Mystery Readers Group: Ecclesiastical Mysteries

From abbeys to mosques to temples, no place of worship is immune to a good mystery.

So say your prayers and dig into some ecclesiastical mysteries with us (and no, we won’t quiz you on how to spell “ecclesiastical”)!

A few leads:

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco: In the year 1327, Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns to the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, and the empirical insights of Roger Bacon to find the killer.

Blackwater Falls, by Ausma Zehanat Khan: Girls from immigrant communities have been disappearing for months in the Colorado town of Blackwater Falls, but the local sheriff is slow to act. The calls for justice become too loud to ignore when the body of a star student and refugee – the Syrian teenager Razan Elkader—is positioned deliberately in a mosque.

Scorched Grace, by Margot Douaihy: Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this debut crime novel set in scorching New Orleans.

Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, by Harry Kemelman: Rabbi David Small, the new leader of Barnard's Crossing's Jewish community, can't even enjoy his Sabbath without things getting stirred up in a most unorthodox way. It seems a young nanny has been found strangled, less than a hundred yards from the Temple's parking lot – and all the evidence points to Rabbi Small.

In the Bleak Midwinter, by Julia Spencer-Fleming: Clare Fergusson, the first female priest of an Episcopal church in Millers Kill, New York, finds herself immersed in the town’s secrets when a newbown baby is abandoned and a young mother is brutally slain.

--and that’s just a starting point! Join us to exchange book recommendations and discover new favorites with fellow mystery lovers.

Menlo Park’s Mystery Readers Group meets online on the third Tuesday of each month. Rather than reading the same book, we all share our reading of different books surrounding a particular theme.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025 | 06:00 PM - 07:15 PM
Zoom webinar

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