Thurlo, Aimee and David: Prey for a Miracle

In Prey for A Miracle, Natalie, the eight year old niece of Father Mahoney, is the victim (along with her mother) of a hit and run accident. Natalie is quietly given refuge at Our Lady of Hope while her mother is recovering in the hospital. Natalie has been visited by an angel and says another angel who is male watches over the Monastery. Her mother had asked her to keep these sightings to herself, but Natalie wanted friends and thought knowledge of her angel would help her make friends. Instead, people wanted to take advantage of her and her mother was trying to leave town to fi nd a simpler life for them when the accident occurred. It quickly becomes apparent that someone is trying to kidnap her and the nuns work together to keep her safe.

Meanwhile, the storm that happened the night of Natalie’s accident compromised part of the Monastery’s roof. Workmen have invaded the Monastery and the expensive repair makes it necessary for the nuns to come up with a large amount of cash. Their popular cookie recipe seems like it might be a good place to start. The local grocery agrees to sell them, and the nuns go into baking mode.

With every trip into town, Sister Agatha and whoever she takes with her are followed by a tan pick up truck. Collaborating with the local sheriff’s office and visiting Natalie’s hospitalized mother all become stressful and dangerous occasions. Even innocent runs to purchase more supplies for the sisters who are baking cookies, or delivering the cookies to the store, give Sister Agatha more to worry about. The local baker feels like the sisters are trying to run him out of business, and when he tries to sell an inferior knock off of their cookies the townspeople organize a protest.

A local appliance store had provided the Monastery with a new gas range to supplement their older ones but the night and day operation soon was too much for the older stoves. They were soon left with just the new one and that was not adequate to keep up with the orders they were receiving. A surprise ending to that part of the story is very heart warming.

Natalie’s plight was not quite so easy to fix. In the end, Sister Agatha’s detective work along with the local sheriff’s office solved the mystery of who was trying to kidnap her and why. The Thurlos paint a realistic picture of the life in a cloistered convent and the interaction of its extern nuns with the townspeople in their small town. Their mystery stories are always good puzzles.