That's how life starts to feel for Cheryl, but somehow she just can't stop the forward progression that may lead to the demise of all she holds dear. "A Family Affair" is a smoothly written, quick read, that I would give 3 1/2 stars.

The story starts out with David coming home from Viet Nam after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison camp; psychologically he is faced with nightmares and an unending guilt. To add to his dilemma his dad Harold, has married a woman Cheryl, 19 years his junior and only a few years older than David. Tension abounds in the day-to-day living that is their present situation. It is compounded by the fact that David has arrived on their doorstep with a bubble gum chewing, spiked heels toting wife, Angela.

The story goes on from there to work itself out in 177 pages, and is an enjoyable read for a rainy day sitting in front of the fireplace. It is a love story that has a taste of disloyalty and redemption, second thoughts, and the premise that, "People are weak and ineffectual when threatened by passion".

The author wraps it up with a telling epilogue that enlightens us as to where the characters are thirty years later. There is a predictable surprise, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. 12/15/00

Elderly, white-haired Monsignor Joseph Higgins is killed off on page 32, rather too late to generate any interest. Like most of the stock characters in this mystery, he's unbelievable, inconsistent, and surprisingly uninteresting. Supposedly he's embezzling church funds and ending an affair with a fiftyish ex-Sister. An old man brags (yes, brags) to Higgins that his divorced daughter is committing adultery, and then is furious that Higgins denies Communion to the woman. Since Higgins is so venal an unbeliever, it's unlikely he'd bother. But the father and daughter are as unbelieving if they think adultery equals a state of grace! The best character is the hated housekeeper, who is consistently described as extremely old after 40 years' service -- she's about 55, having come from Ireland in 1958 as a schoolgirl planning to continue her education. The heroine, Sister Mary Helen, is 78 but not regarded as old. Such odd prejudices provide the only interest.

I love Sister Carol O'Marie's characters and her books. This again is a good book with warm characters, but it was so predictable. I could easily turn back to the appropriate page and see where and when and how the person had the opportunity to do the murder. It was all too obvious. And an enclosed murder is rather old-time. I found this one boring, though I would read another of O'Marie's books anytime. She needed to work a better plot.

I really enjoyed this mystery for many reasons. The author presented her characters is such a way that I found myself caught up in the turmoil with them; the mystery, especially in the beginning, the path it took, and how she dealt with each suspect and lead impressed me. I found Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen to be charming, intelligent and entertaining.

The enjoyable, irreproachable Sisters are back and much to their and Inspector Gallagher's displeasure, Sister Mary Helen and Sister Eileen find themselves the focal point of a murder when Monsignor Higgins of St. Agatha's dies after eating a piece of the Irish Soda Bread they had presented him for St. Patrick's Day.

We all know the Church, through individuals, is just as susceptible to the immoralities of life as any other establishment, which is understandable since mankind is in charge, but that doesn't make it acceptable, in fact it's judged more harshly. Sister Carol Anne taps into this sort of situation successfully; she shows us the thoughts and reactions of those betrayed and how willingly they hold on to their own emotional burdens as fuel for their self-indulgent actions. Besides being a great mystery, Death Takes Up A Collection is certainly a remarkable interpretation of human emotions.

The concept that people can have different feelings--even conflicting ones--at the same time is important for children to understand. Children will appreciate the reassurance of their feelings' worth. For each set of contrasting emotions, there are two illustrations of the child-one for each emotion. This helps the readers realize that facial expressions and body language can often indicate feelings.

After examining the pictures, I realize that Patterson has created a somewhat diverse world: out of the four main characters, two are male and two are female; two are white, one is African American, and one appears to be Asian American. There is an African American teacher, a sibling who uses crutches, and fathers (as well as mothers) are de-picted as having positive relationships with children. By portraying characters who seem so similar in the text as a physically diverse group, readers get the sense that no matter what someone looks like, he or she has feelings like everyone else.

In short, this book should not be used alone to explain the concept of conflicting emo-tions. In my experience, children--especially younger ones--benefit much more from re-alistic fiction stories than they do from books "to help parents help their children" which is what this book claims to do. In fact, it seems that this book was written more for adults to use as a guide for talking about emotions with children than for the children themselves.