellect exerted by Chicago's aged Sister Mary Teresa Dempsey (Nun of the Above), who heads the three-person order of Martha and Mary. Invited to appear as a guest on TV's fading Basil Murphy Show, she meets nasty, super successful Geoffrey Chaser, author of near-libelous, near-pornographic novels whose murder shortly thereafter is no surprise. His use of thinly veiled portraits of local celebrities to rehash old scandals and create new ones has won him a fat list of enemies, headed by the crippled Basil Murphy and including star golfer Phonsie Quilmes, novelist Philip Canaris, restauranteur James Oliver Hawk, Murphy's ex-wife Nancy Shale and others. The killing of Murphy shortens the list of suspects but increases the complexity as, for no compelling reason, all these people (and more) beat a path to Sister Mary Teresa's door while she struggles to reach a solution, in polite competition with Lieutenant Richard Moriarity. Quill's writing style has some errant charms, but the plot is clumsy and contrived and her heroine-sleuth is never convincing. Silly stuff.