Mystery – 79,000 words, complete

On a cold November night, a piercing screech from the garden shed draws disgruntled Benedictine Brother Paul out to investigate. What he finds turns his quiet, monastic world upside down – it is a 10-year-old girl, a wild child of the woods, running from the police or, more precisely, from a belligerent sheriff with secrets to hide.

Set at a large monastery in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains, Miranda’s Joy details a journey for justice and understanding on the girl’s behalf as an engaging cast of characters—monks, townspeople, local law enforcement, and even a papal envoy—sort out the truth regarding a series of suspicious fires as well as an unsolved murder.