A Matter of Roses

Faith Abbey #1

by David Manuel

When the prominent and much loved scientist Maurice Tomlinson dies of bee stings at a time of year when bees are dormant, many suspect foul play. Soon, Police Chief Dan Burke is on the case with the help of his childhood friend Brother Bartholomew.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

480 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Mr. Manuel, his wife, daughter, son-in-law (and three granddaughters) are resident members of an ecumenical religious community on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. There, in his lighthouse office at the first light of day he can be found at his computer - except on mornings when he leads a writing workshop, encouraging other would-be authors to believe the dream and persevere.

Reviews

[Mary JL · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my newest "find" for this year. I picked up this book on impulse and am very glad I did.

Bascially this is a modern take off on Brother Caedfel--the monk with a knowledge of human nature solves the crimes. But is is VERY well written, and a worthy companion to the Brother Caedfel books, in spirit if not in era.

A classic puzzle and character driven mystery, of the king Agatha Christie did so well. First ,we meet Mac Curtis. Then one by one, we see our cast of characters interact with him. Then Mac is found dead; and now the sheriff must found out who killed him. All of the characters have reason to dislike or even hate Mac Curtis. So which one did?
David Manuel himself is a member of an ecumencial abbey, which lends authenticity to his portrayal of Brother Bartholomew.

The relationship between Sheriff Dan Burke and his old friend Brother Bartholomew is very well done. The setting of Cape Cod, instead of a big city, was a good choice. There is some violence of course, but not escessive--this is more of a character driven mystery.

There is also quite a bit of gentle humor worked in; and realistic dialogue. The book read smoothly and easily and kept me turning pages.

There are four in the series so far; I've already got number two. Higly recommended for mystery readers. You will particularly enjoy it if you like puzzle and character mysteries rather than slam bang action. For a first novel in a series, a top notch preformance.

[Jamie Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

"A contemporary monastic sleuth in the tradition of Brother Cadfael" sounded interesting, but unfortunately I didn't care for this book at all.

It's written with a very detached style, with a lot of exposition. The author spends the first half of the book summarizing the life story of every character he introduces. At the midpoint he sets up the murder by giving the point of view of all the suspects at the moment they reach the height of their anger towards a universally disliked victim. Then the sleuthing begins. I found myself not caring whodunnit, not enough to even finish the book.

I don't usually read contemporary mysteries unless there's a particular element that attracts me. In this case it was the "monastic sleuth", but I didn't find him to be an interesting character at all. Technically this seemed like a decent mystery, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

A matter of having to read half of the book just to get through all the backstory of the characters is the premise of this book. A Matter of Roses, a book written by David Manuel, is a murder mystery book. This book is quite uninteresting due to its slow to tell story because of the fact that it gives the name of the killer midway through. It takes around a good third of the book just to provide a background story for the characters. At the main event of the story which is the murder, the book then moves along to its main premise. Another point to be made is that several of the character are either growing, studying, breeding or doing something else related to roses.
The book being uninteresting is due to the fact that it uses a large portion of the text to give background information about the characters. The book also is quite difficult to follow because of the abundance of characters presented in the first portion. Much of the information or backstory does somewhat present itself in the main story, but it still leaves a lot to be unheard of in the rest of the story. The somewhat strange obsession of roses in the book also ties in with some information that is quite disregarded in the pages that I have read. Following the murder of a character named, spoiler, Mcalister, it then goes on to name the killer who is Tobin Hatch. This way of revealing the killer to the reader and not to the characters leads to some bland story telling. By revealing the name of the killer and who he is takes out the mystery of the book and it just has the reader wondering when the police will catch the killer. The rest of the story, from the point I have read, just has a Chief officer leading the investigation and some other people helping him. The people researching the murder don’t do to much apart from just naming suspects and not interviewing them. After they look at the crime scene and name suspects the book has one of the investigators telling the media about the incident. The book later does not have the media be present in the book after.
In conclusion, my opinion of the book is that is has a bland story that does not do much to involve the reader as a mystery book should. The way it is written to have several chapters explaining the small minute details of characters that would then not be present in the book, making the book quite boring. The murder does not add much value to the story because the book just gives away the name and who the killer is. The way it portrays how some of the characters have a big liking to roses is probably the most interesting part of the book. My opinion of the book is that it lacks a good story and that by revealing the killer, it really downgrades the story. In all, I recommend the book to anyone who wants a mystery book that takes about a third of the pages to introduce and give information about the character, and to anyone who wants to know who the killer in the book is before any of the character investigating the murder know anything.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once you finally get passed the character back stories, the story progresses smoothly.

[Janneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ofschoon het wat traag begon met uitgebreide beschrijvingen van de hoofdpersonen en een lange voorbereiding op de moord, bleek het toch een geweldig spannend boek te zijn. Twee broeders uit het plaatselijke klooster helpen de commissaris van politie bij het oplossen van de moord. Het blijkt een uiterst spannend schaakspel om de moordenaar een stap voor te blijven. In een adem uitgelezen.

[AngelaGay Kinkead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brothers Bartholomew and Ambrose helping the Police Chief solve murders on Cape Cod. Light, but enough mystery to keep me interested and a needed change of pace. The author is a member of a religious community, incorporating the rhythms of the monastic life into the story.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ex-Vietnam characters, including priest at abbey, he almost leaves cloister for librarian.
Who stabbed the bad guy with his own Victorian era knife?
Started slow, then improved as characters began to develop.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending was a bit too dramatic for me and I wasn't sure I was convinced by the villain. He seemed to have too drastic of a character change. the rest of the story was engaging and I really enjoyed Manuel's manner of giving backstories. That was an interesting way to develop the characters.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The mystery is not very well developed since the author spent an inordinate amount of time building a clear picture of all the characters in the book.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was by far the best of the three.