St. Peter's Finger

When the death of a young heiress at an English convent school is labeled suicide, Mitchell's redoubtable Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is asked to investigate. Quiet, biddable Ursula Doyle died of gas poisoning and was discovered submerged in the bathtub of the convent guest house, an area off-limits to students. But, knowing suicide to be a grievous sin, why would such a child kill herself? The nuns hope to blame a faulty water heater, yet as Mrs. Bradley, ""a hag-like pterodactyl,'' stumps around the convent asking questions, she's more inclined to believe that someonea games mistress with a shady past, the child's shrill auntmurdered Ursula. Her cousins stand to gain a fortune, but Mary seems too feckless for the task, and Ulrica has a burning desire to become a nun. With sharp, pungent wit and the aid of a rough-and-tumble orphan, Mrs. Bradley moves inexorably toward the solution. While all questions are not satisfactorily answered and a number of clues are deliberately misleading, this enjoyable, quintessentially English chase by a veteran author picks up a steady and stately momentum. (January 14)