First-time mystery author Jane Willan has crafted a delightful and unusual whodunit in “The Shadow of Death.”
Willan, minister at the First Congregational Church in Paxton, has used her religious background — and her love of travel — to create a unique sleuth and setting for her book. She will speak at the Greenfield Public Library’s Thursday Morning Club on Aug. 9 at 10 a.m. Her talk is free and open to the public.
“The Shadow of Death” is the first in a projected series of novels (the next is due out in October) featuring Sister Agatha.
Agatha is an Anglican nun at Gwenafwy Abbey in northern Wales. Both the building and its residents are elderly. In her early 60s, Agatha is one of the younger sisters.
Suzanne Bainton, the local bishop, is threatening to close down the abbey within a few weeks unless the sisters can find new, younger nuns; bring in more money; and engage in more “modern” charitable work.
None of these requests seems particularly feasible, particularly in the short time frame provided. The abbey has only one potential new nun. It is on the way to making money with its “Heavenly Gouda” cheese, but significant profits will take several years.
And the nuns frankly don’t see why feeding the poor and caring for the sick aren’t modern.
As they reel from the bishop’s threat, the sisters face a more immediate menace. Jacob, the sexton the abbey shares with the local church, is found dead in the cheese room. The local constable thinks the death was accidental, but Agatha believes Jacob was murdered.
Agatha is the abbey’s librarian. A fan of mystery novels, she is working on her own whodunit and relishes the opportunity to solve a real-life crime.
Willan excels at creating believable, distinct characters, and she quickly makes the reader care about what happens to the nuns and their home. She paints a fascinating picture of a community in transition.
The nuns and the abbey are in a rural community with agricultural traditions, but the sisters are open to events and people outside the cloister and outside Wales. They spend much of their time in contemplation and in good deeds, but they also reach out to the community and the world.
The book has a couple of errors, presumably put in by the publisher to make it more acceptable to American readers. Characters speak of monetary value in dollars, for example, which is jarring and unnecessary. I assume that most readers know that the currency in Wales is pounds sterling.
Despite these tiny flaws, “The Shadow of Death” is charming. Its depiction of the life of religious professionals rings true, and it mixes humor in with its mystery.
Tinky Weisblat is the author of “The Pudding Hollow Cookbook,” “Pulling Taffy,” and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb.” Visit her website, www.TinkyCooks.com.