28 March 2024

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 38: Reverend Martin Buell

The Rev. Dr. Martin Buell is dispatched to Farrington, Colorado to take on Christ Church parish. He was ambivalent about the assignment, and his attitude doesn't improve upon meeting Seneca Wibble, who considers herself the leading authority on the town and matters of Christ Church. And then on his first night, he finds a body. With more to come, all of which the local sherrif would like to pin on him.

This series was one of three penned in the mid-20th century by Margaret Scherf (the other two involved a couple that painted furniture and a retired pathologist). She also wrote some juvenile mysteries and a Nancy Drew mystery, all as part of a varied career of writing, editing, and administrative work. 

27 March 2024

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 37: Father John O'Malley

John O'Malley is the priest at the St. Francis Mission, located on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. In addition to his usual duties he also solves murders committed on tribal land, or involving members of the Arapaho nation, usually assisted by attorney Vicky Holden. 

Author Margaret Coel is a native Coloradan, and her career as a journlist helped her find actual events and stories to adapt into her novels. Coel wrote 20 books in the series in total before ending it in 2016.

26 March 2024

Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 36: Claire Fergusson

Claire Fergusson is the new priest at St. Albans Episcopal Church in Millers Kill, New York. She's not exactly what the parishoners expected, as she's a former Army chopper pilot with a no-nonsense attitude. When a baby is left at the church, she enlists the help of the town's police chief - ex-Army himself - to find the parents, a mission that uncovers secrets, murder, and perhaps a budding romance?

Author Julia Spencer-Fleming does not appear to have entertained a religious vocation or served in the military. She does originally come from upstate New York, but lives in Maine now. Unlike many of these series this one is still active.


25 March 2024

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 35: Elizabeth Elliot

Elizabeth Elliot is a lifelong Quaker, and has just been elected the clerk of her Harvard Square meeting. Where Quakers do not have clergy, the clerk takes on many of the administrative duties for the meeting that a priest or other religious would for a church or similar community (though the clerk may also record any agreement made during a worship meeting).

Elizabeth is worried about her ability to handle the clerk position, and her concerns aren't helped when another member is killed in his garden. The police arrest a homeless man who the member occasionally hired to help in his garden, but Elizabeth thinks that the killing was more likely inspired by the rumored changes the member was going to make to his will.  Using her natural investigatory talents, backed up by a lifetime of Quaker practice and moral teaching, Elizabeth solves the first in a series of murders, both in Cambridge and beyond.

And as is the case with so many of these series, the author writes from a certain area of experience. Irene Allen is the pen name of Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a geology professor from Washington state who is also a practicing Quaker. She earned her doctorate at Harvard, and attended meetings in Cambridge.


23 March 2024

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 34: Father Mark Townsend

Father Mark is a Jesuit priest in the Seattle area who first gets involved in a murder inquiry when a lawyer is found stabbed to death with an artifact from an Alaskan tribe that he worked with during time assigned to that state. The priest has to return to the Last Frontier in order to find who the killer is, and how they are connected to the tribe and this particular object.

The series sees Father Mark investigate cases that mostly involve indigenous people (with the last book in the series focusing on migrant farm workers). All of the books are set in the Pacific Northwest, which is where the author, Brad Reynolds (himself a Jesuit) resides.

22 March 2024

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 33: Rev. Lily Connor

Lily Connor is what's known as a "tentmaker," a priest who specializes in filling in when a parish is between permanent priests. She's home in Texas, where she had been helping care for her father, who recently died from cancer. A friend calls asking if she'll take a temporary assignment in the Boston area - their priest died of a heart attack - and she accepts the job. Only problem is that when she gets to the parish, she begins to suspect that his death wasn't what is seemed.

The Lily Connor trilogy was written by Michelle Blake, who was on the path to becoming an Episcopal priest herself but opted for writing as a career. She is primarily an essayist and poet, with these books being her only published prose works. 

21 March 2024

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 32: Rev. Septimus Treolar

Another law enforcement officer turned cleric, the Reverend Treolar retired as a chief inspector of the CID and became the parson of the rural St.Mary's Danedyke. But when the locals suspect that the church is haunted, Septimus dusts off his investigatory skills to sort out who is behind what appear to be supernatural events. 

I've seen this series described as mysteries written for children or YA readers, which may explain the lack of a body count. The series is credited to Stephen Chance, which was the pen name of Philip Turner, who wrote a different children's series set in Darnley Mills, a town in northeast England. There is a prequel Septimus Treolar novel which follows his exploits during World War II, where the stakes are higher (he's trying to track down a spy) but still age-appropriate.

  Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers Day 38: Reverend Martin Buell The Rev. Dr. Martin Buell is dispatched to Farrington, Colorado to ta...