Book Review: Sister Eve and the Blue Nun (A Divine Private Detective Agency Mystery) by Lynne Hinton

let me start off by saying, if you like the Pater Brown stories by Chesterton, this is no Pater Brown and unfortunately not even close. This is sad because the premise of the book is fun, a nun that rides motorbikes and happens to solve crimes. Should be fairly easy to write an entertaining series of books out of that, considering that in TV shows such as Call the Midwife we see not only some feisty nuns, but also entertaining characters. Unfortunately the author created a character that is at times utterly boring and then also either stupid or just too careless to be left alone to wander the world.

The main character is Sister Eve (short for Evangelina) - again not to be confused with the entertaining and gutsy character on Call the Midwife played by Pam Ferris. This nun is riding motorbikes, but is otherwise incredibly bland and slow to apply common sense to the most mundane problem. In this book, Dr. Kelly Middlesworth, a researcher focused on the Blue Nun, is slated to give a presentation at the Pecos Abbey to give a presentation, but ends up being murdered before it comes to the presentation time. In addition, some rare historic documents are also missing and the suspect is initially the brother of the victim.

During the investigation, the reading becomes a real chore because Sister Eve is rethinking herself way too many times and takes an incredibly long time to be practical and believable. I always find it puzzling why authors write about characters that lack total common sense and have no substitute in place. Because of Sister Eve's slow progress, most readers will be able to figure out the murder long before the book discloses it and that makes the book not only slow moving, but also boring.

Overall, I am not recommending this book because compared to Pater Brown it is a total letdown. The character is not very interesting. Note: simply assuming that a motorbiking nun is going to be entertaining is wrong. People actually look for interesting characters, well thought out plotl-ines and unexpected surprises. Unfortunately, this book has none of that.

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Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. The opinion expressed in this post is solely my own and has not been influenced by any third party.