The Missing Madonna - Hardcover

Sister Mary Helen is sinfully good at snooping through the San Francisco fog. Now a fellow OWL (Older Woman's League) member has disappeared. The police believe Erma Duran simply flew the coop, but Sister feels a Higher Authority pushing her to investigate. A gold medal entangled in Erma's bedsprings and a cryptic clue to a Byzantine madonna deepens the mystery. By the time Police Inspector Kate Murphy joins the hunt, Sister's good intentions have already paved her way straight to the Mission District--and a hellish encounter with sudden death.

"Father Brown, move over...Tough and compassionate, [Sister Mary Helen] understand the secrets of the human heart." -- Andrew M. Greeley

"The author's heady mix of humor and suspense again proves irresistible." -- Publishers Weekly

A Novena For Murder and Advent of Dying introduced author Sr. O'Marie and her disarming amateur sleuth, Sr. Mary Helen (MH) of a Catholic college in San Francisco. In her 70s but still sharp-eyed and an incurable snoop, MH is devoutly religious and equally devoted to fighting crime. As the nun's third tale gets underway, she's just returned with her confederate, Sr. Eileen, from a meeting in Manhattan of OWL (Older Women's League). Hearing that one of the lay OWL members, widowed Erma Duran, has disappeared, MH prods Eileen into helping her investigate. They question Al Finn, who owns the apartment building where Erma has lived for years, but learn little. Nor do the sisters gain much from consulting Erma's grown children. By now, all the OWLs are worried about the absent woman, and MH descends again on her friends the police, who groan at her interference but agree to play a role in the search. Meantime, MH searches Erma's rooms and keeps tabs on her delinquent adult offspring. So the unwise old OWL is aloneexcept for a merciless adversarywhen she learns Erma's fate. The author's heady mix of humor and suspense again proves irresistible. Mystery Guild alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.