The Quick and the Dead

Sister Agnes #3

by Alison Joseph

Sister Agnes is facing a crisis of faith.

Working in a hostel for the homeless, Sam, a sixteen-year-old runaway, is forced to return to her family and then goes missing, and Agnes begins to question her relationship with God.

Furious with the authorities, she feels she must do what she can to pull the runaway girl back from the brink of self-destruction.

She sets out on a mission to find Sam and finds herself with a group of anti-road protesters in their tree-top encampment at the edge of Epping Forest.

Amidst the beggars, travellers and anarchists, Sam is revelling in their fireside talk of apocalypse.

But she is also contemplating returning to live with the father who deserted her sixteen years earlier and who, suspiciously to Agnes’s mind, has suddenly re-appeared.

For the moment however Sam seems secure at the camp, a magic fortress in the sky, though its tents and tree houses can only provide a temporary bulwark against destruction.

But even that safety is illusory. Only hours after Agnes’s arrival a body is found. Of a brutally murdered young girl…

‘The Quick and the Dead’ is a gripping crime thriller featuring inventive and original heroine Sister Agnes.

‘Enjoyable … with a satisfyingly believable conclusion’ Glasgow Herald

‘Nice one that doesn’t start with a bang and end with a whimper’ Newcastle-upon-Tyne Journal

‘A refreshingly different character’ Bolton Evening News

‘One helluva nun’ Hampstead and Highgate Express

Alison Joseph was born in North London and educated at Leeds University. After graduating she worked as a presenter on a local radio station then, moving back to London, for Channel 4. She later became a partner in an independent production company and one of its commissions was a series about women and religion, the book of which was published by SPCK. She has since also worked as a reader for BBC Radio Drama. Alison, who has three children, now lives in London and is currently working on a new crime novel.

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Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Alison Joseph was born and brought up in London. She studied French and Philosophy at Leeds University, and then worked in local radio in Leeds as a producer and presenter. She moved back to London in 1983 and worked for a Channel 4 production company, making short documentaries. In 1985 she set up her own company, Works on Screen. Productions included Through the Devil's Gateway, a series about women and religion presented by Helen Mirren, which was broadcast by Channel 4 in 1989. A book of the series was published by SPCK. Sister Agnes became a reality with the publication of Sacred Hearts in 1994. This was followed by The Hour of Our Death (1995), The Quick and the Dead (1996), A Dark and Sinful Death (1997), The Dying Light (1999) and The Night Watch (2000). All the Sister Agnes books are published by Endeavour Press and Allison & Busby in the UK, and the first three are also available in German.
Other novels include Dying to Know (published by Endeavour Press), featuring D I Berenice Killick. Alison is also the author of two novellas in which (a fictional) Agatha Christie is the detective. They are Murder Will Out and Hidden Sins, both published by Endeavour Press. The third is due out Autumn 2016.

Alison has also written short stories for Radio 4, for YOU magazine, for Critical Quarterly and for various women's magazines, as well as abridging novels for Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and The Late Book, including the award-winning production of Captain Corelli's Mandolin. She is the author of about twenty-five plays for BBC Radio 4. Her most recent short story is Samir's Lament, available on Kindle Singles.

Alison lives in London.

Reviews

[Lilly Hi Way · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complicated

I found this a mystery that got more complicated as it progressed. I mostly read late at night so it was not as easy going as I would have liked. I'm not sure I kept all the details straight.

[Cidney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting this book about a nun running a homeless shelter to be very interesting, but all I felt was that it was a rather plodding along book with what should have been a really fascinating storyline. Nah. I struggled to get through this book, Sister Agnes, now I struggle to even call her that, she isn't like a nun really at all, she does however believe in the shelter and taking young girls off the streets, in fact she takes one of them into her own little flat but Sam runs away after a couple of days. I didn't really blame her I mean Agnes, not the most beloved character of them all, curious yes she was, a nun she was not.

Anyway she begins to track down Sam and finds a few who knew her and tracks her down to a protest camp where one of the young girls ends up dead and the police are trying to break up the camp. The storyline now involves a woman from centuries ago riding around on a horse late at night and terrifying everyone at the campsite. Hmm.. I think that is stretching crediblity a tad too much there. But "sister" Agnes solves the crime (I thought she was in her 60s but it turns out she's lot younger than that), I won't be reading any more of these as they just weren't holding my attention and I really didn't like "Sister" Agnes at all. Sorry folks.

[MRS G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sister Agnes is a bit of a bad ass super hero!

I unfortunately lost track of who was who, as there seemed to be an awful lot of characters to remember. That wasn't so bad until a "key" barely mentioned person cropped back up and I couldn't remember who they were.

Overall I enjoyed this first foray into Sister Agnes and I will read the next book and see what she gets up to. 😃

[T A FERRIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wise nun?

I'm not into religious stuff really.it took a while to get going but I got there in the end not my cup of tea really so I just think religious people get so crazy in the fairy tales about a God and all that stuff.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exceptional nun sister Agnes is worried about a runaway girl. In the process of finding her, she encounters mayhem and murder in Essex.

[Brian Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent mystery

A first class read with plenty of twists and turns to keep readers entertained from start to finish. Five stars.

[Carol Gleason-Rechner · Rating 2 out of 5]

You'd think a crime detecting nun would be more interesting.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author juggles a number of ethical and moral issues in this diverting book, plus a large cast of characters including the complex protagonist, Sister Agnes.

[Frank Mullen · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unusual whodunit.

Interesting. A sleuthing nun. Interesting characters and story with a twist. Worth reading. I look forward to the next one.

[Richard McCarthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the characters. Really got into the plot.

[Kim Grattage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sister Agnes. What a woman.

Sister Agnes, what can I say? Likened to a Phoenix rising from the flames. Tough, resilient, loving, loyal, trustworthy. Her life before joining the order had been fraught as you will discover by reading her story. Joining an order as a nun gave her life more stability, safety and love than the one she had previously. Her job at the homeless hostel found her meeting an assortment of homeless people, especially vulnerable teenagers who she tried to help more due to their age and their lives on the dangerous streets of London. Agnes gets drawn into the world of eco protesting, a somewhat suspect home church who are intent of marrying off young people to prove to their God that they are good. However, nothing is quite what is seems as several of the eco-protesters are not only involved with the suspect church but some local legendary ghost who is trying to remove the people involved of destroying her families land by building a bypass on it. To understand more read it for yourselves and see what you think. Needless to say it involves arms, and the death of several people, after that my lips are sealed. Up to you to find out who their killers are. Got me hooked so much that I've got rest of the series on my wish list. I want to know more about Sister Agnes.

[Sally906 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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