Vow of Compassion

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. (Dec.)