The Christmas Night Murder by Lee Harris
published 1994
(excerpt:) It was my first Christmas as a wife and I discovered pretty fast that 15 years as a nun and a little more than a year as a single secular woman had not prepared me for the holiday as a married woman.
Christmas is so much more than a tree and lights. It is
smells, the smells of special seasonal foods cooking and once-a-year cakes and
cookies baking in your own oven…
I turned to a friend. “You’ve never made Christmas
cookies?” she said in apparent disbelief.
[the friend helps out…]
Pyramids of decorated stars and angels and snowmen were
stacked on plastic plates and covered with coloured cellophane and tied with
red ribbons.
comments: The first person narrator here, Christine Bennett, is a
former nun, so I was expecting that ‘Christmas is so much more….’ would turn
out to be a reference to spirituality or the real meaning of Christmas. But no,
delicious cookies.
This series is a very
enjoyable one – Chris, who lives in New York state, is a splendid sleuth, and
features in a run of 1990s books each based round a celebration or season of
the year –
The Good Friday Murder
The Yom Kippur Murder
The Christening Murder
She has a group of friends who help her – a lawyer in Manhattan, a friendly (& eligible) policeman, her neighbour, and the mother superior from her old convent.
This one has a particularly good mystery based in the convent
where Chris was formerly a nun, and deals with a long-ago novice and
accusations of impropriety concerning a much-loved priest – who has now
disappeared.
Chris works away at the case, chasing down people from the
past: it is absorbing and often surprising.
I have enjoyed all of her cases that I have read: I do
always love nuns and convent themes in books anyway, and there is often a
connection in the plots, and also connections with some religious and church
ideas – of different kinds. There is also some interesting consideration of
what life might be like for a woman who has left the convent.
And although the books are not that old, it is fascinating to see that they come just before you could look up everything online, and find information very easily.
Nuns picture from the archives of the University
of Detroit Mercy Campus – although these are very much summer
nuns, not Christmas and snow as in the book.
The Christmas cookies were produced more locally….
I've read one or two other stories that feature a former nun, Moira (although not this particular former nun), and they've all been enjoyable. I suppose there's something about that perspective... At any rate, this sounds like a fun series, but also one with solid mysteries. I'll have to see if I can find some of them.
ReplyDeleteYes, Margot, I've read a few and always enjoyed them - both current and former nuns as sleuths seem to work. It would be interesting to work out why.
DeleteI love Lee Harris' books, I think I have read them all twenty years ago. Time to look them up again. Have you read St. Peter's Finger or Convent on Styx? Gladys Mitchell had a nice way of writing nuns, each one had a different personality and backstory. I later found out she had a sister who entered a religious life and I think that it shows. The mysteries are pretty good too, not as obtuse as she sometimes wrote.
ReplyDeleteOh great to find someone else who has read them! I had never heard of this series, or seen them mentioned anywhere, and I think they are a real find, I am working my way through and enjoying.
DeleteI haven't read either of those Mitchells - surprising myself - and now feel this should be put right very soon.
I have read all of this series and enjoyed it. You might look at the Sister Agatha series by Aimee and David Thurlo. Sister Agatha is an extern nun in a New Mexico convent. My especial favorite is the Sister Mary Helen series by Carol Anne O'Marie, herself a nun. Sister Mary Helen wraps her mysteries in prayer book dust jackets so no one knows she is reading frivolous literature.
ReplyDeleteAnd another fan! This is so much the joyous part of blogging. And another recommendation. I have read some of the Sister Mary Helen series, but Sister Agatha is new to me! More to try: great. Thank you!
DeleteAs a former resident of Detroit I can assure that nun photo is probably from early May.
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh. I've just been trying to track down where I found that image, but the link doesn't work. I'm convinced that I used the pic on the blog before but can't find that either. Your verdict will be the final one...
DeleteSomewhere I have a photograph of one of our cats, stalking down the driveway through the fresh snow - with a very cranky look on her face - dated May 5th.
DeleteWell in the words of the great Prince, 'Sometimes it snows in April', so May not too much of a stretch...
DeleteNever heard of her, but these do sound just up my street. I'll try to get hold of some. Chrissie
ReplyDeleteHold that thought Chrissie! I knew you'd be interested, so am about to send you one (in the usual leisurely post-related fashion) so wait and see...
DeleteI was just going to mention the Sister Mary Helen mysteries ! I love her side-kick, Eileen. :)
ReplyDeleteThat was a most enjoyable series....
DeleteI only read the first book in this series. I guess I should try another one since I also like nuns in books.
ReplyDeleteI like the way this series has elements of her former life woven in, while giving her the future she enjoys.
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ReplyDeletei have never come across this author but. as others have said, it sounds right up my street.
Yes, that's about the size of it!
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