FP/TT: The Hour of Death by Jane Willan

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posted the first paragraph of a book she is reading or planning to read. In 2018, Vicki from I'd Rather Be at the Beach is taking over this meme.

Here's mine:

When Sister Agatha slipped through the wrought-iron gate in front of Gwenafwy Abbey and started down the winding lane the led to the village, the sun had barely risen over the tower of Pryderi Castle. She smiled at the sound of the familiar click of the latch as the gate shut behind her. How many times over the years had she heard the gate catch and click as she headed down Church Lane on the short walk to the village? Gwenafwy Abbey, an Anglican religious order of the Church of Wales, with the mountain range of Snowdonia to the east and the Irish Sea a few miles to the north, had been her home for nearly four decades. She had grown up on a sheep farm just a stone's throw from the abbey and her earliest childhood memory was the gentle peal of the chapel bell calling the sisters to prayer.

 

Link up here. It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

Here's mine:

"So if there was a commotion of any sort in the parish hall, he wouldn't have heard it. Or at least might not have...if he was playing at the exact same time," Sister Agatha said.

This week I am spotlighting The Hour of Death by Jane Willan. This is the second Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn mystery. Here is the description from Amazon:

Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn make sleuthing a work of art. But will they paint themselves into a corner when they investigate the Village Art Society president’s death?

As Yuletide settles upon Gwenafwy Abbey, the rural Welsh convent’s peace is shattered when Tiffany Reese, president of the Village Art Society, is found dead on the floor of the parish hall. Sister Agatha, whose interests lie more with reading and writing mystery stories than with making the abbey’s world-renowned organic gouda, is not shy about inserting herself into the case. With the not-entirely-eager assistance of Father Selwyn, she begins her investigation.

Sister Agatha has no shortage of suspects to check off her naughty-or-nice list, until finally, Tiffany’s half-brother, Kendrick Geddings, emerges as the prime suspect. There never was any love lost between Tiffany and Kendrick, and of late they had been locked in a vicious battle for control of the family estate. But if Sister Agatha thinks she has the case wrapped up, she’ll have to think again.

As the days of Advent tick by, Sister Agatha is determined to crack the case by Christmas in The Hour of Death, Jane Willan’s perfectly puzzling second Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn Mystery.