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Mother Paul Mystery #2
Faculty of Murder
Faculty of Murder is set at Brigid Moore Hall, a girls' hostel in the University of Melbourne, where "freshettes" are shocked by a new arrival, Judith Mornane, who announces that she intends to discover her sister's murderer. Her sister, Maureen, had mysteriously disappeared from the hostel the year before, at about the same time that a professor's wife had accidentally drowned. It is left to the newly arrived Warden, Mother Paul, together with Elizabeth Drew, the Humanities tutor, to draw the police's attention to possibilities they might not have considered.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
11 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
June Wright
9 books5 followersJune Wright (1919-2012) was the Australian author of six detective stories (plus one posthumously published), the last three featuring Mother Paul. Born in Melbourne, where most of her books are set, she had begun her writing career by winning a competition run by a London publisher. This ensured the publication of her first book, Murder in the Telephone Exchange in 1948. She herself had been working in a telephone exchange for four years. She was the mother of six children. Her last novel was published in 1966. She then retired from writing to help her husband with his business.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 3, 2023
This is an old book (1960); the reason I selected it to read is that I'm a sucker for stories with nuns. This one concerns a nun-detective in Australia at a women's college. While some of the characterizations and actions are dated, it is a good mystery story.
January 22, 2023
The blurb in the Bas Bleu catalog got my attention. This sounded like a fun book to read, and I was not disappointed. Fans of Call the Midwife will get this reference... My mental image of Mother Paul was that of Miriam Margolies as the Mother Superior! Miriam is way too short for Mother Paul, but that's who was in my head as I read, and I could see her playing this role wonderfully!
Mother Paul has recently arrived at a women's college in the role of Warden - the college's head in charge of all she surveys. It is part of a larger Australian university, and the women take classes not only in their own college, but at the neighboring men's college. Arriving at the college as a "freshette" is a young woman whose sister had arrived at that school about a year previously, and had mysteriously disappeared. She insists her sister was murdered.
No one wants to credit her with this and she is ostracized by the other girls, however there is something odd going on that involves the apparent suicide of a faculty wife, the disappearance of the student, and later another student's death.
Mother Paul keeps notes in her little pocket notebook, and she enlists the assistance of a college tutor, Elizabeth Drew. She sends Elizabeth off to learn things and report back. They visit Inspector Savage at the police department, and much to Miss Drew's amazement, that gentleman takes Mother Paul's concerns very seriously.
What we learn is that Mother Paul is a very, very keen observer of those around her, and that she files away anomalies and odd circumstances in her little notebook as she mulls over her theories.
She is a very kind nun, but she also has a streak of mischievousness about her, which shows up in how she sets up Elizabeth and her fiancé, not to mention tacitly giving Judith the go-ahead to pay back Fiona and her cronies.
Sadly, June Wright wrote only three Mother Paul books, but if this one is any indication, she was destined to become a very beloved detective.
The writing is solid, the culprit not actually obvious, the red herrings were rife, and overall, this was a terrific read for any fan of cozy mysteries. I'd love to see it as a television series - with or without Miriam Margolies!
Mother Paul has recently arrived at a women's college in the role of Warden - the college's head in charge of all she surveys. It is part of a larger Australian university, and the women take classes not only in their own college, but at the neighboring men's college. Arriving at the college as a "freshette" is a young woman whose sister had arrived at that school about a year previously, and had mysteriously disappeared. She insists her sister was murdered.
No one wants to credit her with this and she is ostracized by the other girls, however there is something odd going on that involves the apparent suicide of a faculty wife, the disappearance of the student, and later another student's death.
Mother Paul keeps notes in her little pocket notebook, and she enlists the assistance of a college tutor, Elizabeth Drew. She sends Elizabeth off to learn things and report back. They visit Inspector Savage at the police department, and much to Miss Drew's amazement, that gentleman takes Mother Paul's concerns very seriously.
What we learn is that Mother Paul is a very, very keen observer of those around her, and that she files away anomalies and odd circumstances in her little notebook as she mulls over her theories.
She is a very kind nun, but she also has a streak of mischievousness about her, which shows up in how she sets up Elizabeth and her fiancé, not to mention tacitly giving Judith the go-ahead to pay back Fiona and her cronies.
