Alibis & Angels

by Olivia Matthews

Overview

Giving up murder for Lent won’t be easy . . .
 
With the Lenten season fast approaching, Sister Louise “Lou” LaSalle looks forward to a final day of indulgence before giving up her favorite sweets. But one Briar Coast resident won’t get the chance to repent. Opal Lorrie, the mayor’s director of finance, was just found in the parking lot of the Board of Ed—with a broken neck.
 
The sheriff’s deputies are calling the apparent slip-and-fall a freak accident. But Opal was driving her boss’s car and wearing her boss’s red wool coat. Mayor Heather Stanley has been receiving threatening letters and is clearly the real target. Offering her sanctuary could put the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Hermione of Ephesus at risk, but how can Sister Lou turn her back on a neighbor in need? Aided by her loyal sleuthing partners—her well-connected nephew Chris and reporter Shari Henson—Sister Lou must confront the mayor’s myriad detractors during this critical election year. And as the first day of April nears, it’s up to her to unmask an unrepentant killer who has everyone fooled.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496709424
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	02/26/2019
Series:	A Sister Lou Mystery , #3
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	648,401
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Olivia Matthews is the cozy mystery pseudonym of national best-selling author Patricia Sargeant. A voracious reader, Patricia has been inspired by writers such as Walter Mosley, Dick Francis and Tami Hoag, who put ordinary characters in extraordinary situations. Her Sister Lou character was inspired by Catholic sisters whose courage, determination and faith have helped build communities and formed rich, lasting legacies. Patricia loves to hear from readers. You can reach her at [e-mail]. Visit her Olivia Matthews website, AuthorOliviaMatthews.com, and sign up for her enewsletter to learn about upcoming releases and events.

Editorial Reviews

2018-12-11

A possible murder spices the 40 days of Lent for Sister Louise LaSalle and her cohort in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Hermione of Ephesus.

Somebody wants Heather Stanley out of Briar Coast—somebody who's sending her anonymous letters calling her "Outsider" and threatening dire consequences if she runs for re-election as the town's mayor. So it's not entirely surprising when Opal Lorrie, the town's director of finance and management, suffers a fatal fall while she's wearing the coat Heather loaned her on her way to a meeting with the board of education she's attending in Heather's place. It's not surprising when Heather, who doesn't think deputies Fran Cole and Ted Tate, are up to the job, begs Sister Lou, who's already demonstrated her sleuthing chops (Peril & Prayer, 2018, etc.), to investigate. (After all, Heather is worried because "my margin of victory over Owen Rodney was very small, not even twenty percent.") It's not surprising when Sister Lou identifies Heather's most intimate professional associates—administrative assistant Kerry Fletcher, chief of staff Arneeka Laguda, interim finance manager Penelope del Castillo, communications director Tian Lu —as prime suspects. It's not surprising that the motive for the attack on Opal, and another on Heather herself, has roots in the past. And it's also not surprising that even though Sister Lou is a sister, not a cloistered nun, she knows from Easter. Luckily, her nephew Chris' girlfriend, Sharelle Henson, is utterly oblivious about Catholicism even though she's a seasoned reporter for the Briar Coast Telegraph, where recently hired cub reporter Harold "Don't Call Me Hal" Beckett is thirsting for her job. So Sister Lou has plenty of chances to explain utterly unsurprising moral concepts and religious practices to Shari and equally clueless readers.

The target audience, in fact, is clearly genre fans allergic to surprises. The whole production almost makes you forget what an almighty surprise the first Easter must have been.

Kirkus Reviews