Death Takes Up a Collection (Sister Mary Helen Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Carol Anne O'Marie (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sister Mary Helen Mysteries | Publication Date: September 1998

Spunky Bay Area nun Sister Mary Helen and her sidekick, Sister Eileen, return for an eighth outing, this time investigating the poisoning death of a monsignor.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

On a San Francisco St. Patrick's Day, Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen are delivering soda bread to Monsignor Joseph P. Higgins of St. Agnes in the Sunset District. The nuns find Higgins in a tense parish council meeting, and the next day he is dead from poison. The sisters are drawn into the case since they were among the last to see Higgins alive. This eighth Sister Mary Helen novel offers vivid characters, light humor, and great views of San Francisco. Inspectors Kate Murphy and Dennis Gallagher are strong foils to the nuns; Gallagher's bluster and insight suggest an updated Lieutenant Phil Pevsner from Kaminsky's Toby Peters series. Many of the other series set in San Francisco are considerably more hard-boiled than this one, but Susan Dunlap's Kiernan O'Shaughnessy novels perhaps best capture O'Marie's spirit. John Rowen

Review

"The escapades of Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen are delightful." --San Francisco Examiner

"Enlivened by its series of incisive character studies-and sure to please the Sister's legion of fans." --Kirkus Reviews

"[An] excellent mystery series...Hard to put down." --Booklist

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312192568
• ISBN-13: 978-0312192563
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,916,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Predictable, March 24, 2000

By 

C. Hegberg (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Takes Up a Collection (Mass Market Paperback)

I love Sister Carol O'Marie's characters and her books. This again is a good book with warm characters, but it was so predictable. I could easily turn back to the appropriate page and see where and when and how the person had the opportunity to do the murder. It was all too obvious. And an enclosed murder is rather old-time. I found this one boring, though I would read another of O'Marie's books anytime. She needed to work a better plot.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mystery and more..., July 19, 2000

By 

Brenda "MYSHELFDOTCOM" (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Death Takes Up a Collection (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this mystery for many reasons. The author presented her characters is such a way that I found myself caught up in the turmoil with them; the mystery, especially in the beginning, the path it took, and how she dealt with each suspect and lead impressed me. I found Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen to be charming, intelligent and entertaining.

The enjoyable, irreproachable Sisters are back and much to their and Inspector Gallagher's displeasure, Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen find themselves the focal point of a murder when Monsignor Higgins of St. Agatha's dies after eating a piece of the Irish Soda Bread they had presented him for St. Patrick's Day.

We all know the Church, through individuals, is just as susceptible to the immoralities of life as any other establishment, which is understandable since mankind is in charge, but that doesn't make it acceptable, in fact it's judged more harshly. Sister Carol Anne taps into this sort of situation successfully; she shows us the thoughts and reactions of those betrayed and how willingly they hold on to their own emotional burdens as fuel for their self-indulgent actions. Besides being a great mystery, Death Takes Up A Collection is certainly a remarkable interpretation of human emotions.

1.0 out of 5 stars Starless Story, September 23, 2002

By 

Kathleen C. Griffin (Bronx NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death Takes Up a Collection (Mass Market Paperback)

Elderly, white-haired Monsignor Joseph Higgins is killed off on page 32, rather too late to generate any interest. Like most of the stock characters in this mystery, he's unbelievable, inconsistent, and surprisingly uninteresting. Supposedly he's embezzling church funds and ending an affair with a fiftyish ex-Sister. An old man brags (yes, brags) to Higgins that his divorced daughter is committing adultery, and then is furious that Higgins denies Communion to the woman. Since Higgins is so venal an unbeliever, it's unlikely he'd bother. But the father and daughter are as unbelieving if they think adultery equals a state of grace! The best character is the hated housekeeper, who is consistently described as extremely old after 40 years' service -- she's about 55, having come from Ireland in 1958 as a schoolgirl planning to continue her education. The heroine, Sister Mary Helen, is 78 but not regarded as old. Such odd prejudices provide the only interest.