I'm afraid that I still found this novel to be more depressing than anything else. Even given the time period of the story, and the fact that at that time some women who were not fit to be nuns ended up in convents, I found all of the nuns in the story to be such liars and so plainly unfit to be nuns that I felt the convent shouldn't have been left standing at the end of the story. It didn't seem to me that there was even one woman within the story who really should have stayed in the convent. Perhaps Lady Elizabeth and Margherita came the closest - by the end of the story - to becoming "real nuns."

A young nun at St. Mary's Priory dies whilst in care at the infirmary; the prioress of the nunnery is struggling to retain her position in spite of accusations of immorality and fraud. The Keeper of the King's Peace, Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Bailiff Simon Puttock are called in to investigate the charges. And in the midst of all this mayhem, another nun is murdered. This mystery lives up to expectations. There are enough twists and turns to keep an avid mystery lover happy and satisfied.

Michael Jecks' West Country mysteries have always been a favourite of mine and I'm always delighted when a new one is published! Definitely a series to be collected and enjoyed again and again.