Grave Misgivings (Mother Lavinia Grey Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Kate Gallison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mother Lavinia Grey Mysteries | Publication Date: May 11, 1999

In a small-town cemetery, some secrets just won't stay buried....

Mother Lavinia Grey shouldn't talk to strangers. Especially ones she meets in a graveyard. But teenager Shannon Smith and her father, Mark, were the sort of lost sheep a kindhearted Episcopal priest couldn't resist. When Mother Vinnie found them shivering in Fishersville's Catholic cemetery, they were carrying around a box of ashes. And their reason seemed terribly romantic. They hoped to reunite Mark's recently deceased mother with the husband she lost forty years before.

Mother Vinnie kindly offered to help find the grave of Mark's father. She never dreamed they might be opening a sepulcher filled with buried secrets and shattered dreams. Or that disturbing the dead, even by asking a few curious questions, might bring to life a killer's fears. And seal Mother Vinnie's own unexpected fate....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mother Lavinia Grey, Gallison's Episcopal priest sleuth, makes her fifth appearance (after Hasty Retreat, 1997) in this quirky, entertaining story. Mark Smith, with his grown daughter Shannon, has returned to Fishersville, N.J., to place his mother's ashes with his father's remains. There's a problem: no one knows where his father, James Smith, is buried. Turning to Mother Vinnie for help, the Smiths discover that there is a mystery about the elder Smith's death, one that coincides with a devastating flood that hit Fishersville in 1955. While trying to help out Mark and Shannon, Mother Vinnie witnesses the vandalization of a local cemetery and is led to wonder if there's a connection between a local gang's stealing of statuary and monuments from cemeteries and the puzzling whereabouts of James Smith. When an elderly town resident is murdered and suspicion points at Mark, Mother Vinnie and Shannon must redouble their efforts to solve the mystery of Mark's missing father. The over-the-top ending, in which Mother Vinnie stupidly lets herself be put in mortal danger, weakens an otherwise amusing story that features a distinctive and usually appealing heroine.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A quirky, entertaining story."
--Publisher's Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Dell (May 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440224136
• ISBN-13: 978-0440224136
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,892,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Winner of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance fiction prize for The Edge of Ruin, Kate Gallison writes the Emily Daggett Weiss silent movie mysteries under the name of Irene Fleming.

As Kate Gallison she wrote the acclaimed Mother Lavinia Grey murder mystery series about the struggles of a woman priest in the Episcopal church in a small New Jersey town, and another series about Nick Magaracz, a Trenton private detective.

She lives in Lambertville, New Jersey, with her husband and their cat. She is descended from a convicted Salem witch.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kept me up until 3:00am., September 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Grave Misgivings (Mother Lavinia Grey Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I can't believe LGandle read the same warm and witty book I did. Of course I am a fan of Mother Lavinia Grey and have read all Kate Gallison's books. Mother Grey and her wacky assortment of parishoners are always a hoot. The uproariously odd coincidences and dizzying plot twists of Grave Misgivings kept me up until 3:00am.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Miss Mother Lavinia!, May 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Grave Misgivings (Mother Lavinia Grey Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I wish Kate Gallison would hurry up and write another Mother Lavinia Grey mystery. The premise for her novels is so different...and wonderfully done.!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A former resident returns to Fisherville, July 11, 2002

By 

Moe811 (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grave Misgivings (Mother Lavinia Grey Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Mother Lavinia meets a man and his teenage daughter in the rain in a cemetery. She kindheartedly asks them home with her and they tell her they are looking for the grave of the man's father. He died in the great flood of 1955, or did he? Someone is also stealing the ornaments from the graveyard. Mother Lavinia takes both mysteries in hand.

While this isn't my favorite of the Mother Vinnie mysteries, it is still very entertaining. The mysteries of the past and present blend very well together, and the ending is somewhat surprising.