The Missing Madonna by Sister Carol Anne O’Marie is a mystery novel featuring the elderly nun Sister Mary Helen. The novel starts in New York during and OWL trip (Older Women’s League). Sister Mary Helen is in the midst of rekindling her relationship with Erma after a fifty year lapse. After returning to San Fransisco, Erma disappears.
For a mystery the book is entertaining. However the main character, Sister Mary Helen, leads a charmed existent through a charmed world. All characters are good as long as they are Catholic. With each new character introduction, the religion question is almost immediately proposed. If they are good they are Catholic, if not then they are Something Else. The story is about how much you really know about a person. Erma is constantly described as good old Erma, though there is little good about her as the story proceeds.
Overarching the mystery, is the side plot of a detective trying to get pregnant. It is suggested by the characterization that she is an ideal woman, who does not violate her body with piercings and does her wifely duty well. Hard to find in a hard boiled detective of the late 1980s.
It was fun to read but read more like a fairy tale than a mystery.