Sadly, June Wright wrote only three Mother Paul books, but if this one is any indication, she was destined to become a very beloved detective.
The writing is solid, the culprit not actually obvious, the red herrings were rife, and overall, this was a terrific read for any fan of cozy mysteries. I'd love to see it as a television series - with or without Miriam Margolies!
May 24, 2024
When the new scholarship student, Judith Mornane, arrived at Brigid Moore College, she announces that her sister, Maureen, the previous scholarship student who went missing the previous year, was murdered. A body was never discovered, so Judith's claim is first explained away as the emotion of a grieving sister, but we soon discover that Judith has compelling reasons for suspecting foul play. More deaths follow Judith's announcement. Mother Paul and Elizabeth Drew must act quickly before the murder strikes again.
I loved Mother Paul's enigmatic personality seen through the third person perspective of Elizabeth Drew, a tutor at Brigid Moore College. Mother Paul seems too old and vague to take over the reins at Brigid Moore, but as Elizabeth, her fellow tutors, and students discover, she is incredibly cluey and not to be underestimated, much like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
Elizabeth's own character arc is satisfying. When we meet her, she is a reluctant tutor with little care for her students, biding her time till she can marry her fiancé and escape the academic doldrums. By the end, however, her involvement in solving the case shows her that she will always feel some affection towards the job, and she is more supportive of her fiancé's academic career, now that he can see the value in involving her rather than trying to keep her out of it.
The insightful introduction by Lucy Sussex tells us that Wright created the character of Mother Paul because older, unmarried women in that context would experience fewer impediments to their investigations. By being too old to be considered beautiful, overlooked, and beyond their sexual prime, they are taken seriously by authorities and able to get about unescorted without question.
The students at the university are a real piece of work, prone to bullying and cruel pranks to gain or reinforce their social position. All but Judith are arrogant and blissfully unaware of the privilege of university education, particularly for women at that time. Like 'Gaudy Night', the novel offers a thoughtful discussion on the financial and social advantages enjoyed by the tertiary educated which those who cannot afford tertiary education are barred from. The girls at Brigid Moore are destined to be the next generation of doctors and welfare workers, but they lack the requisite empathy for these jobs; something that no amount of study can teach them.
The academics are hardly better, with the Dean covering up his affair with Mrs Crask, Mrs Crask grooming the male students at Manning College, and Professor Crask (Mrs Crask's husband) flirting indiscriminately with the female students and staff, including Elizabeth who is engaged to be married.
Perhaps as an extension to the retirement of her previous heroine, Wright explores the precarity of courtship for women in the 1930s. Elizabeth has been engaged to Timothy for two years and Timothy is so focused on his obscure branch of research that he's delaying the wedding so long that people are asking questions about their relationship, and Professor Crask's advances are becoming more intrusive. Elizabeth has to decide whether to break off the engagement and find another husband or to pluck up the courage to make him see the absurdity and unfairness of his excuses and delays which are disadvantaging her more than him. Fortunately, Mother Paul has a plan, and a rather cheeky one at that (for a nun). This subplot reveals Elizabeth's insecurities and highlights the sacrifices Mother Paul has made for her faith and profession in forsaking courtship.
This Australian homage to Dorothy L. Sayers' 'Gaudy Night' was clever and enjoyable. You don’t have to have read 'Gaudy Night' to appreciate it, but you would enjoy the intertextuality.
I recommend 'Faculty of Murder' to fans of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie.
I loved Mother Paul's enigmatic personality seen through the third person perspective of Elizabeth Drew, a tutor at Brigid Moore College. Mother Paul seems too old and vague to take over the reins at Brigid Moore, but as Elizabeth, her fellow tutors, and students discover, she is incredibly cluey and not to be underestimated, much like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.
Elizabeth's own character arc is satisfying. When we meet her, she is a reluctant tutor with little care for her students, biding her time till she can marry her fiancé and escape the academic doldrums. By the end, however, her involvement in solving the case shows her that she will always feel some affection towards the job, and she is more supportive of her fiancé's academic career, now that he can see the value in involving her rather than trying to keep her out of it.
