A Vow of Chastity [Mass Market Paperback]

Veronica Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1993

"An arresting mystery with a startling finale." Booklist.

A Sister Joan Mystery.

Evil has crept into the peaceful lives of the Daughters of Compassion. At first there are only small signs of its presence. The docility of Sister Joan's pupils at the convent school. The disappearance of holy water and candles from the chapel. The midnight flight of a beautiful au pair from the home of one of Sister Joan's students.

But when a handsome adolescent boy inexplicably vanishes, Sister Joan knows that murder has come to her corner of Cornwall. And with it, an evil as old as the human race . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A second story featuring impulsive, thirtysomething Sister Joan, a nun in the Order of the Daughters of Compassion, who lives in the Order's convent in the Cornwall countryside and teaches a small class of children from local farms and the nearby gypsy community, along with newcomer Samantha Olive, whose writer father has bought an old house in the area. Sister Joan is troubled by a string of small incidents centered on the convent chapel, where a crucifix has been moved, holy water has dried up, flowers and candles have disappeared. She's disturbed also by the strange lack of mischief among her young pupils. It all culminates in the discovery, in the chapel, of the poisoned body of Petroc Lee, a gypsy boy missing for several days. Keeping much pertinent information from Detective Sergeant Mill, Sister Joan embarks on her own investigation, eventually uncovering the particularly nasty (and unlikely) source of evil. Endless replays of the convent's daily routines and the less- than-credible plot weaken a sporadically interesting story, which lacks the cohesion of the series debut, Vow of Silence. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

"An arresting mystery with a startling finale." Booklist.

A Sister Joan Mystery.

Evil has crept into the peaceful lives of the Daughters of Compassion. At first there are only small signs of its presence. The docility of Sister Joan's pupils at the convent school. The disappearance of holy water and candles from the chapel. The midnight flight of a beautiful au pair from the home of one of Sister Joan's students.

But when a handsome adolescent boy inexplicably vanishes, Sister Joan knows that murder has come to her corner of Cornwall. And with it, an evil as old as the human race . . .

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Fawcett (April 24, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804110557
• ISBN-13: 978-0804110556
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,732,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evil near a Cornish convent, August 25, 2001

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Vow of Chastity (Sister Joan Mystery) (Hardcover)

The sanctity of a Cornish convent stands in stark contrast to the evil which pervades the nearby countryside. Sister Joan begins to feel that all is not well in the homes of the children she teaches in the small convent school. She plans a school project and visits the homes of her students, while getting an uneasy feeling about some of them. It is hard enough to create a unified class between the local farm children and the Gypsy children who seem to have little in common, but some of their families add to the problem by being less than supportive of them. Suddenly two deaths occur which put the community into a fearful frenzy. Sister Joan does not wait for the local law enforcement agencies but does her own investigation and turns up some shocking evidence which points her to the murderer. This is an interesting series with some insight into the cloistered life.