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A Provencal Mystery
Why did a nun in a seventeenth-century convent flagellate herself until her blood spattered the wall? Why did nuns save a child doomed to death in the Holocaust and who wanted her killed? Who wants a lost head-shaped reliquary that holds something other than a head? And are answers to these questions the key to a terrible modern-day death in a quiet archive?
When American historian Pandora (Dory) Ryan finds a very rare, uncataloged seventeenth century nun’s diary inside a record book at the provincial archives in Avignon, she is thrilled. This is historian’s treasure. But she doesn’t know yet that it will send her on a search that brings about changes in how she feels about her profession, the irrational, and love with a sexy Frenchman. And it will take her from the archive on a dangerous adventure into the countryside of Provence, which, beautiful as it is, has a long and bloody history.
The archive’s dramatis personae: the grumpy archivist, with his paper-clip chains; the gofer, who smokes Gauloises and gets away with far too much; a nun with a sense of humor who harangues high school kids about sex; the nun's glamorous sidekick; a famous American historian, whose requests for documents are inexplicably denied; the eminent professor, destined to fall in love; his nervous graduate student. And that sexy Frenchman, who isn’t who he says he is.
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When American historian Pandora (Dory) Ryan finds a very rare, uncataloged seventeenth century nun’s diary inside a record book at the provincial archives in Avignon, she is thrilled. This is historian’s treasure. But she doesn’t know yet that it will send her on a search that brings about changes in how she feels about her profession, the irrational, and love with a sexy Frenchman. And it will take her from the archive on a dangerous adventure into the countryside of Provence, which, beautiful as it is, has a long and bloody history.
The archive’s dramatis personae: the grumpy archivist, with his paper-clip chains; the gofer, who smokes Gauloises and gets away with far too much; a nun with a sense of humor who harangues high school kids about sex; the nun's glamorous sidekick; a famous American historian, whose requests for documents are inexplicably denied; the eminent professor, destined to fall in love; his nervous graduate student. And that sexy Frenchman, who isn’t who he says he is.
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First published January 1, 2012
204 people are currently reading
969 people want to read
About the author
Ann Elwood
60 books18 followersI live in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, with six cats, a desert tortoise, seven box turtles, and a German Shepherd, Louis, who looks something like Rin Tin Tin in his soulfulness. At night I can hear the ocean when the tides are high.
When I was nine, my family moved from Ridgewood to Saddle River, New Jersey, a paradise of a town with a woods, a skating pond, a fishing pond, and 700 people who knew who we all were and where we were every minute. I had a shepherd dog, Mac, who died a tragic death, shot because someone thought his foaming-at-the-mouth fear of a thunderstorm meant he had rabies.
As an adult, I had no dogs until I settled down. After college (two miserable years at Trenton State Teachers College and two happy ones at Fairleigh Dickinson College), I taught elementary school for a few miserable years, then moved to Camden, New Jersey and landed a job as a typist-clerk at the Philadelpha Bulletin. When my boss discovered I had difficulty typing up circulation figures with twelve carbons, I was fired and found another job writing copy for a paternalistic insurance company that offered a low salary and delicious free lunch. One of the printers had the magical ability to square up a stack of paper into a perfect cube.
Eventually I moved to a studio apartment on Irving Place in New York City, and, after a few months of writing copy for a textbook company, went on to free-lance as a writer of anything anyone would pay me for. In 1967, I moved to Los Angeles, where I was advertising manager for a publishing company. Then the west coast was a mecca for writers and adventurers. Within a couple of years, I visited a Malibu beach house, fell in love (long-distance) with Bob Dylan, met Thomas Pynchon (he wouldn’t remember it), and saw Hair. In 1972, I returned to free-lancing, moved south, and found my first dog, Puppy, a mixed breed who looked something like a fox. (To show you how inappropriate Puppy’s name became, I’ll tell you this: Puppy died at age 17.) I wrote articles for Irving Wallace and his son, David Wallichinsky (People’s Almanac and Book of Lists), and did other wonderful things I won’t mention here. With Carol Orsag Madigan, I wrote several books.
