MURDER IN THE ABBEY

Is a little peace and quiet too much to ask for? Just a few days of reflection on where one’s life is going? Maybe it is.

It certainly was too much for Laurel Smith. A divorcee and single mom, she finally sees both children off to college, and decides to take a week for herself on retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemane in Trappist, Kentucky. She is scarcely there an hour before she stumbles across a treasure map, and decides adventure sounds better than reflection.

It also was too much for Dr. David Malone. Five years after his wife’s death, he returns to the abbey ready to take monastic vows, including obedience, stability, poverty and chastity. He is scarcely there an hour before he meets Laurel, and decides he may have been a bit premature in his decision.

It was even too much for Thomas Merton. Decades after he becomes a Trappist, Merton falls in love with a young nurse, a decidedly uncharacteristic thing to do. Before he goes off on a trip to India and to his accidental death, he leaves Nurse M. a treasure, and a map with which to find it.

MURDER IN THE ABBEY combines monks, maps, and murder in a fast-paced mystery that is based on some actual events from Thomas Merton’s life, embellished with lots of imagination.