Usually, crime-solving clerics set my teeth on edge. But Gallison's Episcopalian pastor Mother Lavinia "Vinnie" Grey is unique enough to have moved up into hardcover after a three-book paperback career. Ill-tempered and tart-tongued, she attends a weekend retreat at a monastery in upstate New York and encounters her arch rival, Fr. Rupert Bingley (and his sexy blonde girlfriend). When the first corpse turns up, Vinnie briefly considers trying to blame it on Bingley. Not exactly Mother Teresa, but great fun to observe in action.

-Dick Lochte