Lynne Hinton's "Sister Eve and the Blue Nun"

Who doesn’t like a little noir? This most recent of my FREE review books, “Sister Eve and the Blue Nun” by Lynne Hinton, is a murder mystery with a sense of urgency but no fear. 

Sister Evangeline runs into a distraught monk right after his sister is murdered at the monastery. Between her inside knowledge of both the monastery grounds and the investigating force—her dad is buddies with the detective on the case—Eve has to find the killer before it’s too late to save her friend. 

This book was a fun read. It’s set in New Mexico and pulls in pueblo geography, history and culture. I also learned more about monastic life and Southwest Catholic heritage and the Blue Nun. 

But I really like the refreshing Sister Eve. I like her reflections on why she doesn’t wear makeup, why she loves being a nun, and how she serves God by showing others selfless hospitality, all while acknowledging her human propensities for fudging the truth when it’s a matter of life and death. She’s realistic and humble with ZERO EYE-ROLLING. I hate characters that invoke eye rolling. They are the worst. Sister Eve is not one of them. I’d like to know more about her and her adventures. 

Slightly on the mystical side of things, I still give this four out of five stars! I would put this on the shelf between Floridian Edna Buchanan’s hilarious nonfiction crime reporting, and the Australian Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.