A desire to delve more deeply into ideas finally drove me to graduate school in 1981. My dissertation focused on an order of 17th and 18th century French nuns so I had to spend a happy year in France doing research. During that year, while not in the archives, I drank local wine with fellow historians and traveled the country with Puppy, who had far less trouble than I did communicating with the French.
Now, I teach history part-time at California State University, San Marcos, spend time with Louis and the other animals, and write the books I have always wanted to write but never had the time for.
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When I was nine, my family moved from Ridgewood to Saddle River, New Jersey, a paradise of a town with a woods, a skating pond, a fishing pond, and 700 people who knew who we all were and where we were every minute. I had a shepherd dog, Mac, who died a tragic death, shot because someone thought his foaming-at-the-mouth fear of a thunderstorm meant he had rabies.
As an adult, I had no dogs until I settled down. After college (two miserable years at Trenton State Teachers College and two happy ones at Fairleigh Dickinson College), I taught elementary school for a few miserable years, then moved to Camden, New Jersey and landed a job as a typist-clerk at the Philadelpha Bulletin. When my boss discovered I had difficulty typing up circulation figures with twelve carbons, I was fired and found another job writing copy for a paternalistic insurance company that offered a low salary and delicious free lunch. One of the printers had the magical ability to square up a stack of paper into a perfect cube.
Eventually I moved to a studio apartment on Irving Place in New York City, and, after a few months of writing copy for a textbook company, went on to free-lance as a writer of anything anyone would pay me for. In 1967, I moved to Los Angeles, where I was advertising manager for a publishing company. Then the west coast was a mecca for writers and adventurers. Within a couple of years, I visited a Malibu beach house, fell in love (long-distance) with Bob Dylan, met Thomas Pynchon (he wouldn’t remember it), and saw Hair. In 1972, I returned to free-lancing, moved south, and found my first dog, Puppy, a mixed breed who looked something like a fox. (To show you how inappropriate Puppy’s name became, I’ll tell you this: Puppy died at age 17.) I wrote articles for Irving Wallace and his son, David Wallichinsky (People’s Almanac and Book of Lists), and did other wonderful things I won’t mention here. With Carol Orsag Madigan, I wrote several books.
A desire to delve more deeply into ideas finally drove me to graduate school in 1981. My dissertation focused on an order of 17th and 18th century French nuns so I had to spend a happy year in France doing research. During that year, while not in the archives, I drank local wine with fellow historians and traveled the country with Puppy, who had far less trouble than I did communicating with the French.
Now, I teach history part-time at California State University, San Marcos, spend time with Louis and the other animals, and write the books I have always wanted to write but never had the time for.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
April 12, 2013
Almost finished - but I feel compelled to comment on the poor editing, at least of the ebook edition. That, in combination with quite a lot of just poor writing, makes me grit my teeth in annoyance! Grrrrrr!
Now that I've finished ... The storyline is engaging, but there are many gaps/quantum leaps/unsettled details. For example, how amazingly convenient that Dory was able to find the rest of the diary during her 1 night stay in the convent -and that it had not been found by anyone else in hundreds of years. And how did Dory fix the hole in the plaster? We'll never know. The reliquary went missing from the convent in the 1600s - but how did it end up with the Vallebois family? And on and on -too many loose ends.
Now that I've finished ... The storyline is engaging, but there are many gaps/quantum leaps/unsettled details. For example, how amazingly convenient that Dory was able to find the rest of the diary during her 1 night stay in the convent -and that it had not been found by anyone else in hundreds of years. And how did Dory fix the hole in the plaster? We'll never know. The reliquary went missing from the convent in the 1600s - but how did it end up with the Vallebois family? And on and on -too many loose ends.
April 20, 2013
I am giving this two stars because I thought the plot was engaging and interesting. It was a great blend of history and its relationship to events that follow. But the writing...yech! Who edited this? I was distracted by the poor word choices and the lack of development of important events while unimportant events received the best treatment. The author definitely shows promise, but whoever her agents are, she needs some readers and editors that will help her out. That said, I finished the book despite the underdeveloped writing, because I wanted to see how it ended.
