St. Peter's Finger

Rating:
Summary: Smile Sweetly, Gentle Sisters ... and Kill!
Review: The story is set in a convent, dealing, once more, with death by drowning in a bathroom - though not with the same denouement as "Speedy Death" or "Death at the Opera." The victim is the child heiress to an Irish-American millionaire, whose two other heiresses are also at the convent-school. Despite the fact that the school is a convent, the children are not annoying, though there is a trifle overdose of sentimentality, but the incidents and the story are interesting and well-told, with the search on the cliff especially well-done. There is a good grasp of psychology, with one of G.M.'s best-depicted psychological portraits. Not a cosy, despite the fact that all of the characters (with the exception of Mrs. Bradley (the eldritch detective)'s son, her chauffeur, and a priest) are women. In short, good atmosphere, good detection, but a bit too much sentimentality for my taste.