The book
Six postulants. One snowbound abbey. A novice master found dead beneath the bell tower, and a truth hidden inside a lifetime of devotion.
Psychological Murder Mystery / Whodunit
A locked-room mystery set inside a Benedictine monastery in the Umbrian hills, where six novices, one body, and sixty-four years of buried secrets converge. Available as a Kindle ebook and a 361-page paperback.
Synopsis
At the Abbazia di San Gerolamo, a Benedictine monastery high in the Umbrian hills, six postulants are halfway through the year that will decide the rest of their lives. On the morning of the mid-winter feast, the novice master, Father Tomaso Ricci, is found at the foot of the bell tower. It looks like a fall. It isn't. And by nightfall the snow has closed every road off the mountain.
Sister Aude Bellamy, a Dominican canon lawyer and former French magistrate, is sent to establish what happened before the civil authorities can reach the abbey. What she finds is a community bound by the Great Silence, where each postulant is guarding a secret they would do almost anything to keep, and where the line between confession and survival has quietly disappeared.
The Probationers is a locked-room mystery about belonging and exile, about what a person will do to stay inside the world they have built for themselves. It is written for readers who believe a mystery should earn its ending.
The puzzle
The Great Silence should protect the life of the community. Instead, it hides a murder. A fall from the belfry window would have put the body in the inner court; instead it lies on the garden side of the tower, where no accident could have placed it. One door was locked from the inside. One key was in the dead man's own pocket.
To find the truth, Sister Aude has to weigh vows against fear and obedience against motive, and confront her own instinct to trust the people an institution has taught everyone to trust. Every closed system has its own logic. This one has kept its secrets for sixty-four years.
For readers of
If you love the closed-circle puzzles of Agatha Christie, the psychological weather of Tana French, or the cloistered dread of The Name of the Rose, The Probationers is written for you: a fair-play whodunit that treats its suspects as people rather than mechanisms, and an ending that means to be earned.
Reader reviews
Mystery
A gripping mystery with plenty of twists that kept me guessing until the end. The story is well-paced and engaging. Definitely worth reading if you enjoy suspense.
A Mystery Worth Reading
A gripping mystery thriller that kept me hooked till the very last page. The suspense, twists, and unpredictable moments made it impossible to stop reading. Definitely worth reading for thriller lovers.
Q&A
Yes. The Probationers is available on Amazon as a Kindle ebook and as a 361-page paperback, and ships internationally.
It is a standalone debut novel with a complete, self-contained mystery. A second mystery is already underway.
A closed-circle, locked-room whodunit with psychological depth, set inside a snowbound Benedictine monastery. It is written for readers of Agatha Christie and Tana French.
Yes. You can read the opening pages of The Probationers for free through Amazon's Kindle sample.
Yes. The buy links on this page route to your regional Amazon store, and you can switch stores manually if you prefer a different marketplace.
Newsletter