Set in a nunnery, this book revolves around conflict between two nuns who are given joint adminstrative roles. A fast-paced plot with believable characters. Hard to be sympathetic, somehow, though. ( )

I suppose a Convent setting was essential so that males and their motives could be entirely excluded from this novel. The Convent depicted is clearly Anglican. Having known three Convents rather well, and a fair number of nuns, these women are in a class of their own. At times the closed society depicted reminds one of the Stalinist Soviet Union, at other times of a nonunionised company of the 40s in the USA. Nowhere do the authentic tensions of women living together under a strict rule, centered around charity and the Divine Office, emerge. An interesting 'comedy of manners', as the book jacket depicts it, but rather disppointing in its depiction of Convent life. ( )