March 21, 2013
Good story, poorly written.
January 22, 2013
An interesting premise destroyed by nearly unreadable prose.
The premise: an American scholar is in Provence researching the history of an order of nuns when she (a) discovers a seventeenth century diary from the convent and (b) becomes friends with a convent member who was in the French resistance during World War II. Murders occur--in the diary and in the current day--that links all three time periods. Not a bad idea but it's almost impossible to unearth the story due to dropped scenes and prose that would be improved by a simple run through the Microsoft Word grammar checker.
The premise: an American scholar is in Provence researching the history of an order of nuns when she (a) discovers a seventeenth century diary from the convent and (b) becomes friends with a convent member who was in the French resistance during World War II. Murders occur--in the diary and in the current day--that links all three time periods. Not a bad idea but it's almost impossible to unearth the story due to dropped scenes and prose that would be improved by a simple run through the Microsoft Word grammar checker.
February 25, 2018
This was a good read. I enjoyed it very much. It's always fun to read a good mystery.
September 21, 2016
Nice diversion
I had just finished reading a more serious book so I was looking for something easy, and this novel fit the bill. It's a fun book, reads quickly. The story is a little improbable, but I was okay with that until the last few pages when it really got kind of ridiculous.
The beginning, where a young Jewish girl is being taken to a convent to hide from the Nazis, is compelling and drew me in but then was only peripheral to the story. The narrator, Pandora "Dory" Ryan, is somewhat likeable but the background she tells about herself doesn't ring true with how she presents herself. It's almost as if the author thought such a background sounded "cool" but really had no feel for it. It doesn't matter much for the story but is just odd and a little offputting.
Basically, this is a mystery, as the title says, and as such the characters aren't fully fleshed out. It's more about the story. The seventeenth century diary Dory finds, which is pivotal to the story, surely would not be written in 21st century style, language, etc., with the diary writer actually writing at times in dialogue like it's a script, so this took away from any authenticity of the story.
The Kindle version I read had some formatting issues, such as misplaced hyphens and lack of breaks where they were clearly needed, and though minor, they did pull me out of the story. I probably only paid a dollar or two for it so I guess this may be expected, but I still wish it were cleaner.
It was a good one-time read.
I had just finished reading a more serious book so I was looking for something easy, and this novel fit the bill. It's a fun book, reads quickly. The story is a little improbable, but I was okay with that until the last few pages when it really got kind of ridiculous.
The beginning, where a young Jewish girl is being taken to a convent to hide from the Nazis, is compelling and drew me in but then was only peripheral to the story. The narrator, Pandora "Dory" Ryan, is somewhat likeable but the background she tells about herself doesn't ring true with how she presents herself. It's almost as if the author thought such a background sounded "cool" but really had no feel for it. It doesn't matter much for the story but is just odd and a little offputting.
Basically, this is a mystery, as the title says, and as such the characters aren't fully fleshed out. It's more about the story. The seventeenth century diary Dory finds, which is pivotal to the story, surely would not be written in 21st century style, language, etc., with the diary writer actually writing at times in dialogue like it's a script, so this took away from any authenticity of the story.
The Kindle version I read had some formatting issues, such as misplaced hyphens and lack of breaks where they were clearly needed, and though minor, they did pull me out of the story. I probably only paid a dollar or two for it so I guess this may be expected, but I still wish it were cleaner.
It was a good one-time read.
September 22, 2012
An interesting journey into both history and the razor-sharp, outspoken mind of an academic who's probably never going to make it in academia, A Provencal Mystery is a delicious read. Devotees of intricate mystery plotting may stumble a bit with this one, but readers who long for a charming, idiosyncratic protagonist and reams of fascinating information will love it. The perfect gift for that hard-to-buy-for intellectual on your list. You know, the one who speaks French to her cat and collects 16th century soup recipes, but pays the rent with her job as an insurance fraud investigator? It's that kind of book.
