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Mirabelle Bevan Mystery #9
Celtic Cross
About to get married, Mirabelle and her fianc retired Superintendent Alan McGregor are torn about where they will settle but when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes up to buy a secluded house on the banks of the Firth of Forth, they submit to getting permission from the local landlord. But that permission comes at a price and when a nun dies in mysterious circumstances at the Little Sisters of Gethsemane Convent nearby they are drafted to uncover what happened.
- GenresCrime
352 pages, Hardcover
Published August 12, 2021
3 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Sara Sheridan
46 books430 followersBorn in Edinburgh. I'm a complete swot - love books always have! Currently obsessed with late Georgian/ early Victorian culture, the subject of several of my novels, and with 1950s Britain for my Mirabelle Bevan murder mystery series set across the UK - and even one in Paris. Occasionally write tie-in books for historical dramas on TV, children's picture books and short stories, mostly for charitable causes.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 14, 2023
3.5 Stars
This is the last in the Mirabelle Bevan series, which I've really enjoyed - though some more than others. Set in a nunnery at Queensferry just outside Edinburgh during the building of the Forth Road Bridge, I must say I was surprised to discover at the end that it was written during lockdown, it had none of those 'lockdown vibes' - or at least I didn't pick up on them. I wonder though, if the author would have set this final one elsewhere if she'd been allowed to travel?
Mirabelle and Alan are settled in Edinburgh and organising their wedding when there's a murder in the nunnery - and the nun who died is not a nun! I really liked the premise, but I must say that for some reason the story didn't sparkle as much as others for me. I have always applauded Mirabelle's independence and the struggle she has trying to become part of a couple, but in this book I began to find her a bit tedious and thoughtless. She goes off on her own taking ridiculous risks, refuses to consult Alan (who seems to play golf for most of the book, something else I found a bit surprising) on any decisions, and yet when she walks in on him talking to another attractive woman, she gets cattily jealous. What happened to her? Was this the 'lockdown vibes' after all?
So Mirabelle began to wear on me, but I totally loved it when Vesta appeared on the scene, a breath of fresh air and her usual breezy, loveable self. The murder in the nunnery I found confusing simply because I never managed to distinguish one nun from the other, but the ending unravelled at such a pace I didn't really mind that. Ultimately, it was a great murder mystery with the author's usual excellent sense of time and place. What I have always liked about this series though, and what was there big time was telling history from a female perspective, and raising issues of social (in)justice peculiar to women.
I am sorry to see Mirabelle go, but I think she has come to a natural end. I'm looking forward now to reading more of what Sara Sheridan has written.
This is the last in the Mirabelle Bevan series, which I've really enjoyed - though some more than others. Set in a nunnery at Queensferry just outside Edinburgh during the building of the Forth Road Bridge, I must say I was surprised to discover at the end that it was written during lockdown, it had none of those 'lockdown vibes' - or at least I didn't pick up on them. I wonder though, if the author would have set this final one elsewhere if she'd been allowed to travel?
Mirabelle and Alan are settled in Edinburgh and organising their wedding when there's a murder in the nunnery - and the nun who died is not a nun! I really liked the premise, but I must say that for some reason the story didn't sparkle as much as others for me. I have always applauded Mirabelle's independence and the struggle she has trying to become part of a couple, but in this book I began to find her a bit tedious and thoughtless. She goes off on her own taking ridiculous risks, refuses to consult Alan (who seems to play golf for most of the book, something else I found a bit surprising) on any decisions, and yet when she walks in on him talking to another attractive woman, she gets cattily jealous. What happened to her? Was this the 'lockdown vibes' after all?
So Mirabelle began to wear on me, but I totally loved it when Vesta appeared on the scene, a breath of fresh air and her usual breezy, loveable self. The murder in the nunnery I found confusing simply because I never managed to distinguish one nun from the other, but the ending unravelled at such a pace I didn't really mind that. Ultimately, it was a great murder mystery with the author's usual excellent sense of time and place. What I have always liked about this series though, and what was there big time was telling history from a female perspective, and raising issues of social (in)justice peculiar to women.
I am sorry to see Mirabelle go, but I think she has come to a natural end. I'm looking forward now to reading more of what Sara Sheridan has written.
August 28, 2024
Celtic Cross by Sara Sheridan - Good
The final Mirabelle Bevan mystery and we've reached 1959. We've watched Mirabelle throughout the 1950s as she healed and moved on from the trauma of war - mirroring the same process as the Country.
In this final mystery she is in Edinburgh on the verge of marriage to ex (now retired) Superintendent Alan McGregor. He's found them a little cottage in South Queensferry but in order to buy it, they need permission from the local Convent. Having met with the Mother Superior and agreed a way forward (they will need to marry in the Convent Chapel as well as the Registrar's) all seems to be progressing nicely....until there is a death in the Convent and the circumstances are odd to say the least. Not wanting to involve the local police, Mother contracts the couple to make discreet enquiries. This being Mirabelle, it doesn't end there and a strange mystery ensues with Vesta arriving and going under cover no less!
A nice ending to the series but I must admit if I hadn't invested time in reading the previous 8, I might not have pressed through to the end. Somehow it didn't capture me in the way previous books have. Regardless, it wrapped up all the characters' lives in a satisfying way.
#review
The final Mirabelle Bevan mystery and we've reached 1959. We've watched Mirabelle throughout the 1950s as she healed and moved on from the trauma of war - mirroring the same process as the Country.
In this final mystery she is in Edinburgh on the verge of marriage to ex (now retired) Superintendent Alan McGregor. He's found them a little cottage in South Queensferry but in order to buy it, they need permission from the local Convent. Having met with the Mother Superior and agreed a way forward (they will need to marry in the Convent Chapel as well as the Registrar's) all seems to be progressing nicely....until there is a death in the Convent and the circumstances are odd to say the least. Not wanting to involve the local police, Mother contracts the couple to make discreet enquiries. This being Mirabelle, it doesn't end there and a strange mystery ensues with Vesta arriving and going under cover no less!
A nice ending to the series but I must admit if I hadn't invested time in reading the previous 8, I might not have pressed through to the end. Somehow it didn't capture me in the way previous books have. Regardless, it wrapped up all the characters' lives in a satisfying way.
#review
March 31, 2025
This is is the ninth book in a series (nine books so far) and the second one I have read featuring Mirabelle Bevan who is a sort of private detective. The story is set in Edinburgh in 1959 as Mirabelle has gone there to get married. However Mirabelle gets asked to investigate when a novice nun dies at a convent as the nuns do not want the police involved as the novice nun was actually a man! It's a complicated story but I enjoyed reading it and I do like Mirabelle. I will now look for the earlier books.
December 8, 2024
Saved this book to read as it must be the last in the series. Just disappointed in how the book all went.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews