Dead South: A Sister Cecile Mystery - Tapa dura

Sister Cecile, heiress, private investigator, and dedicated nun, was introduced in A Sudden Death at the Norfolk Cafe, Winona Sullivan's first novel and winner of the PWA/St. Martin's Best First Private Eye Novel Contest. The lovely young nun plunges into her second case when a CIA agent vacationing in Miami disappears.
Since Sister Cecile is unknown to the various political and criminal forces at work in South Florida, she is recruited to travel from her home in Boston to find the missing agent. Accompanied by Sister Raphael, her septuagenarian sidekick, Cecile makes her way through the exotic, sweltering region, searching for the man who has vanished.
Cecile's progress is hampered by the bumbling crooks who have kidnapped the agent, a knife-wielding hit man, and a motherless twelve-year-old girl recovering from chicken-pox. Cecile and Raphael eventually take the girl under their wing, with decidedly mixed results. The resulting adventures have the suspenseful and tongue-in-cheek touch that made this author's first work such a delightful and engrossing read.