An Unspeakable Mission

Olympia Brown Mystery #2

by Judith Campbell

When a vicious alcoholic dies in a suspicious house fire, Rev. Olympia Brown and Father Jim Sawicki stretch the boundaries of their religious vows to prove his death is accidental and not murder. But evidence to the contrary is mounting and the curious clerical twosome have little time to learn the truth and prevent the daughter that the man abused for years from ending her own life. Olympia and Jim confront unspeakable realities of incest, domestic violence and dark family secrets set against a tapestry of misconstrued Catholic dogma and the Irish culture of silence as the two colleagues struggle to untangle a hideous web of shame, guilt, and broken lives. And through all of this, Olympia continues with the restoration of her antique home in Southeastern Massachusetts. Miss Winslow, Olympia’s nosy and outspoken house-ghost, begins to reveal more of her own story. Olympia’s search for her lost daughter takes a curious turn. Frederick Watkins, Olympia’s gentleman friend from England is planning a purposeful return visit. And Father Jim Sawicki, Olympia’s partner in amateur sleuthing and best friend forever, struggles with issues from his own tragic past.

Genres: Mystery

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Steve Palm-houser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Father Brown and Rabbi Small occupy a compelling subgenre in mystery fiction. While they play a part in solving mysteries, cleric sleuths are more concerned about the spiritual nature of crime—the warps and sicknesses in the human heart that drive people to violence and destruction.

An Unspeakable Mission is Judith Campbell's second novel featuring Reverend Olympia Brown, the Unitarian Universalist chaplain of a small college in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read more

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to see a Unitarian Universalist minister as the protagonist.

[Donna Pejouhy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did not read the first book in series, but after finding this mystery by local author, Judith Campbell will definitely try to read them all. The characters of Rev Olympia Brown & Father Jim Sawicki dealt with thought provoking topics in a fast moving mystery.

[Brenda Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Unspeakable Mission is the second installment in the Olympia Brown Mysteries by the Reverend Judith Campbell and it is, without a doubt, as engaging as the first. Once again, set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Campbell weaves a compelling story that touches upon the dark subjects of domestic violence and incest. Infused with a good old fashioned whodunit, she leaves the reader guessing from beginning to end. Unspeakable follows closely on the heels of its’ predecessor, A Deadly Mission and features the lovable and nurturing Reverend Doctor Olympia Brown, her best friend and confidant Father Jim Sawicki, love interest Frederick Watson and, of course, her ever present house ghost Ms. Winslow.

In An Unspeakable Mission, the O’Mara family appears to be a good old fashioned Irish Catholic family who attend church regularly and are well respected in the community. But behind closed doors live a very private family and their very personal and tragic secrets. Young Bridget attends Meriwether College and, one night after being raped, seeks out the help of her trusted professor Olympia Brown. The more Olympia learns about Bridget O’Mara, the more horrifying the facts become. Throughout all of this drama, Olympia and Father Jim must try to convince the youngest O’Mara that the past is not her fault while attempting to save her from the horrible guilt she feels and the hatred she possesses for her father Terry.

The draw to this series is the well thought out, colorful and intelligent cast of repeating characters coupled with the thoughtfulness of her content. Two underlying sub-plots keep the story grounded: Olympia and her blossoming romance with Frederick; and her relationship with her nosy and very noisy houseguest, Leanna Faith Winslow.

This one’s a must read!

[Betsy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good story, though the characters tend to be "types" rather than real individuals. The plotting was a little sloppy--with one sentence contradicting itself as to the timeline. I bought this because I enjoy mysteries, and this one is by a UU minister, so I thought I would give her a chance. But I found a very non-UU reaction in the UU minister "detective." The dead man is depicted as thoroughly despicable--a wife abuser and child molester who might have dealt in child pornography. Even so, our principles would grant him his "inherent worth and dignity". But when minister-detective's Catholic-priest friend tells her the man died unshriven so would be punished for eternity, "Olympia made no effort to hide her delight." Maybe this is mitigated by the likelihood that the minister, as a Universalist, would not believe in damnation, much less eternal damnation.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olympia Brown mysteries are reverse murder mysteries. You have quite a few suspects, but you don't want anyone to be guilty. So Terry O'Mara is found dead in a house fire. He is not a nice man...an alcoholic, a vicious wife abuser, a chain smoker, but signs in the house indicate that although he was passed out drunk when the fire started, he probably had not started it himself....so let's go back to the beginning, when Olympia Brown first met his daughter Bridget, her mother Margaret, and her sister Eileen....And with the help of her best friend, Father Jim, UU minister Olympia Brown counsels her way into a deep mess.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot & characters are interesting, but she needs a good proofreader.
Too many typos, lack of continuity, things like that really spoil my enjoyment of a book. I had to keep going back to check that I hadn't misremembered something.