Cecilian Vespers: A Mystery (A Collins-Burke Mystery) [Hardcover]

Anne Emery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009 | Series: A Collins-Burke Mystery

Lawyer and bluesman Monty Collins is used to defending murderers—and occasionally investigating murders himself—but he's never come up against anything like the case of Reinhold Schellenberg, a world-renowned German theologian who has been found dead on the altar of an old church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saint Cecilia's day. The controversial priest, once a top insider in the Vatican, was known to provoke strong feelings in Catholics of all ideological stripes, and now those feelings have overflowed with horrifying results. At least Monty knows where to look for clues; his friend Father Brennan Burke has just opened a choir school at the church, and the students provide an international cast of suspects—including a flamboyant Sicilian priest, an eccentric English monk, a disgruntled American, a Vatican enforcer, a church lady with a history of violence, and, most perplexing of all, a police officer from the former East Berlin.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the outset of Arthur Ellis Award–winner Emery's compelling fourth mystery to feature lawyer and bluesman Monty Collins (after 2008's Barrington Street Blues), Monty attends the opening of the Schola Cantorum Sancta Bernadetta, a kind of choir school for grownups, who would be learning or relearning the traditional music of the Roman Catholic Church, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When a controversial participant, German theologian Fr. Reinhold Schellenberg, is found nearly decapitated on the altar of an old church just before evening vespers on St. Cecilia's day, Monty gets involved in the murder investigation. The suspense mounts as Monty and his friend Fr. Brennan Burke, the school's head, travel to the Vatican and elsewhere in Europe in search of answers. The large pool of suspects from around the globe helps ensure a challenging whodunit. Readers interested in the history and impact of the Vatican II reforms will be especially rewarded. (May)
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From Booklist

The fourth Monty Collins mystery retains its trademark setting of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the early 1990s. This time the action is heavily infused with religion, as defense lawyer Monty comes to the aid of his old friend, Father Brennan Burke, who runs a music school dedicated to historical church music. When one of the school’s more well-known students, a German monk, is found murdered in an abandoned church on St. Cecilia’s Day, Monty unofficially takes on the investigation. Assisted by Burke, Monty plods his way through the suspects, but few leads turn up and fewer pan out. The lack of viable subjects contributes to a slow pace, but Emery continues to imbue her stories with a strong sense of place, using real Halifax street names and plenty of affectionate descriptions of the weather and countryside. Series readers will be pleased with the new story and character developments, as will those looking for a fresh setting. --Jessica Moyer

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press; First Edition edition (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550228617
• ISBN-13: 978-1550228618
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,195,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars " 'He's dead! He's been...' ", July 3, 2010

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K. M. "literary devotee" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Cecilian Vespers: A Mystery (A Collins-Burke Mystery) (Hardcover)

To my mind, Cecilian Vespers: A Mystery (A Collins-Burke Mystery) distinguished itself more as an interesting window into the Catholic friction between those who prefer traditional music and worship and those who want modernity and progressivism than it did as a stimulating whodunit.

Not yet having read Anne Emery's earlier award-winning mystery, Sign of the Cross: A Mystery (A Collins-Burke Mystery), or the other books in the Monty Collins/Fr. Burke series, I can't judge how CECILIAN VESPERS stacks up against them. All I can note is that the presentation lacked some drama: even though there was a gruesome murder, it almost came off as a byproduct, not a spotlighted event. And it sometimes felt as if the author was just hurrying from one plot point to another. The common mystery formula of presenting a number of people as murder suspects was followed, but the characters were just that, characters, instead of people and that kept me at a distance in the reading. Even the victim, a controversial priest named Reinhold Schellenberg who made enemies on both ends of the Church's political spectrum by first siding with Vatican II modernists but then deciding too many good traditions had been lost, was never really introduced to the reader before his demise and the subsequent efforts to find out who killed him and why.

Despite these difficulties, I recommend CECILIAN VESPERS, particularly to anyone who follows or is part of that ongoing "struggle" between Church modernists and traditionalists -- one can stick many labels on these groups, and it isn't as "simple" a division as that -- something this novel tried to show in Father Burke, a conservative regarding Church liturgy but a liberal in other areas. Emery did a fine job of including a lot of information about the misconceptions concerning Vatican II and its "requirements" for reform. The inimitable Father Burke was an outspoken proponent and activist for beauty in the Mass and the hours of prayer such as Vespers. It is reassuring to see a fiction writer incorporate such topics in her work.

By the way, CECILIAN VESPERS events were situated in 1991, not the new millennium, a time when it was more difficult for Catholics to hold and attend Tridentine Mass than it is now. Also, the title refers to the martyred St. Cecilia, the patron of Church music. She, and other saints, ended up playing parts of sorts in the solving of this mystery.

3.8 stars.