A Vow of Penance

The fifth entry in Black's series centering on Sister Joan, of Cornwall's Convent of the Order of the Daughters of Compassion, is less deftly plotted and deeply textured than the previous four Vow mysteries. The suicide of the housekeeper at the rectory of the local parish occurs just after the pastor begins an extended vacation. The arrival of his replacement, a sternly scrupulous new priest, coincides with the appearance at the convent of a dour, earnest new nun. Sister Joan, sent to town temporarily to fill in for the housekeeper, surreptitiously investigates the suicide, which she believes was murder. The discovery of the mutilated corpse of an unidentified young man, followed quickly by two more unexpected deaths, leads Sister Joan to another crime 20 years past. Black's otherwise sharp and modern-minded heroine misses a connection that readers will make easily in a tale whose red-herring characters are too easily distinguished from the guilty ones. (Aug.)