June Wright had already published three popular mysteries by the time
she created her most memorable detective, the Reverend Mother Mary St
Paul of the Cross. The kindly Mother Paul may seem vague and
otherwordly, but little escapes her attention--she has a shrewd grasp of
everything that's going on beneath the surface. In Reservation for
Murder, the first of three Mother Paul novels (originally published in
1958), she is in charge of a residential hostel for young women who work
in offices and shops in Melbourne. A tense atmosphere pervades the
house--many of the residents have received unpleasant anonymous letters,
and there is much speculation as to their author. When Mary Allen finds
a stranger stabbed in the garden, who dies after uttering a mysterious
name, and a few days later one of the residents is found drowned, an
apparent suicide, the tension reaches fever pitch. Is there a connection
between these two deaths? Or between them and the letters? The police
investigation, abetted by the resourceful Mary Allen, proceeds in fits
and starts, but meanwhile Mother Paul pursues her own enquiries.
