A Matter of Time
A Faith Abbey Mystery
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Sent to Bermuda by his superiors on a spiritual retreat, Brother Bartholomew of Cape Cod's Faith Abbey stumbles into the dark side of the sunny island where he is pulled into an investigation of drugs, dirty money, and murder.
Even cloistered monks can burn out from stress. So when Brother Bartholomew repeatedly snaps at a novice, his superiors at Faith Abbey on Cape Cod send him to Bermuda on a spiritual retreat. The island is particularly peaceful at summer's end, but beyond the veneer of pretty pink architecture, happy tourists on scooters, and yachting culture, there is a darker side. The inter-island drug trade is thriving-and the young, willing participants in the business are being murdered. Father Bartholomew, along with his childhood friend and occasional sleuthing partner Police Chief Dan Burke-who is on the island for a rare vacation-team up with local authorities to investigate the crimes. But will they be able to uncover the clever smuggler hiding among the super-rich yachting crowd that gathers yearly for the Gold Cup?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
