cover image Sine Qua Nun: A Sister Mary Teresa Mystery

Sine Qua Nun: A Sister Mary Teresa Mystery

Monica Quill. Vanguard Press, $0 (182pp) ISBN 978-0-8149-0926-3

This is Quill's fifth buoyantly witty and tense tale starring wise old Sister Mary Teresa, aka crime buster Emtee Dempsey. A guest on a Chicago TV talk show, Emtee debates pseudonymous Geoffrey Chaser, whose porn novels vilify thinly disguised versions of public figures. Chaser insults the host, wheelchair-bound Basil Murphy, and that makes the TV personalty a suspect when the writer is later strangled. But Murphy is then killed in the same way, and Emtee declares she knows who the murderer is. To prove her case, she sidesteps the police and cunningly questions the real-life ""victims'' of the would-be modern Geoffrey Chaucer: Murphy's ex-wife, a world-class athlete, a respectable author and a saintly woman dedicated to the city's homeless. This Nun's Tale ends with Emtee triumphant and her fans hugely entertained again. (November 26)