REQUIEM AT THE REFUGE

The body of a young prostitute is found slumped against the back door of the nuns’ refuge for homeless women in downtown San Francisco. It looks like her skull has been fractured with a coffee mug just like the ones used in the refuge. The sleuthing Sister Mary Helen learns that the day before she died the victim had confided to another lady of the night that she feared for her life. It seems that the dead woman knew a secret that, if revealed, could shake San Francisco right down to the pillars of the Golden Gate Bridge. Marguerite Gavin provides believable African-American street talk, as well as the soft speech of the convent. Her gruff cops and homicide detectives swagger convincingly through their precincts, reluctant to listen to a nun, despite her past successes in solving crimes. In the end, Gavin startles the listener with the chilling voice she provides for the psychotic and surprising killer. E.V. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 03]