December 27, 2015
I believe I might end up classifying this book as cozy-lite. It is certainly a murder mystery, but there is something unidentifiable (to me) that is missing. The characters all intertwine in strange ways and they get somewhat difficult to follow in the twinings. Bringing the centuries old diary into the mix was a nice idea but sort of lost cleverness when the full story was told. None of the characters really ended up appealing to me in a "I wonder what happened next" sort of way. I was easily able to move on to the next book.
October 1, 2017
I loved the descriptions of France and found myself oddly attached to Dory's dog Foxy. But for the most part the book was underwhelming, the mystery confused, and the writing characterized by info dumps and telling over showing.
January 26, 2013
Very unique mystery. It took a bit to get into it, but then held my interest.
August 20, 2020
There were the usual number of grammatical issues, skipped words, wrong words, etc but not to the point of being distracting. Sometimes transitions were jarring but that also was not terrible. People and events across the centuries, seemingly disparate are gathered and woven together. It is a clean, basic mystery with enough red herrings to keep it interesting.
The author appears to be very anti-Catholic while also appearing to present a world where you are Catholic or atheist with no other possibilities and also does not seem to understand Catholicism, or maybe it is different in France than in America. Of course things were quite different in the past and that portrayal might be accurate.
In the end the answer seemed to be occultism that wins over Dory and explains a lot of the characters' motivations. The book is confusing because the author does not appear to have a clear idea to convey and it ends up very muddled all the way around. I might read more by this author but will not actively seek out her work. I recommend at least trying the book to form your own opinion.
The author appears to be very anti-Catholic while also appearing to present a world where you are Catholic or atheist with no other possibilities and also does not seem to understand Catholicism, or maybe it is different in France than in America. Of course things were quite different in the past and that portrayal might be accurate.
In the end the answer seemed to be occultism that wins over Dory and explains a lot of the characters' motivations. The book is confusing because the author does not appear to have a clear idea to convey and it ends up very muddled all the way around. I might read more by this author but will not actively seek out her work. I recommend at least trying the book to form your own opinion.
July 22, 2020
This could have been ok if she worked with an actual editor
As far as bad books go, this wasn't the worst I've read. There was a warm, friendly quality to the language, making it easy to read (at first). Plus the over all concept of the book would have been pretty decent if the author really hunkered down with better revisions and a professional editor. What we have instead is a book with all the mishaps of amateurish writing such as too many adjectives, too many talk head scenes (with tons of exposition where she tells more than shows), and a bunch of people interacting in an unrealistic fashion that just didn't make any sense at times. I would have given this there stars, but the rushed ending just made it terrible.
As far as bad books go, this wasn't the worst I've read. There was a warm, friendly quality to the language, making it easy to read (at first). Plus the over all concept of the book would have been pretty decent if the author really hunkered down with better revisions and a professional editor. What we have instead is a book with all the mishaps of amateurish writing such as too many adjectives, too many talk head scenes (with tons of exposition where she tells more than shows), and a bunch of people interacting in an unrealistic fashion that just didn't make any sense at times. I would have given this there stars, but the rushed ending just made it terrible.
March 9, 2018
Why did nuns in the 17th century flaggerate themselves? Why did nuns save a young Jewish girl much later? Why did a diary telling of previous centuries turn up at an American academic’s study place in Avignon?
Interesting story as Dory uses this diary to determine who killed a helpful nun In in today’s world.
Interesting story as Dory uses this diary to determine who killed a helpful nun In in today’s world.
August 2, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyed the read.
With a slow start and a steady pace, the story unfolds as the American historian, Pandora (Dory) Ryan, sifts through an ancient diary, which could help solve a modern murder.
The solid character and plot building keep me engrossed throughout.
See my review also at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
With a slow start and a steady pace, the story unfolds as the American historian, Pandora (Dory) Ryan, sifts through an ancient diary, which could help solve a modern murder.
The solid character and plot building keep me engrossed throughout.
See my review also at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
December 1, 2020
Maybe this is not a fair review, because I did not finish the book, did no reach the middle. What I read was so incredibly boring, adults speaking like kinder toddlers and making less sense than them, could not make heads nor tails what the book was about. Mystery? The mystery is how and principally why this book was even printed.
