A MATTER OF TIME: A Faith Abbey Mystery

Though this third installment of Manuel's Faith Abbey series isn't as smoothly paced as last year's A Matter of Diamonds, fans of Cape Cod monk Brother Bartholomew will enjoy seeing his character unfold. In Bermuda for a long-overdue spiritual retreat, Brother Bartholomew stumbles onto a murder involving an international drug ring and must join with his old pal, Eastport (Mass.) chief of police Dan Burke (who also happens to be vacationing in Bermuda), to solve the mystery. As usual, Manuel offers a marvelous sense of place, evoking the sultry beauty of Bermuda as readily as he has the windswept landscape of Cape Cod. Manuel clearly knows the world of competitive ocean sailing, so the novel's backdrop—the high-stakes competition of Bermuda's annual Gold Cup Regatta—comes alive. He also provides a richly textured spiritual crisis for Brother Bartholomew, who spends the first half of the novel coming to terms with his growing distance from God. The book's greatest strength is the time Manuel takes with its key characters. However, this can also be a weakness; apart from a thrill-ridden and murderous second chapter, the plot doesn't really gain momentum for a full hundred pages. A subplot about a failing marriage turns out to have little relevance for the overall story, and the climax—which involves a chase scene on the high seas during a tropical storm—is predictable. (Oct. 1)