Blood Sisters

Horrors abound in Masterton’s gripping fifth crime novel featuring Cork, Ireland, Det. Supt. Katie Maguire (after 2015’s Taken for Dead). First, a couple walking near Nohaval Cove spot 23 dead horses heaped on the breach at the bottom of a cliff. Meanwhile, Sister Bridget Healy, an elderly nun in a nursing home, is found slain in her bed. Another two nuns go missing. The authorities discover that Sister Bridget and the other nuns all served at Bon Sauveur Convent, formerly a home for unmarried women and their babies. Secrets and the lengths people will go to protect them are abundant, and even Katie has a secret of her own. Masterton makes no secret of the killer or the killer’s motivations as Katie and her team unearth the misdeeds perpetrated at Bon Sauveur. Despite too many subplots and an overly cute ending, this is an effective crime novel. (Feb.)