March 6, 2018
A very good mystery.
This was a truly engaging mystery that crosses centuries. My only problem was that it was written in the 1980's, so the reader's timeline is going to be off, by about 35 years. Still, it is one of the best mysteries I have read in some time. 😉
This was a truly engaging mystery that crosses centuries. My only problem was that it was written in the 1980's, so the reader's timeline is going to be off, by about 35 years. Still, it is one of the best mysteries I have read in some time. 😉
March 19, 2018
Everytime I opened this book I was transported to France in my mind. The main character was easy to like and believable in every situation, like myself a little sarcastic self-talk even in tense moments. I enjoyed the mystery and the history! I'd recommend it to all my bookie friends!
April 4, 2018
A good read
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the writing was excellent, I loved the French Provencal atmosphere, engaging characters and the historical aspect. Highly recommended
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the writing was excellent, I loved the French Provencal atmosphere, engaging characters and the historical aspect. Highly recommended
April 25, 2020
I liked the premise and characters, but did not feel they were very well developed. The very poor editing probably distracted me and colored my impressions. Despite the shortcomings I did finish the book because I wanted to see how the pieces fit together.
June 12, 2019
A little murder mystery involving a convent holding many secrets through the ages. A interesting read.
My Kindle edition had lots of typographical errors. No one proof-read it.
My Kindle edition had lots of typographical errors. No one proof-read it.
September 16, 2020
A historian doing research gets involved with the murder of a nun from the local convent.
February 8, 2023
Boring. Got 3/4 into the book
Didn’t finish
Didn’t finish
December 18, 2021
Unfortunately I finished the book. I wanted to give it a chance to get better. As others have said, poor writing. It could have been a great story with proper editing.
March 21, 2015
This was a quick read for me, but I ended up really enjoying it. Despite its many faults (as others have mentioned: the glaring typos, editing and formatting errors, the convenience factors, etc.) I enjoyed the story for the ride it was.
It wasn't a wild one...I'd almost call this one a "cozy mystery" if I didn't dislike that genre so much. In this story we pretty much know who the bad guy is, the main characters bumble around playing Clue for a while (and since this is France, smoking many a Gauloise and chugging many a bottle of wine), and we're just waiting for all the pieces to fall into place. Yes, putting two and two together may get you there faster than Pandora "Dory" Ryan (OH, PANDORA'S BOX, I SEE WHAT U DID THERE...and you even ADMITTED IT!!!) but it was fun.
I think part of my enjoyment was that I'm also a student of history, and Dory's excitement over finding a 17th-century nun's diary had me cracking up over my Kindle:
Think of Meg Ryan's "YESSES" in an Provencal archive. Historian humor. There you go.
I also liked the fact that the author's biography confirmed she'd lived the life she described in the book...you get that feeling from reading it, but it was nice to have your hunch verified. Her writing tone was almost as though it had been translated into English: very pretty and descriptive when an editor would have certainly chopped words and entire sentences to tighten things up.
Overall, a pleasant Saturday morning read, just needs some cleaning up to get a higher rating, along with maybe tying up some loose ends.
It wasn't a wild one...I'd almost call this one a "cozy mystery" if I didn't dislike that genre so much. In this story we pretty much know who the bad guy is, the main characters bumble around playing Clue for a while (and since this is France, smoking many a Gauloise and chugging many a bottle of wine), and we're just waiting for all the pieces to fall into place. Yes, putting two and two together may get you there faster than Pandora "Dory" Ryan (OH, PANDORA'S BOX, I SEE WHAT U DID THERE...and you even ADMITTED IT!!!) but it was fun.
I think part of my enjoyment was that I'm also a student of history, and Dory's excitement over finding a 17th-century nun's diary had me cracking up over my Kindle:
My "yesses" had been a great breach of archive propriety.
Think of Meg Ryan's "YESSES" in an Provencal archive. Historian humor. There you go.
