The crime scene at St. Marguerite's cathedral in New Orleans is shocking, even to seasoned detectives like Rick Bentz and Reuben Montoya. A novice nun named Sister Camille has been found dressed in a yellowed bridal gown and viciously garroted, her body covered with an altar cloth. Valerie Houston is devastated by her sister's death. For weeks, she'd begged Camille to leave St. Marguerite's, where she seemed determined to live as some kind of martyr....

"It's a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend--a nun beloved by the community--has been found dead in her apartment. When police declare the mysterious death a suicide, Glory is convinced that there must be more to the story. With her reluctant...

Lassair awakes in the morning in 1092 with the feeling that something in the spirit world is trying to reach her. When Lassair learns that a nun has been murdered at the same nunnery where her sister lives, Lassair sets out to investigate.

"The Reverend Mother is delighted with her new entrant to the convent. Young Sister Gertrude is well-educated, has worked for an accountant and has an appealing sense of humour. But one autumn morning, Sister Gertrude is found dead inside a small wooden shed, just beside the river. Surely a young nun could not die from alcohol poisoning? But when the Reverend Mother delves more deeply into Sister Gertrude's background, she finds some puzzling anomalies....