The insightful introduction by Lucy Sussex tells us that Wright created the character of Mother Paul because older, unmarried women in that context would experience fewer impediments to their investigations. By being too old to be considered beautiful, overlooked, and beyond their sexual prime, they are taken seriously by authorities and able to get about unescorted without question.
The students at the university are a real piece of work, prone to bullying and cruel pranks to gain or reinforce their social position. All but Judith are arrogant and blissfully unaware of the privilege of university education, particularly for women at that time. Like 'Gaudy Night', the novel offers a thoughtful discussion on the financial and social advantages enjoyed by the tertiary educated which those who cannot afford tertiary education are barred from. The girls at Brigid Moore are destined to be the next generation of doctors and welfare workers, but they lack the requisite empathy for these jobs; something that no amount of study can teach them.
The academics are hardly better, with the Dean covering up his affair with Mrs Crask, Mrs Crask grooming the male students at Manning College, and Professor Crask (Mrs Crask's husband) flirting indiscriminately with the female students and staff, including Elizabeth who is engaged to be married.
Perhaps as an extension to the retirement of her previous heroine, Wright explores the precarity of courtship for women in the 1930s. Elizabeth has been engaged to Timothy for two years and Timothy is so focused on his obscure branch of research that he's delaying the wedding so long that people are asking questions about their relationship, and Professor Crask's advances are becoming more intrusive. Elizabeth has to decide whether to break off the engagement and find another husband or to pluck up the courage to make him see the absurdity and unfairness of his excuses and delays which are disadvantaging her more than him. Fortunately, Mother Paul has a plan, and a rather cheeky one at that (for a nun). This subplot reveals Elizabeth's insecurities and highlights the sacrifices Mother Paul has made for her faith and profession in forsaking courtship.
This Australian homage to Dorothy L. Sayers' 'Gaudy Night' was clever and enjoyable. You don’t have to have read 'Gaudy Night' to appreciate it, but you would enjoy the intertextuality.
I recommend 'Faculty of Murder' to fans of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie.
October 7, 2022
I was really hoping to love this. Supposedly June Wright's "Mother Paul" was the first nun sleuth (it's a thing), and as that's a sub-genre I really enjoy, I was excited by the prospect of reading this pioneering story.
Sadly, almost every character in this book is wholly unlikeable, including Mother Paul. I'm willing to lay some blame at the feet of my own modern twenty-first century sensibilities, as opposed to those of 1960, but my quibbles would likely be the same, even if I had read it when first published. The young women at the University of Melbourne leave much to be desired, as the vast majority are whiny, fickle, mean, and/or duplicitous. Mother Paul herself is sketchy and manipulative, and seems to operate very much in the background. Miss Marple or Sister Fidelma she is not. Instead the protagonist (maybe) seems to be Elizabeth, who is perhaps the most typecast as the easily-shocked, 1960's version of a feminist who uses her wiles to make her nondescript fiancé jealous when he strings her along for too many years.
The big reveal was a bit of a let down, only because I cared so little for any of the characters that it came as a relief just to be done with it. Detective Savage is potentially the only truly likeable character, and he too must tolerate the whims of the Mother Superior.
Lucy Sussex's introduction is a worthwhile read, and contextualizes Wright's choice of a nun as her star sleuth in an important light. It is also important to note that Wright's life took a different path and she did not continue writing as many Mother Paul mysteries as she would have liked. That is a pity, because one gets the sense that Mother Paul might have developed and grown to be more than a conniving interloper.
Sadly, almost every character in this book is wholly unlikeable, including Mother Paul. I'm willing to lay some blame at the feet of my own modern twenty-first century sensibilities, as opposed to those of 1960, but my quibbles would likely be the same, even if I had read it when first published. The young women at the University of Melbourne leave much to be desired, as the vast majority are whiny, fickle, mean, and/or duplicitous. Mother Paul herself is sketchy and manipulative, and seems to operate very much in the background. Miss Marple or Sister Fidelma she is not. Instead the protagonist (maybe) seems to be Elizabeth, who is perhaps the most typecast as the easily-shocked, 1960's version of a feminist who uses her wiles to make her nondescript fiancé jealous when he strings her along for too many years.
