Murder in Ordinary Time

The unusual insight into human nature gained by followers of the religious life is again demonstrated by Sister Mary Helen, semiretired from teaching at San Francisco's Mount St. Francis College and last encountered in The Missing Madonna . Appearing on a local TV news show, Sister Mary Helen finds herself plunged into a murder case when investigative reporter Christina Kelly dies on the air, poisoned with a cookie mysteriously delivered to the studio. Although police inspectors Dennis Gallagher and Kate Murphy (the latter in the last month of pregnancy), her old friends and antagonists, order her not to interfere, Sister Mary Helen feels she is morally obligated to solve the murder when the Greek mother of the victim asks her to avenge her daughter. Interpol comes into the picture when it turns out that Christina had been investigating a ring that smuggled Greek antiquities, but Sister Mary Helen's knowledge of human nature uncovers an older source for the tragedy. Sister O'Marie's unsensational and warmhearted portrayal of convent, family and police life, tied into a tidy mystery with modern trappings, makes for a satisfying read. (Oct.)