Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 17: Sister Mary Helen

At 75, Sister Mary Helen could have chosen to retire, but not looking to slow down she opts to take on a teaching role at a San Francisco women's college. Not long after her arrival an earthquake strikes, and a body found in the rubble turns out to have been murdered, Police make and arrest, but Sister Mary Helen thinks they have the wrong person, and sets out to find the real killer.

Sister Mary Helen is helped in future cases by Sister Eileen, an Irish nun who is often her traveling companion. Cases mostly take place in and around San Francisco, but at least one book takes place in Ireland.

This series is at least one example of a clerical crime writer, as the author, Carol Anne O'Marie, was herself a nun of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Her work as a nun centered on education (both teaching and administration), though she was also a newspaper editor for a time and co-founded a women's shelter. Which makes me wonder where she found the time to write.