The big reveal was a bit of a let down, only because I cared so little for any of the characters that it came as a relief just to be done with it. Detective Savage is potentially the only truly likeable character, and he too must tolerate the whims of the Mother Superior.
Lucy Sussex's introduction is a worthwhile read, and contextualizes Wright's choice of a nun as her star sleuth in an important light. It is also important to note that Wright's life took a different path and she did not continue writing as many Mother Paul mysteries as she would have liked. That is a pity, because one gets the sense that Mother Paul might have developed and grown to be more than a conniving interloper.
March 8, 2023
I had never heard of June Wright or her Mother Paul mysteries. I found the biographical information about the author as interesting as I found the mystery. That Wright was once touted as Australia's answer to Agatha Christie but then only produced 7 novels is a mystery itself. As for the story, I liked it though Mother Paul really isn't the main, apparent investigator. Elizabeth, one of the resident tutors, is the main investigators. Much like Miss Marple, in some of her novels, Mother Paul seems to work behind the scenes, listening and gathering information. How many characters, who have had "untimely" deaths, have actually been murdered and who could be responsible. By setting this at college, Wright gives us many suspects, which I like. Though the reveal of the murderer was kind of a shrug, I did enjoy Elizabeth and Mother Paul and many of the supporting characters. I also liked the 1960s details. I recommend this book and I think I will try to find others by this author.
July 2, 2023
Faculty of Murder is a classic Australian mystery from the 60s with a quietly observant and shrewd new Warden named Sister Paul at an all girl’s college. When a first year student enrolls primarily to investigate why her sister went missing the year before and why her departure has merely been brushed off by the faculty, the mystery is unearthed. Filled with typical academic types of the times (think catty girls of different class backgrounds, competitive house tutors of Manning College, and lecherous faculty) the plot thickens when another girl rumoured to know something about the other missing girl is found hanged in her room. An interesting whodunnit with an immensely difficult to solve plot.
January 3, 2023
This is an excellent older mystery written by a good Australian author June Wright. The story takes place at the University of Melbourne when a student has disappeared, and her sister comes to the school and claims her sister was murdered. The main character is Mother Paul, who has been appointed warden of a student hall at the college, and who has unerring instincts for finding out the truth of what has happened. The story is told through the eyes of Elizabeth, who is a tutor in the Humanities, and who helps Mother Paul solve several mysteries that crop up. It is a well-written mystery that is timeless and will be enjoyed by many mystery lovers.
August 31, 2022
Mother Paul is a quick-witted nun trying to discover something of the sins corrupting the University of Melbourne. She takes on the unsolved murder case of student Judith Mornane's sister, who disappeared from her dorm a year prior. The nun is a unique crime-solving protagonists, reminiscent of Murder She Wrote.
January 26, 2023
Mother Paul is on the case again and that's good news for mystery readers.In this novel she is the warden of a residence hall at he University of Melbourne. Murder shows its ugly head on campus-what is the common thread that unites all these cases???
Comment:
A good classic mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie.Careful plotting a a real plus.
Comment:
A good classic mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie.Careful plotting a a real plus.
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October 17, 2022A vintage murder mystery set in Australia at a women’s college, featuring a young lecturer who is engaged to a ,plan who takes her for granted and the new dean of the college, an older nun who has already had some experience with crime, though she presents as a slightly woolly-minded naïf.
December 21, 2022
Looking for a mystery book after finishing all the Brunetti books. This was not anywhere near the status of those books. There were several possible characters for the murderer and then an almost unknown turns out to be the one. It was rather disappointing.
June 16, 2023
Maybe it was because this book was written a while ago but I just had a hard time following the writing and was not very into the book. I didn’t guess the ending but I think it was because I would pick up the book, read a chapter and then put it down for a while and forget who the characters were.
November 7, 2022
Satisfying puzzle mystery and enjoyable, easy read.
July 24, 2023
3.5 enjoyable
April 12, 2022
Really enjoyed this escapade of Mother Paul, who is now the new Warden of a Women's college. I'm just all about the crime solving nuns. I hope that Dark Passage manages to hunt down and republish the third book.
June 22, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews