Nun in the Closet

Rating:
Summary: Nuns+hippies+criminals=a wonderful read!
Review: Are you stressed out from the holidays? Is life too much for you to face? Then read this book! It is a complete delight. When two cloistered nuns get out to explore their abbey's inheritance, all "you know what" breaks loose! This book is so much fun to read, that I was truly sorry when I finished it. I sure hope there's a sequel!

Rating:
Summary: A Nun In The Closet
Review: Having grown up with nuns (I still remember the long veils and skirts!), I only wished I could have known one like Sister John. This story was great fun. Entertaining and a quick read, I am dissappointed they aren't around to solve another mystery. The story is dated; but endearing and a great example of how a group of very different characters weren't so different after all.

Rating:
Summary: turned off to Gilman books
Review: I had been considering reading Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Polifax series even though the premise of Grandma in the CIA seemed a bit improbable. So many folks were praising the series. However, I read "A Nun in the Closet" first, and it put me off reading anything else by Ms. Gilman.

The book isn't terrible; it's even funny in spots. But those spots are few and far between, and it's very dated. Plus, as a product of Catholic schools, I can tell you that nuns aren't this naive or foolish. Nor are mobsters this stupid or good-hearted. I'm a bit young to remember, but I doubt hippies were this clueless, either. I'm willing to suspend belief a bit as I read, but this book asks you to turn off your brain completely.

If you're looking for a wholesome read, stick with Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Charlotte MacLeod's Sarah Kelling series. If you're looking for a wholesome but comical mystery, try the excellent Mma Remotswe series, which begins with "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" or Simon Brett's lovely Mrs. Pargeter series. You'll like these books much, much more.

As I said, this book isn't terrible. It would worth picking up if you don't have anything better in the house to read. But life's too short to read "A Nun in the House" if you can get out of the house to buy or check out something else.

Rating:
Summary: Of Nuns, Flowerchildren, and Hitmen
Review: I was first loaned this book on a rainy summer vacation day when I was a child. It was funny enough that I stayed up late to finish it, while raindrops fell on the roof of that Maine cabin. Two decades later, I don't have time for gloriously long summer vacations and I rarely find a book that makes me want to read all night. But every August I pull this good-natured comedy off the shelf, and I'm back there again, giggleing for hours. If I listen hard I can almost hear the rain.

Rating:
Summary: Dated, perhaps, but still funny--sort of arsenic & old lacey
Review: Sister John and Sister Hyacinth are wonderful characters and they do triumph over evil as one would hope, but not without making one laugh out loud.

What a great little Gilman novel, even though its situation is a bit out-of-date, its humor is timeless. One has to imagine the Sister Ursula of the closet to look a bit like some old Broderick Crawford character role. Gruff and needy to the max, with unexpected aide from strong-willed out of the cloister nuns.

Wouldn't you know that the nuns would meet with other ways of seeing God, typical enrichment by Gilman?

This was another pick up and read title of a novel by an author I have recently come to admire. And I do highly recommend your enjoyment of a definite period piece. It feels like it should be put to film in black and white, or just in some quirky feel-good comedic fashion.

Wholesome and fun! Do give it a try!

Rating:
Summary: A Mystery the Makes You.....GIGGLE!
Review: The previous readers have done a good job of reviewing, so I won't repeat. I just want to say that my wife and I thought this is one of the most enjoyable books written. This along with Thale's Folly, of course.

Rating:
Summary: A Mystery the Makes You.....GIGGLE!
Review: What you have already read above is true: this mystery is a comedy! And if you have ever been exposed to nuns in real life, then you are in for a double treat; whether because they are so like the eccentric nuns you loved, or so different from the stern ones you feared to hate, you will enjoy this book tremendously.

Rating:
Summary: Dated but absolutely delightful!
Review: While this story of the not-so-coincidental juxtaposition of cloistered nuns, hippies, migrant workers, and the Mafia -is- dated for the millenium, it's as classically humorous and quietly thought-provoking as Sayers or Christie at their very best. I adore this book, as did my aging mother, and I've read it aloud to her numerous times. It's a delight, and definitely a keeper.