Murder Most Divine

Among the Ten Commandments, “Thou Shalt Not Kill” is self-evidently one of the most basic and fundamental of them all. Even so, there are those who would break that commandment with impunity, as there also are those who enthusiastically break them all. Sometimes those who seek out and bring these transgressors to justice are men and women of the cloth, whose exploration of the mysteries of the divine uniquely qualify them to uncover the frailties of their fellow man. From G. K. Chesterton’s classic priest-turned-detective Father Brown to Peter Tremayne’s historical Celtic nun and lawyer, Sister Fidelma, religious men and women put aside their professional duties for a moment and take up an altogether different vocation for a short time – that of detective. Stories in this collection of ecclesiastical sleuthing are: “The Stripper” by Anthony Boucher; “The Wrong Shape” by G. K. Chesterton; “Jemima Shore’s First Case” by Antonia Fraser; “The Sweating Statue” by Edward D.
Hoch; “Bingo Next Time” by Ralph McInerny; “Miss Butterfingers” by Monica Quill; “In the Confessional” by Alice Scanlon Reach; “Hemlock at Vespers” by Peter Tremayne; “Conventional Spirit” by Sharan Newman; “Mea Culpa” by Jan Burke; “When Your Breath Freezes” by Kathleen Dougherty

Author Biography

Ralph McInerny is a prolific writer of mysteries, including three series – Father Dowling, Andrew Broome, and Sister Mary Teresa Dempsey. He also is director of the Jacques Maritain Center, professor of philosophy, and Professor of Medieval Studies at Notre Dame. McInerny’s latest mysteries include Grave Undertakings (2000), Irish Tenure (1999), The Red Hat (1998), Lack of the Irish (1998), On This Rockne (1997), and Four on the Floor (1994).