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It is spring at Saint Mary's Abbey, and the abbey is preparing to host the county’s only Catholic Boy Scout troop for the May Day weekend. As is tradition, the scouts will camp on the abbey grounds. Things get complicated when one 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 created by the crimes he investigated outside the abbey. 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 underfoot. 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 a murder investigation. It does not appear to him to be a simple burglary, a suspicion confirmed after someone attempts to harm the father while on the lonely country road return trip to Saint Mary’s.
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, might be the best one yet. Fiorella De Maria has written a taut story involving a complicated crime. It delivers an exciting, thought-provoking story.
“May Day!: A Father Gabriel Mystery,” by Fiorella De Maria, Ignatius Press, March 2025, 412 pages, $17.95 (paperback), $17.95 (e-book)
This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.
Discussion (7)
CHARTER MEMBER
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There was never this much dramatics when I was an ASM for our St Mary's Catholic troop.
Sprained ankles, dehydration, possible food poisoning (a hazard for being the cooking merit badge counselor), knife wounds (always an occurrence with the wood carving merit badge), and once an emergency room run for a bursted appendix.
So I consider myself lucky with no murder investigations.
CONTRIBUTOR
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Well, you weren't in England in the years immediately after WWII, providing motivation for offing someone due to the ill they did during or immediately before the war. Besides, the dramatics take place in a village five miles from the abbey, not among the scouts.
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This sounds like a series I would like to invest some time in. Thank you.
CONTRIBUTOR
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It is addictive.
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I've read the first 2 books and really enjoyed them. The others plus this new one are on my list. I think they are next to the series by Ralph McInerney for giving Catholic insight in a murder mystery. Fr. Dowling books. I just remembered the name of the character. Nothing like the tv series of course.
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