Three veterans of the Vietnam War find themselves drawn together under strange circumstances, when they find themselves billeted with an oddball group planning a weird revolution. 

It’s snowing outside a hard to heat convent, and they are very cold inside too when a killer strikes. The nuns want to celebrate Advent, but with a killer on the loose, Pepper, Avivah and Benny have no time to worry about things like that. They are still adjusting to civilian life, so death at home is not something they were expecting. Relationships blossom and die as the killer ups his profile and a body disappears. The snow is too heavy on the ground for the local sheriff to get to them. Being without electricity becomes another hazard and adds to the tension. With a mix of Catholic’s, practicing and lapsed, non believers and a Jew, makes the story more interesting especially when they are snowbound. 

FIRST MURDER IN ADVENT is a little different from most murder mysteries this reviewer has read. It takes a while to sort out the different characters, but the story then becomes clearer. The characters are an eclectic mixture, from religious nuns to upstart ex-army officers and those in-between. The story is complex, as all these people have a back-story and reasons for what they do. The setting was refreshingly different, and the reader feels connected to them as the cold creeps in. The main plot flows smoothly and provides a satisfactory ending, which leaves you wanting to know more of the future as they go their separate ways. The relationships built up added some extra interesting insights to the characters. The Saratoga Patriotic Foundation added another dimension with their private army project making ripples throughout. Any mystery reader that enjoys a complex and many faceted plot with a wide mixture of characters, will enjoy Ms Wildwind’s latest book. 

May  2007

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