Sister Mary Helen is in luck, depending on how you look at it. She and Sister Eileen are in Ireland to attend the weeklong Oyster Festival in the little village of Ballyclarin. They make their first stop at a central oasis of food and drink called the Monks' Table. Mary Helen overhears a woman saying to the man with her, "I am surprised someone hasn't killed you already." But Eileen assures her that it's only a way of speaking, and Mary Helen is relieved--until...

"Ireland, AD 671. King Colg

Sister Holiday is back with a newly minted PI apprentice certificate, a twisty mystery to solve, and something to prove in this fast-paced, blistering follow-up to Scorched Grace.

When Maria Testa, better known to Brunetti as the nun who once had cared for his mother, turns up at the Commissario's door, after leaving her convent following the suspicious deaths of five patients, Brunetti launches a personal investigation into the situation.

Olivia Morrow, old and in failing health, must choose whether or not to reveal an explosive family secret--that her deceased cousin Catherine, a nun being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church, gave birth to a child and gave him up for adoption.