Conventional wisdom would not lead you to think that the owner of a Private Investigator’s firm
was a former nun. But that’s just part of the appeal of Alice Loweecey’s first Giulia Driscoll mystery, Nun Too Soon. The story is a smart mix of murder investigation and the personal aspects of running a business, interacting with coworkers and employees, and a little bit of romance for good measure.
Giulia Driscoll is an intelligent and very likable character and Alice Loweecey’s writing is inviting; gently but insistently drawing you in to the story and the mystery. As Nun Too Soon begins, Giulia’s firm is already feeling up to their eyeballs in work, but she can’t resist the lure of taking on another case: prove the accused Silk Tie Killer innocent. As it happens, the prime suspect in that upcoming murder trial, Roger Fitch, is also deeply involved with another case that Giulia and her team are currently working on. And that case was where I got a little confused. Perhaps I need to learn more about laundering money (just kidding, FBI!) but I had a bit of a hard time following the ins and outs of the various accounts, payments, and paper trails that were described. Not so much that I couldn’t follow the plot thread, but just enough that tampered with my enjoyment to a small extent.
I didn’t care for all of the characters, but I did like the characters who count! Giulia, her assistant, and her admin were warm, fun, and relateable. And as for the characters who I didn’t quite care for? Well, they were criminals, so I guess I really wasn’t supposed to like them!
There are many references to Giulia’s past as a nun, but we’re never really told why she left. I was simultaneously confused, frustrated, and intrigued by the omission. But, as I was peeking around to learn more about Alice Loweecey, I see there are three books about Giulia that come before Nun Too Soon. Perhaps some back reading is in order. That said, Nun Too Soon is advertised as the first in the Giulia Driscoll mystery series, which can be somewhat confusing to readers when they discover that there are previous stories (published by a different publishing house and billed as Falcone & Driscoll Investigations).
All told, I liked Nun Too Soon. It kept my interest and made me want to figure out the cases and crimes.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Henery Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Girl with Book Lungs 