A Dead Man Out Of Mind

Plot

St. Margaret's, a church in Pimlico, is not quite top drawer. It no longer rates a full-time priest and is making do with a curate, the beloved Father Julian. When he is found with his head bashed in and his sacristy ransacked, the London police call it a fatally bungled burglary. Soon he and a stolen silver chalice pass from nearly everyone's mind. Then the new curate arrives - and turns out to be a woman. And the Victorian silver church service - of which the stolen chalice is a part - turns out to be worth a king's fortune. Hired to arrange the sale of the St. Margaret's silver, David Middleton-Brown is plunged into a malicious atmosphere of anti-feminist politics, nasty rumors, and deadly suspicions. Add to this Lucy's teenage niece, Ruth, a red-haired Rottweiler of a girl who is living with Lucy and doing a stint in David's office as a school project. When the mayhem at St. Margaret's escalates with two more killings and the poisoning of a pet cat, Ruth decides to play detective. But murder is not a game, and St. Margaret's is no place for a schoolgirl. David and Lucy realize a ruthless murderer lurks among the smarmy clergy and irate parishioners. To uncover the culprit before Ruth becomes the next victim, they must go back to the genesis of it all: the dead man out of mind, Father Julian - and a lethal liturgy of greed, secrets, and twisted love.