Quaker Testimony: An Elizabeth Elliot Mystery [Hardcover]

Irene Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

Widow Elizabeth Elliot lives a simple life in the bustling town of Cambridge, Massachusetts. As Clerk of the Quaker Meeting, she takes care of the daily business of running the Meeting and leads the congregation in prayerful meditation. She also serves as a moral authority. So when murder strikes at the heart of the nonviolent Quaker community, Elizabeth becomes a delightfully unconventional sleuth. Hope and Sheldon Laughton, a young Quaker couple, refuse to pay war taxes. The IRS plans to repossess the Laughton house due to their debts, so Elizabeth goes to the house to offer moral support. She is horrified to discover Hope murdered, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. The crime threatens to tear the community apart when suspicion falls upon a number of Quakers. Could the killer be Otto, a young Quaker and dear friend of the Laughtons, who also happened to have had a not-so-secret crush on Hope? Or could it be Sheldon himself, due to unseen strains in their marriage? Even Elizabeth is a suspect, and she is forced to spend a night in jail! Determined to discover the identity of the murderer, Elizabeth combines her quiet wisdom with perseverance as she makes her way to a shocking, disturbing discovery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Widowed Quaker, Elizabeth Elliot, Clerk of the Meeting in Cambridge, Mass., again takes on the role of amateur sleuth in this follow-up to Quaker Witness when one of the congregation is murdered. Elizabeth discovers the body of young mother Hope Laughton when she arrives at the Laughton home to support Hope in her tax resistance against the IRS. Initially a suspect, Elizabeth determines to find the murderer, who left behind Hope's grieving husband, Sheldon, and three-year-old daughter, Cathy. As she questions Otto Zimmer, a family friend who is seemingly obsessed with Hope, and Sheldon, whose movements are suspicious, Elizabeth comes to question the strength of her beliefs and those of others in the congregation. Adding to her increasing distress, her dear friend, Patience Silverstone, is in the hospital, declining rapidly. After an accident befalls Cathy, Elizabeth turns to her faith and prayers as it appears the murderer may be within the community itself. Lengthy, unnatural conversations and bits of interspersed Quaker writings, characters as drab as Elizabeth's clothes and an improbable ending are flaws too great to be dismissed.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Third in a series set in Cambridge, Mass. (Quaker Witness, 1993, etc.), focusing on the sleuthing talents of widowed Elizabeth Elliot, sixtysomething Clerk of the area's Quaker congregation, called the Meeting. Hope and Sheldon Laughton, parents of six-year- old Cathy, are members, too--pacifist fanatics who withhold IRS taxes (used for purposes of war). As a result, they're due to be evicted from their handsome house, which is located next door to the home of Hope's childless sister Constance and her husband Titus. Elizabeth, making a supportive early morning call to the Laughtons on eviction day, finds Hope's body, shot to death, on her kitchen floor. As Detective Stewart Burnham bumbles his way along- -first arresting, then releasing Elizabeth--she does some quiet investigating on her own, learning of the unrequited passion of Otto Zimmer (also a Quaker) for the victim, and of Sheldon Laughton's recent conversion to Catholicism, undisclosed to the Meeting. Adding to Elizabeth's anxiety are the illness of her best friend Patience and the ambivalence of her own feelings about marriage to suitor Neil Stevenson. In the end, Elizabeth acts quickly to prevent another of Burnham's follies and produces the true, surprising culprit. More tract than fiction, with long passages detailing the history, philosophy, practices, and current struggles of the Quakers. Earnest Elizabeth is accorded near-reverential treatment; the puzzle gets short shrift. A curious work, then, that will leave the patient reader better informed, if only mildly entertained. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312147090
• ISBN-13: 978-0312147099
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,939,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystery for Serious Believers, January 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Quaker Testimony (Mass Market Paperback)

I love reading mysteries, but am often troubled by the situations and the content. I stumbled on Irene Allen's book, Quaker Testimony, at MacIntyre's Fine Books and Bookends at the Village of Fearrington, near Chapel Hill, NC (a wonderful bookstore, by the way). This book tells a good story, reveals some very interesting and very deep characters, and touches on some extremely important issues for our time -- like the place of faith in our lives, the importance and role of faith communities, and the need to accept our brothers and sisters in faith at their word and support their convictions, even when we don't always share them ourselves. The main character, Elisabeth Elliot, is the Clerk of the Quaker Meeting in Cambridge, MA. She is in her 60s, a widow, and a very thoughtful, caring, yet sober and "good" character, in every sense of the word. She has strong convictions and isn't timid about sharing them when necessary. But she does so in a sensitive and compassionate way, with very positive results. I hope this books finds a wide readership among people who enjoy a good mystery but who can't stomach the harshness of writers like Patricia Cornwell all the time.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great mystery with morals!, June 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Quaker Testimony (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the 3rd Quaker Mystery that I have read by Irene Allen! It is a wonderful book dealing with real life Quaker issues! I felt it was a refreshing twist on your typical mystery. I am looking forward to reading her next one - Quaker Indictment. I am Quaker and the religious aspects of the book are true to the religion! It also was a fun book to read!! I hope others will read Irene Allens Quaker Mysteries!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Quaker instruction, mediocre crime mystery, January 20, 1999

By 

R. L. Smith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quaker Testimony: An Elizabeth Elliot Mystery (Hardcover)

As a British Quaker, this book was of considerable interest to me. The picture it portrays of American Quaker life was a surprise in some ways - the intensity of the faith and the faithfulness of daily behaviour struck me as extremely 'other worldly'. Elizabeth is a likeable woman, and concern for her kept me reading. However, the actual mystery was very predictable almost from the first, and the somewhat contrived accumulation of accident, would-be suicide and ultimate detection is not especially well structured. It is, however, courageous to write about murder amongst Quakers, and the Peace Testimony is very well explored, in the light of imperfect human beings, and their capacity for sin and self-deception. Rebecca Tope