I also liked the fact that the author's biography confirmed she'd lived the life she described in the book...you get that feeling from reading it, but it was nice to have your hunch verified. Her writing tone was almost as though it had been translated into English: very pretty and descriptive when an editor would have certainly chopped words and entire sentences to tighten things up.
Overall, a pleasant Saturday morning read, just needs some cleaning up to get a higher rating, along with maybe tying up some loose ends.
August 29, 2013
Good writing, an engaging heroine, and an intriguing tale that reaches from bygone centuries to impact the present. It's so refreshing that the author does not overwhelm with the story from the past, but lets it unfold as our heroine historian discovers it. The diary she finds is laden with the right amount of information to feed the plot, but with the limited view of that individual. I appreciated that rather than fill in all the blanks (as many novice writers tend to do), the author kept us firmly within her central character's point of view as a historian, theorizing as to how seemingly disparate bits of information fit in the puzzle. I can definitely see this heroine showing up in additional tales.
So why did I not give it 5 stars? The final bit was less polished than the rest. Although it doesn't detract too much from overall enjoyment of the book, there's a sense that a deadline popped up too soon or that the author just got tired of writing. There are still a few copy errors and some awkward transitions. It was also a bit of a stretch that the second part of the diary is found so easily. Much better, perhaps, to have been satisfied with clues garnered from the original find (or have someone from the present steal pivotal pages that could then be retrieved/confessed). As far as taking a dog from the US to France (and returning), it would help to tick off a few of the conditions and at least muse on the hazard (pets sometimes suffer or die in transit).
Still, a highly enjoyable read that I recommend.
So why did I not give it 5 stars? The final bit was less polished than the rest. Although it doesn't detract too much from overall enjoyment of the book, there's a sense that a deadline popped up too soon or that the author just got tired of writing. There are still a few copy errors and some awkward transitions. It was also a bit of a stretch that the second part of the diary is found so easily. Much better, perhaps, to have been satisfied with clues garnered from the original find (or have someone from the present steal pivotal pages that could then be retrieved/confessed). As far as taking a dog from the US to France (and returning), it would help to tick off a few of the conditions and at least muse on the hazard (pets sometimes suffer or die in transit).
Still, a highly enjoyable read that I recommend.
September 8, 2012
Fascinating glimpse into the past
This is one of those wonderful hybrid historical mysteries that weave in and out of the modern present and the mysterious past in a way that enchants. The main protagonist, Dory, is a history professor who isn't so sure she can continue to conform to the rules of academia, and her discovery of a 17th diary of a nun while on sabbatical in France leads her into to a world of ritual, self-mortification, and the Devil that feels so real it begins to challenge her rational hold on the here and now.
In addition, every one of the people she works alongside in the Avignon Archives de Vaucluse has a secret, scholars and staff alike. And when Dory, like her namesake Pandora, begins to uncover these secrets, the results, including murder, are unexpected.
For readers who like their mysteries to take them to new places, A Provencal Mystery offers beautiful descriptions of Avignon in winter, the cold mistral wind, the narrow streets, a country market and a medieval cathedral. The mystery itself is well-plotted, and Elwood cleverly uses diaries, legal depositions, birth and death records, and an oral history to develop that plot.
But it is the world of Rose the converse nun, as revealed in diaries, that makes this book extraordinary. I highly recommend it.
This is one of those wonderful hybrid historical mysteries that weave in and out of the modern present and the mysterious past in a way that enchants. The main protagonist, Dory, is a history professor who isn't so sure she can continue to conform to the rules of academia, and her discovery of a 17th diary of a nun while on sabbatical in France leads her into to a world of ritual, self-mortification, and the Devil that feels so real it begins to challenge her rational hold on the here and now.
In addition, every one of the people she works alongside in the Avignon Archives de Vaucluse has a secret, scholars and staff alike. And when Dory, like her namesake Pandora, begins to uncover these secrets, the results, including murder, are unexpected.
For readers who like their mysteries to take them to new places, A Provencal Mystery offers beautiful descriptions of Avignon in winter, the cold mistral wind, the narrow streets, a country market and a medieval cathedral. The mystery itself is well-plotted, and Elwood cleverly uses diaries, legal depositions, birth and death records, and an oral history to develop that plot.
