Looking for a good read? Here is a recommendation. I have an unusual approach to reviewing books. I review books I feel merit a review. Each review is an opportunity to recommend a book. If I do not think a book is worth reading, I find another book to review. You do not have to agree with everything every author has written (I do not), but the fiction I review is entertaining (and often thought-provoking) and the non-fiction contain ideas worth reading.
Book Review
A Death in England
Reviewed by Mark Lardas
May 18, 2025
“May Day!: A Father Gabriel Mystery,” by Fiorella De Maria, Ignatius Press, March 2025, 412 pages, $17.95 (paperback), $17.95 (e-book)
It is spring at Saint Mary’s Abbey in England, and the abbey is preparing to host the county’s only Catholic Boy Scout troop for the May Day weekend. As traditional they will camp on the abbey grounds. Things get complicated when once of the scouts, Antoine Nicholson, gets sent home upon arrival for past misbehavior.
“May Day!: A Father Gabriel Mystery,” by Fiorella De Maria, sees Father Gabriel back at his beloved monastery, a little worse for the stress that the crimes he investigated outside the abbey created. He desires a return to the simple, contemplative life of a monk.
Man proposes and God disposes. Antoine returns to the abbey at suppertime. His grandfather insists Antoine attend the scout outing. Antoine’s father is ill and grandfather does not want Antoine under foot. When the scoutmaster sends Antoine home a second time Father Gabriel accompanies the boy.
Once there they discover the boy’s father is dead, apparently murdered in a botched burglary. The house is a crime scene and the police bar anyone from staying that night. The grandfather can stay at a local pub, but the boy cannot. Father Gabriel agrees to find a place to shelter the lad.
Gabriel soon finds himself drawn into murder investigation. It does not appear to him to be a simple burglary, a suspicion confirmed after someone attempts to harm the father while returning to Saint Mary’s while Gabriel is bicycling on a lonely country road at night.
He soon realizes the murder is connected to the wartime death of Antoine’s mother Brigitte Nicholson. A Frenchwoman she was sent to Occupied France for the Special Operations Executive when Antoine was a toddler. Caught by the Gestapo after being betrayed, she was tortured and executed. It is suspected that she was betrayed by someone in England.
Gabriel’s inquiries soon uncover a murky web of deceit, corruption and treachery within the village. Reaching back to the World War II years, it continued in the postwar years, creating secrets people are willing to kill over to prevent exposure.
The book goes beyond being a simple crime story. As with all Father Gabriel stories De Maria examines underlying issues of morality, the meaning of life, and the value of sacrifice. The sixth Father Gabriel mystery, “May Day,” may be the best one yet. Fiorella De Maria has written a taut story involving a complicated crime. It delivers an exciting, thought-provoking story.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.