REVIEW: The Shadow of Death

The Shadow of Death
Author: Jane Willan

Sister Agatha has been a nun at Gwenafwy Abbey in Wales for 40 years. Besides God, there have been two great loves in her life since childhood....the nuns of the Abbey and books. She is the librarian at the Abbey and, in secret, she listens to mystery podcasts and is writing her own novel. Then she discovers the Abbey's Sexton, Jacob Traherne, dead under an avalanche of metal shelving and rounds of Heavenly Gouda (cheese made by the nuns) and has to put everything she knows about sleuthing to the test. The local constable has reservations, but Sister Agatha is sure that Jacob was murdered. She sets to work to discover the murderer, putting everything she has learned from literary detectives like Hercule Poirot and even information gleaned from her favorite podcast, How to Write a Mystery Novel, into practice. With the help of the other nuns at the Abbey and Father Selwyn, Sister Agatha sets out to prove the innocence of an accused postulant and save the day!

This book has such a refreshing mix of wit, humor and mystery. It reminds me of Hamish Macbeth for the quirky characters....a bit of Father Brown with its amateur sleuths of the religious persuasion....and a smidge of Murder She Wrote tossed in the pot as well. Several times I had to laugh out loud at the humor. For example, the sisters adopted two pigs not realizing they were potbellied pigs and not regular soon-to-be-ham pigs, and they ended up pets. Their names? Luther and Calvin. :) A little Catholic humor there. :) And their cheese....Heavenly Gouda. That's just too cute. I enjoyed this story from beginning to end. The characters are fabulous. The humor and wit is refreshing. And the mystery was interesting with plenty of suspects, twists, turns and sheannigans going on.

What a nice start for a new cozy series! It has a little bit of everything.....a postulant with a past, thievery at the church, a Bishop with bad intentions, a nun who loves whodunits and podcasts, and a great murder mystery. Loved it from beginning to end!

This is Jane Willan's debut novel. I will definitely be reading more of this series!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**