Arts
A Refreshingly Different Debut Mystery Novel, with an Amateur Sleuth Who’s Addicted to Custard Cream Biscuits…
The Convent is a stirring new psychological mystery: one that introduces a compelling new amateur sleuth – Sister Veronica – to the world. Not afraid to tackle uncomfortable truths, the plot and well-drawn characters grip the reader from start to finish. This book will both brighten your day, and make you think. And many reviewers report that they devoured the whole lot in one sitting…
A story, but not just a story, The Convent tells a fast-paced, unputdownable tale while also portraying the darker side of the organised Catholic establishment. Along with two sidekicks, Sister Veronica Angelica unravels an unexpected and shocking secret that has been masked and hidden by several high up Catholic Church officials. But when it transpires that those in charge don’t appreciate her inquisitive and persistent efforts and it gets personal, will she survive their attempts to keep their dark truths hidden?
A new book by Sarah Sheridan, The Convent keeps the reader glued from start to finish.
Synopsis of “The Convent’:
Faced with darkness, could you find the light?
An innocent victim. A wicked crime. A killer on the loose.
Meet Sister Veronica Angelica, a secret crime fiction writer and lover of custard cream biscuits.
When she discovers a dead man in the grounds of the Catholic Youth Hostel, a building next door to her Convent, she can see he’s been brutally murdered.
What she doesn’t know, is that Jamie had a secret he’d been about to confess.
Being forbidden by the Cardinal to contact the police, the nuns at The Convent of the Christian Heart are instructed to contain news of the murder.
As Sister Veronica tries to uncover the truth, another murder takes place, plunging her deeper into the mystery.
But when her investigation raises more questions than answers, will Sister Veronica be able to solve the case without attracting the killer’s attention?
Reviews have been extremely positive.
An Amazon review, Lynne wrote: “What a delightful read, it had everything from humour to terror for poor Sister Veronica. She certainly had her work cut out trying to solve the crime of Jamie but she did it. So happy for mellissa finally finding love. The worst part was the things that happened inside the churches, the corruption and upsetting the way some priests and nuns treat young men and women so sad as they had no where to turn.”
Susan Pengelly, also an Amazon buyer, wrote: “Having experienced the vagaries of an organised religion this story twanged a nerve or two and sent me to research the hidden children of priests and nuns I had never heard of before. This is a great book, do read it, you will enjoy the story and it will leave you stirred.”
Mrs P Rodgers wrote: “It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve read a book that has kept my attention as much as this did. Not just the story, but the corruption that it drew attention to. Very thought provoking.”
‘The Convent’, from Bloodhound Books, is available now: https://amzn.to/3wvXDZo
About the Author:
Sarah was born in London and now lives in a village in South Northamptonshire.
When she’s not busy writing books under her pen name Sarah Sheridan, Sarah can often be found highlighting the reality of hidden priests children in the media – a subject she knows about all too well being one of those children herself:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-42085065
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-42332355
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05rp9bv
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-24/sarah-thomas-is-the-child-of-a-priest-1/11533942?nw=0
https://radio.rte.ie/radio1highlights/children-of-priests-ray-darcy/
Sarah says: “Given my own experience of secrecy and silencing as the child of a Roman Catholic priest, it was only natural that this would be the subject of my first crime novel. I wanted to investigate what might happen if that secrecy was pushed to it’s utmost limits with the intention being to protect the reputation of a ‘celibate’ priest. And of course, murder is the ultimate silencer…”
Sarah gained a Masters degree in Eighteenth-Century French and English art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, before teaching art in secondary schools for thirteen years. After working with human rights organisations that protect minority groups from institutional abuse, Sarah worked towards a PhD at The Open University, researching the effect of secrecy on marginalised people, specifically the biological children of Roman Catholic priests. She has spoken about her research on various news programmes for the BBC and other media outlets around the world. It was this sense of secrecy and silencing that became the inspiration for her first crime novel, The Convent.
Sarah is hugely obsessed with reading and is amassing such an unrealistically large book collection that some of it is now in storage. She is also addicted to writing, and after inventing stories (mostly in secret) from a young age and having various articles and short stories published, she wrote a children’s book, The Top Secret Diary of Davina Dupree – inspired by her daughter – in 2013. Overjoyed to hear that young readers were enjoying the story, she went on to write a series about Davina Dupree.
When she is not looking after her three children and menagerie of pets, or going for long walks with her wonderful partner Rich, Sarah can be found writing, while consuming large amounts of chocolate.