When her fiance discovers that both his daughter and his ex-wife are missing, ex-nun Kim calls on her friend Sister Bridget O'Toole and private investigator Harry Garnish to find the missing pair
Francis DeMay McConnell, known as Frank McConnell, (1942-1999) lived at Santa Barbara, California and was a professor of English at the University of California. He had been awarded his undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame and earned his doctorate at Yale. He had then taught at Cormell University and at Northwestern University. He was twice married, and had two children and a stepson. He published many books on film and literary criticism, as well as the four detective novels described below, and numerous magazine articles. For years he was media correspondent for the lay Catholic journal, Commonweal. He served several times on the Pulitzer Prize fiction jury. He was known for his robustious wit, and was a highly ribald, entertaining and popular teacher.
Set in Chicago & L.A. Main character is a PI who is asked by his boss--a former nun--to find a friend's kidnapped almost-stepdaughter. Then it turns out that it's the daughter's mom who appears to be in more danger. Sad, depressing, but Harry is pretty funny.