Sister Mary Helen is amazed to hear her quiet and very shy secretary belting out the blues in a San Francisco bar. The good sister is baffled but pleased to see her friend blossoming, even if under somewhat questionable circumstances. The next day, however, Sister finds the young woman brutally murdered. Since Sister Mary Helen is an avid fan of paperback mysteries, she decides she to see if she can unravel this one.

You'll have the murderer figured out pretty quickly in this one, but it's light and amusing reading.

I recently bought this book from Amazon, since I saw that it was published Nov. 2001. Great, I thought, a new book by Sister Carol Anne! Nope, it's an oldie (1986) with a new cover. So now I have 2 copies of the same book. Well, I'm rereading it and enjoying it again. Fortunately, at my age, my memory isn't as good as it used to be and the story seems fresh to me. Sister Carol Anne is a master storyteller and her mysteries are supreme. You can't go wrong with her books--even the second time around! :o)

This book was a treat! Put the Snoop Sisters, Miss Marple, Father Dowling all together and this one is still better! Characters were well defined, had a sense of humor, all the loose ends were tied up --- bless the fiesty old nun!

having read all the sister mary helen books, i have to say i was a little disappointed in this one - we definitely need to bring sister eileen back from ireland - being a native san franciscan, i have always loved it as a backdrop for the stories, and this book seemed lacking in the ambiance i expect - otherwise, it was okay - i guess you can only have so many murders at mt. saint francis...

I've been reading this series since the beginning and I've always enjoyed it. This installement is no exception. However, I was very bothered by one thing . The way the African-American characters talked. I'm African-American and I've never heard other African-Americans sound as ignorant as the characters in this book. Just because someone is black, poor, and homeless doesn't mean they automatically have to say such things as "I be" , "you be", and "whats a matter?" Maybe if one or two characters talked this way I wouldn't have been as bothered but they all talked like this. Otherwise, I enjoyed the book.

Another lighhearted romp through murder set in the Bay area. It's a delightful read. The characters are real, from the homeless women to the nuns. Sister Carol Ann knows the underside of the San Francisco landscape and the reality of religious life today. Gentle and fun.

This latest Sister Mary Helen is pretty much a rehash of all of the preceding ones...and you can figure out who the murderer is very quickly...a fast read, but a disappointing one as well!

Sadly for all fans of Sister Carol's books, "The Corporal Works of Murder" shows clear evidence the series may be wearing itself out.

The central clue is a timeworn device, and the link between it and the murderer is so jarringly made clear that it is obvious to any reader two-thirds of the way in exactly how the plot will play out.

There's also some shockingly bad editing; the final clue -- another hoary old cliche -- is presented clearly first, but then oddly garbled when shown through another set of eyes. The discrepancy is never explained, which make it apparent that it was not intended. The ending is rushed, leaving many points unexplained.

All the familiar characters are back, but the stories of their lives barely budge. Characters introduced for this book are one-dimensional and their actions are driven only by the need to provide plot points, sometimes making them do weird unnatural things. To note one without giving away any of the plot, we learn that one character is an undercover police officer when that person, with no motivation, simply announces it to Sister Mary Helen.

Those who adore the nun will, of course, want to read this book no matter what. But they would be well advised to get this one from the library or wait for the [less expensive] paperback edition -- and pray that the publishers provide Sister Carol with an editor before the next book comes out. She has produced a neat series; it is a terrible shame to see it fall to this level.

Although she is seventy years old, Sister Mary Helen of Mount Saint Frances College still tends to her duties and has no intention of retiring even if her Sisters and the San Francisco police force think it would be the best thing that could happen to them. After forty years of teaching she is now ministering at the Shelter, a refugee for homeless women.

Sister Mary Helen notices a new woman in the shelter, who very obviously has not been on the streets long. The next time she sees that homeless person, the woman is dying from a bullet through her chest. It turns out that Sarah was an undercover vice cop so when Sister Mary Helen learns this, she decides once again to insinuate herself into a murder investigation.

Readers who like the Father Darling mysteries will appreciate this long running series. Sister Carol Anne O'Marie writes a realistic cerebral cozy starring a protagonist it is impossible not to like. The author deals with some major social issues and she gets her point across without preaching.

Harriet Klausner

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.

A poor-to-average attempt at a murder mystery. The main characters are too cute, the murderer too obvious, and the entire story is too dull. I read this simply out of curiousity to see if the author, who is a nun, could bring an interesting perspective. Alas.

It's not terrible, but neither is it good.

Sorry, Sister.