Cappuccino at the Crypt

St. Polycarp School #1

by Marianna Heusler

A trip to Sicily with a group of teenage girls from St. Hilda's school involves more than chaperoning duties for headmaster Father Felix. He's come to Palermo to right a wrong done by a thief. Since the crime was revealed during confession, Father Felix is bound by his vows. But that doesn't mean he can't return the stolen coin. Unfortunately, the valuable artifact is hidden in the infamous crypts in Palermo—under the body of a dead priest!

Along for the trip are intrepid teachers Amelia Johnston and Julia Hopwood, who happily put their detective gears in full grind. A troubled student, missing drugs, a murdered woman and a headmaster oddly interested in preserved corpses put the duo in the middle of a dangerous mystery. And it looks as if only one of them will be going home alive.…

Genres: Mystery

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

An Edgar nominated author of ten novels and hundreds of short stories. A former elementary school teacher

http://honeyspoon1957.com/midges-mod-...

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay mystery. The characters weren't that likeable and I thought the setting would be better. There was a nice twist at the end that I didn't see coming.

[George · Rating 1 out of 5]

2nd in the St. Polycarp school mystery series. Headed by Father Felix, principal, Amelia Johnson, 7th grade teacher; and Julia Hopwood, second grade teacher at Catholic St. Polycarp parish school in New York City are chaperoning 25 girls from St. Hilda’s HS on a week trip to Sicily. That is the beginning of one walking disaster into another led by Johnson who is curious, bossy and not overly concerned about girls being chaperoned and Hopwood who disorganized, whiney, bumbling, klutzy and frequently making any given situation worse and has managed to significantly over pack mostly inappropriate clothes for trip

Confusion reigns supreme as the Johnson and Hopwood bungle their way through wrong conclusions and ineptitude to somehow manage to straighten things out.

[Tammie Groeneman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters are none of them likable at all. They talk so poorly to each other it’s hard to imagine they’re even remotely friends. Everyone, and I mean EVERYone, in this book has a bad attitude. The plot was fine; the mystery, obvious.
However, I would never have heard of the capuchin crypts in Cicely, so for that piece of cool information I give it an extra star for a total of 2 stars.

[Ione DeOllos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good plot. It keeps you guessing until the end. I had not read any of the other books in the series so I had trouble keeping the characters straight but it was still a good read.

[Georgiann Hennelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Father Felix a trip to Sicily chaperoning a group of teenage girls from St Hilda,s is more than a job. He,s come to Palermo to right a wrong done by a thief. Since the crime was confessed during confession Father Felix is bound by his vows. Unfortunately the stolen coin is hidden in the infamous crypts in Palermo under the body of a dead priest. Along for the trip are two intrepid teachers Amelia Johnston and Julia Hopwood.A troubled student, missing drugs, a murdered women and a head master oddly interest in preserved corpses has the duo putting their investigative gears in full grind. This is a dangerous mystery they have gotten involved in and it looks like only one of them may be going home alive.....

[Beth]

The idea in this mystery was really good. Some of the details were annoyingly unlikely for example chaperones of high school girls in a foreign country would never go off on their own so much. That being said the mystery was still good. Really bad editing though, several gramatical and spelling errors.

[Brandy Grimes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly this is a terribly written book! Not much else to be said!!

[Shana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick read. Kind of silly, but I enjoyed it.

[Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me back to my days in Italy with the description of some of the places.

[Linda Kidd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad storyline, but the errors in the printing and perhaps writing of the book were quite annoying. It saddens me to say that I will be donating it. Not really worth keeping.