In Jess Kidd’s Murder at Gulls Nest, the year is 1954, the country is England and the irrepressible amateur sleuth is Nora Breen, formerly Sister Agnes. After 30 years as a nun and nurse, the mystery-novel aficionada has shed her habit and embarked on an urgent mission: Find her mentee and friend, “sunny young novice” Frieda Brogan.
Several months ago, an ailing Frieda left the convent for Gulls Nest boardinghouse in Gore-on-Sea, Kent, a small town rife with salty, healing air. She promised to regularly write to Nora, and “for the entire year Nora had known her, Frieda had never gone back on her word, or broken a promise, whether big or small.” When Frieda’s weekly letters suddenly ceased, Nora’s deep worry was exacerbated by a comment in her last missive: “I believe every one of us at Gulls Nest is concealing some kind of secret.”
What better way to investigate Frieda’s disappearance than to go undercover as a new Gulls Nest resident? Nora, an expert in quietude and contemplation, is “starting to relish the lightness of her head and the novelty of all-round vision, without the wimple and veil.” When she’s not bouncing ideas off a friendly gull she dubs Father Conway, Nora subtly delves into her neighbors’ inner lives and insists on sharing theories with the occasionally receptive Inspector Rideout. She also engages in absolutely-not-Rideout-condoned activities, such as an attempt to stealthily tail someone (she must occasionally “[aim] herself through a hedge or over a wall”) and interrogating powerful locals.
In previous works like The Night Ship, Kidd evoked the supernatural; here, she explores the ineffable via a woman compelled by intuition and haunted by memories. At the convent, Nora’s inquisitiveness and cleverness “found her scrubbing a far greater share of bathtubs than any other postulant.” Now, who knows where those qualities might lead her? Ultimately, she hopes they’ll help unearth the truth about dark and disturbing Gulls Nest goings-on, and Kidd’s fans will be delighted to know they’ll factor in to more mysteries to come: The atmospheric, inventive Murder at Gulls Nest is but the first installment in the new Nora Breen Investigates series.
