cover image A Killing in Retrospect: A Sister Agnes Mystery

A Killing in Retrospect: A Sister Agnes Mystery

Barbara Cummings, . . Five Star, $25.95 (237pp) ISBN 978-1-59414-784-5

A gangland war threatens to break out in Depression-era Providence, R.I., in Cummings’s gripping second Sister Agnes mystery (after 2006’s A Killing on Church Grounds ). Dante Ricci, the nine-year-old son of reputed mob boss Vincent Ricci, asks Sister Mary Agnes of the Merciful Sisters of Mary to catch whoever killed his mother, who died a year earlier in a suspicious car crash at the Ricci family farm. Aggie’s policeman cousin, Sgt. Josiah Morgan, and Pietro “Tiny” DiSilva, Vincent’s partner, join the informal investigation. After Irish maid Kitty Killian dies from eating cyanide-laced sugar cubes intended for Vincent, Sister Agnes begins to think they’re starring in their own version of the gangster film Public Enemy . Sure enough, more murders follow. Cozy fans will appreciate Aggie’s prayerful approach to crime solving, though some may wonder about her fondness for firearms (“I did love the feel of a gun in my hands”). (Oct.)