Cristina Sumners

I do really enjoy reading mysteries with a clergyperson as the detective. This is the second Cristina Sumners mystery with Kathryn Koerney, an Episcopal priest, as the protagonist. There is something uneven about these novels. I found each one to begin sort of dull and then really pick up as I read along. In the beginning I was about to give it up when it did get interesting and I had to finish. Kathryn is young and attractive and has many admirers. Chief among them is the police chief of show more her town in New Jersey, Tom Holder. Tom is considerable older and married. Unhappily married perhaps. Are these books leading toward the two getting together? Thieves Break In has a bit of a Jane Austin/Mr. Rochester element. The story takes place mostly in a castle in England where Kathryn's cousin has been murdered by being pushed off the top of the parapet. The characters are likable. I will probably read the next one. show less

I have always like mysteries with a clergyperson as the detective. Cristina Sumners, a clergy woman herself, has written a very readable murder mystery with a clergy woman protagonist. Episcopal priest Kathryn Koerney teams up with police chief Tom Holder when a woman disappears under suspicious circumstances in their small affluent New Jersey town. There are some surprises in store for the reader that I won't give away by saying too much. I might have given Crooked Heart just three stars show more until I realized at the end of the book that I really want to read the next offering from Cristina Sumners. show less

I had much more trouble with this book, the second of the series, because it jumped around several different time periods. Two I can handle, but more than that is confusing and annoying to me. Still, I like the characters.