The first book in the Reverend Mother series
Click here for the first chapter and links to reviews
A Shameful Murder
A SHAMEFUL MURDER
Chapter One
ONE
St Thomas Aquinas:
Videtur quod voluntas Dei non sit causa rerum.
(It can be seen that the will of God is not the cause of things.)
It was Reverend Mother Aquinas who found the body of the dead girl. It lay wedged within the gateway to the convent chapel at St Mary’s of the Isle, jettisoned by the flood waters. For a fanciful moment she had almost imagined that it was a mermaid swept up from the sea. The long silver gown gleamed beneath the gas lamp, wet as the skin of a salmon, and the streams of soaked curls were red-brown just like the crinkled carrageen seaweed she had gathered from the windswept beaches of Ballycotton when she was a child. Her heart beating fast, the Reverend Mother unlocked the gate and looked down at the sightless blue eyes that stared up from beneath a wide, high brow, at the blanched, soaked flesh of the cheeks and knew that there was nothing that she could do for the girl. She bent over, touched the stone-cold face and then with a hand that trembled slightly she signed the forehead with a small cross. The Reverend Mother had seen death many times in her long life, but in the young she still found it was almost unbearable.
“Harrison combines a savvy detective and a setting fraught with intrigue and tension for another winner“–Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“Mistaken identities, strange twists, an intelligent and likable heroine, and a tragic tale of sex, greed, and betrayal–make sure your historical mystery readers get this one on their radar“–Booklist Starred Review
“Recommend for Dicey Deere fans or readers who enjoy M.C. Beaton and Carol Higgins Clark“–Library Journal
“What unfolds is a superbly crafted mystery that makes fine use of its locale and the diverse characters living there: the moneyed elite who attend the annual Merchants’ Ball, lecturers from the University College, and the energetic young people who fight for Ireland’s future by joining the illegal Republican Party.“–Sarah Johnson, book review editor for the Historical Novels Review.
“This is a terrific read, carrying you along on the ride. Highly recommended.“–Historical Novel Society