But it is the world of Rose the converse nun, as revealed in diaries, that makes this book extraordinary. I highly recommend it.
April 27, 2014
Love a good historic novel that flips us back and forth between periods and manages to tie up the present with the past in a neat package of intellectual academics. This book presents a slight challenge with the plethora of $20 words when a dime would do it, though I actually enjoyed the preponderance of the French words, including 17th century French idioms. Indeed, the look into 17th century monasteries and Catholic nuns practicing flagellation was a rather shocking eye-opener. Having felt the cool, quiet aura heavy with centuries of history in an old California mission, I can appreciate there could be many, and perhaps scandalous, stories if only they were saved posthumously and handed down for present-day dissemination. Putting historian Dory Ryan in Avignon, France, to study 17th century nuns ferrets out a mystery she can't ignore, especially when she finds beloved Sister Agatha murdered and planted with several overtly religious symbols begging to be answered. My problem was the segues back and forth with little notice, so that it took a moment to "catch up". Lots of characters, most fully described; somewhat more philosophizing than I appreciate so that for me those portions of text extended the book, but dragged the plot. This was a free BookBub downloaded for (Catholic) hubby.
March 25, 2014
I liked that this was written from an academic's perspective, with much plot development occurring in and around an archive research room in Avignon, France, with a cast of characters, both French and American variants, that one might encounter in such a place. Publishing pressures and concerns about tenure for the main character seemed real, and I enjoyed the emphasis on studying history to piece together answers to the unknown. Three different mysteries overlap, the murders of two nuns--one in the 17th century and one in the novel's 20th century present, and the third involves a mysterious missing child from the days of Nazi influence under the Vichy government.
There were some odd, sudden jumps from one time period to another, not always with any indication to expect such a shift, that were a bit disconcerting as I read along, but I was willing to accept this as I pushed on to learn more about the history of the convent in question. Over all, the topic matter proved more interesting than the execution of the storytelling itself, but I think having the 17th century data conveyed through pieces of a hidden diary the narrator finds was a good strategy.
There were some odd, sudden jumps from one time period to another, not always with any indication to expect such a shift, that were a bit disconcerting as I read along, but I was willing to accept this as I pushed on to learn more about the history of the convent in question. Over all, the topic matter proved more interesting than the execution of the storytelling itself, but I think having the 17th century data conveyed through pieces of a hidden diary the narrator finds was a good strategy.
October 15, 2013
This is an excellent, well-written book, defying definitive classification. It is engaging both as historical fiction and as a mystery tale with just a whiff of romance. But, it's greatest value is the author's genuine knowledge of Provence and the culture of that region. I can attest to her bona fide familiarity because, while living in Lyon for a number of years, I was often a visitor to Provence, including both Aix and Avignon. Yet, Ms. Elwood managed to give me information that I did not know, but found to be true when checking. I suspect that her knowledge of France is limited primarily to Provence, and she is honest enough to restrict her narrative and descriptions to that region. My only criticism of this book is that there is no sequel. I will hope for one at some time in the future and will be among the first to purchase it if one becomes available. Ms. Elwood and I share another common interest: we are both dog lovers, and I'm happy to note that there are other dog stories among her works, which I look forward to reading.
July 9, 2016
Interesting mystery that takes place in Provence, France. Dory Ryan, an American historian has come to this area and a convent to do research for an article on 16th and 17th century French nuns. She desperately needs to finish this article to use in her bid for tenure. However, she finds more than the needed information and statistics. While doing her research someone places at her disposal a diary from the convent dating back to the 17th century. While trying to dissemble the information, she is thrust into a murder investigation of one of the nuns. In addition one of her colleagues is searching for family data from the time of the Holocaust. It would seem that nuns in this convent had helped to hide and find homes for Jewish children. Add to all this intrigue a rather handsome and charming mysterious male researcher and there is the making for a delightful tale. This book definitely gives a new interpretation to making History Come Alive!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews