From Publishers Weekly
Small coincidences and a strong gut feeling propel Cornish Sister Joan in her 10th contemplative cozy (following A Vow of Adoration). When Prioress Mother Dorothy's godmother, Mrs. Cummings, dies of a heart attack while she waits for hip replacement surgery, Sister Joan becomes uneasy after questioning the staff about the event. Something just isn't right at short-staffed St. Keynes Cottage Hospital, she decides. The overworked nurses seem to be acting strangely?they're often away from their posts at crucial moments?while the young doctor gets surly when asked about a patient's status. In this morass of sporadic care, Sister Joan hears about another patient, a little girl who's the victim of abuse, who refuses to speak. Troubled by the chaotic nature of the place and a journal entry she reads in Mrs. Cumming's diary hinting that her medication has been altered, Sister Joan confers with Mother Dorothy about her suspicions. But it isn't until an alcoholic gypsy woman dies in the hospital, another gypsy disappears, the young girl is snatched and one of the nurses presumably commits suicide that Sister Joan's forebodings are borne out. What do these disparate occurrences have in common? Again the good Sister teams up with Detective Sergeant Mill to solve the mystery. Along the way, Black contemplates the similarities between policemen and nuns, and between religious and secular lives, leaving readers with the delightful notion that the gap is much smaller than they might think.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
When Mother Dorothy, Prioress of the Order of the Daughters of Compassion, inherits a considerable estate from her godmother, Louisa Cummings, nobody would guess that the death of the old lady will lead to one of Sister Joan's most dangerous and puzzling cases yet. Linked with the mysterious death are an apparent suicide and the disappearance of an abused child.
In the local hospital suspicion and fear stalk the wards and, in the convent high on the Cornish moors, that fear is reflected--for someone is watching and waiting.
With the help of her friend Detective Sargeant Mill, Sister Joan sets out to trap one of the most dangerous of killers, and in the process discovers the true nature of compassion.
