Advent of Dying — Carol Anne O'Marie

A CHURCH SECRETARY RECEIVES THE WAGES OF SIN..

Timid little Suzanne Barnes was the perfect ecclesiastical secretary: efficient, discreet, self-effacing. So it came as a shock when Suzanne invited Sisters Mary Helen, Eileen and Anne to Ghirardelli Square's Sea Wench Bar to hear her belt out the blues. Sister Mary Helen wondered what secrets lay behind those watery blue eyes. The Sea Wench Suzanne was a revelation: sassy, sexy, dressed to kill. It was her first--and last--performance, punctuated by a silver letter opener in the heart. Who killed the canary? Sister Mary Helen and her faithful band must unearth Suzanne's secrets to solve the murder before all hell breaks loose--again...

Always of Catholic mind, Sister Mary Helen is pleased--if rather surprised--to find herself sitting at the Sea Wench Bar in Ghirardelli Square, listening to her efficient but heretofore very quiet secretary Suzanne belt out the blues. But Sister Mary Helen's pleasure turns to panic when she finds Suzanne's body the next morning. Murder has been committed. The weapon? A silver letter opener.

Police Inspectors Kate Murphy and Dennis Gallagher politely but firmly try to keep their friend Mary Helen in the cloister. They know that investigating a murder is too dangerous a business for a nun, no matter how well-meaning. Sister Mary Helen, however, is not a woman easily thrown off the track.

Thanks to her inimitable blend of forth-rightness, wisdom, and charm (and to tidbits of police procedures she learns from reading mysteries between prayer-book covers), it is Sister Mary Helen who finds the answers to the questions. Wo was Suzanne anyway and who possibly could have wanted her dead?