Customer Reviews

Murder Makes a Pilgrimage: A Sister Mary Helen Mystery (Sister Mary Helen Mysteries)

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sister Mary Helen is surprised to find out that she is one of ten winners of a trip to the shrine of St. James in Santiago Spain - she didn't know her good friend Sister Eileen had entered her name in the contest. At the urging of restaurant owner Senior Carlos Fraga de la Cueva, who would like her to keep an eye on his wayward nephew Pepe, Sister Mary Helen agrees to go to Spain with Sister Eileen. This is supposed to be a nice little getaway, but murder has a way of finding Sister Mary Helen and it's not long before she stumbles across the dead body of someone in their tour group. Her police friends in the United States, Dennis Gallagher and Kate Murphy, urge Sister Mary Helen to let the local police, headed by Comisario Serrano, do all the investigating and Sister Mary Helen be content with sightseeing. But Sister Mary Helen can't help being involved and soon there are several attempts on her life. Comisario Serrano, with the aid of several phone calls to Kate Murphy, scrambles frantically to solve the murder before Sister Mary Helen is fatally hurt.

I always enjoy reading Sister Carol Anne O'Marie's cozy mystery series featuring Sister Mary Helen and "Murder Takes a Pilgrimage" is no exception. Gray haired Sister Mary Helen is a delightful character who loves to read murder mysteries that she hides behind plastic prayer book covers so she doesn't shock others with her choice of reading material and she has an unfortunate habit of getting involved in real life mysteries. Sister Eileen is also a delight; especially with her habit of quoting what she claims are sayings back home in Ireland, although Sister Mary Helen suspects she makes them up as she goes along. Since much of the action in the book takes place in Spain, we don't see as much of Kate Murphy and especially Dennis Gallagher, which is a shame. But the few glimpses we get of Kate and her agonizing about whether or not to go back to work after the birth of her son are well done and add a lot of the book. While I did miss the absence of the other nuns, especially Sister Anne, throughout much of the book, characters like Maria Jose add some nice bits to the book. The mystery itself is well plotted and it was fun to try to figure out who the murderer was. The book isn't without flaws - it's obvious who will be murdered; readers will figure out why someone is trying to steal Sister Mary Helen's purse long before she and the police do; and the final scene where the murderer is revealed seems intended to be sad but was unbelievable to me. But these are minor flaws in an otherwise very enjoyable mystery.

"Murder Takes a Pilgrimage" is a delightful cozy mystery.

This was the first Sister Carol Anne O'Marie book I read and it was truly delightful. Sister Mary Helen reminds me of Miss Marple. If you like Agatha Chrisie's works, you'll like Sister O'Maries books. Unlike other reviewers, I followed along quite easily and never felt left in the dark because I haven't read the other books in the series, though I mean to devour the rest of the series quite soon on my Kindle 2!

I love all of Carol Anne O'Maries books. I am never let down when I pick up a Sister Mary Helen Mystery Novel. I have had trouble finding her books at the store. It was fabulous finding them on amazon.It enabled me to finish reading the entire series.

The fact that this book was part of a series was hard to escape. Reading it gave me the distinct impression that I was missing something - like all the other books in the series which would have (hopefully) given me a better picture of who the main players were. The style was formulaic, the ending was predictable and the situations were right out of Diagnosis Murder or Murder She Wrote - with nuns. I found myself skimming most of it. Skip this for something with a little more substance. You won't remember the book after you finish it.

The story follows two nuns, Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen, who regularly are mixed up in murder. In this case, they win a contrived "free" trip to Spain to visit the final destination of the pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela. The sisters meet an odd mixture of fellow winners, including one haughty upper-crust couple, two young adult women who were childhood girlfriends, a retired college professor and his wife, and a stereotypic crass couple who own a furniture store. In Santiago they encounter a clever police chief, his wife and their niece who has agreed to help assist the tour guide.

While the characters don't actually make the pilgrimage, the book does give a good account of the story of St. James.

In the cathedral, one of the pilgrims is brutally murdered, her body discovered by Sr. Mary Helen. From there the mystery unfolds in a standard way. Okay, the plot is formulaic, but entertainingly so, and I found the story interesting and well written. It was an easy read, straightforward and had little pretense.

This was my first of this series and I plan to read more. It is lightweight, but in a fun, escapist way.

The fact that this book was part of a series was hard to escape. Reading it gave me the distinct impression that I was missing something - like all the other books in the series which would have (hopefully) given me a better picture of who the main players were. The style was formulaic, the ending was predictable and the situations were right out of Diagnosis Murder or Murder She Wrote - with nuns. I found myself skimming most of it. Skip this for something with a little more substance. You won't remember the book after you finish it.