The Cardinal's Clock: A Contemporary Small Town Sleuthing Couple Murder Mystery

It’s an eventful October for Father Tom and Helen. It begins with the wedding of Father Tom’s mother Nola to her fiance, former strip club owner Stu Landry. The two septuagenarian newlyweds have no sooner embarked on their honeymoon than Saint Clare’s Parish plays host to the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore Walter Knowland, making his periodic visit. 

It should be a welcome homecoming for the Cardinal, who spent his high school years in Myerton. But there’s a cloud hovering over the visit. A special state grand jury issued a report, documenting decades of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese. While the report makes clear that the Archdiocese under Cardinal Knowland has mended its ways, he’s bearing the brunt of the criticism. He’s also received death threats. With this in mind, Helen assigns her newest officer Gwen Tolson–who also happens to be the Cardinal’s granddaughter–to his security detail.

During a tour of the Unclaimed Blessings Thrift Store, a large urn falls from a loft, narrowly missing the Cardinal and injuring Gwen. That combined with the firebombing of the Archbishop’s Residence in Baltimore convinces Helen that he’s in danger. She begins to hunt for the person responsible.

But then an elderly volunteer at the thrift store, Eliza Ross, is murdered. At first it looks like a robbery gone wrong. But it’s soon clear to Helen that someone staged the scene to make it look like a robbery. This raises two questions: who’d want to kill her, and why?

In the midst of all this, Gladys goes into labor early . . . and one of the triplets may not make it . . . 

The Cardinal’s Clock is the fourteenth novel in the Mercy and Justice Mysteries, a contemporary small town mystery series. The series is a sequel to the Father Tom Mysteries that began with The Penitent Priest and includes the same cast of characters. It features Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest who is also an amateur sleuth in the tradition of Father Brown, and his wife Helen Greer, female Chief of Police and detective in the tradition of Kinsey Millhone.