The Revealing Retreat

The Mercy and Justice Mysteries #8

by J.R. Mathis

Enjoy this Small-Town Murder Mystery Featuring A Unique Sleuthing Couple. After almost two months away, I'm so glad to be back to work at Saint Clare's. True, I'm not back to celebrating Mass on a regular basis. But I'm in the office and able to help the people of my parish. I was expecting them to come to me with their problems. But I wasn't expecting them to come offering to help me. So when Martin Maycord proposes a weekend retreat at a mountain lodge owned by a friend of his as a way to help Steve and Bridget Austin get caught up with preparations to have their marriage sacramentalized in the Church, I'm more than eager to accept. Helen and I go off with our friends, expecting a nice weekend in the mountains. We don't expect having to investigate a murder. What's worse, one of our friends is the prime suspect. But what's even worse, I know something about the whole thing, and I can't tell Helen . . . After almost two months away, I'm so glad to be back to work as Chief of Police. It's been rough being away from my people, and I know I have a long way to go to rebuild their trust, but I'm committed to doing just that. But when the opportunity comes up for me to accompany Tom on the retreat organized by Martin Maycord, I just can't turn it down. Especially since it gives me the opportunity to help one of my favorite officers. So Tom and I go off with our friends, expecting to relax while Tom helps Steve and Bridget prepare for their marriage in the church. I didn't expect to wind up investigating a murder. What's worse, one of our friends is the prime suspect. But what's even worse, Tom knows something about the whole thing, and can't tell me . . . The Revealing Retreat is the eighth novel in the Mercy and Justice Mysteries, a contemporary small town mystery series. The series is a sequel to the Father Tom Mysteries that began with The Penitent Priest and includes the same cast of characters. It features Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest who is also an amateur sleuth in the tradition of Father Brown, and his wife Helen Greer, female Chief of Police and detective in the tradition of Kinsey Millhone.

220 pages, Paperback

Published November 22, 2022

About the author

Susan Mathis was born in and grew up in an extremely small town in Alachua County, Florida where her family has lived for more than 100 years. When Susan was still very young, James (J.R) Mathis was born in a somewhat bigger small town about 100 miles south of where she lived. Within a decade, James' small town would become part of Orlando, the biggest tourist destination in the United States. He was not amused. That is how, while Susan was running barefoot, swimming in lakes full of alligators and feeding chickens, James was sitting in his bedroom reading books faster than his father could bring them home from the library.

Were James and Susan to write their love story, it would definitely be an enemies-to-lovers trope. They met in the library where he was working. He found her demands for books that he had to pull and bring to her so unreasonable that he actually turned her into the head librarian. She in turn was so anxious to drive him away that when some friends secretly set them up she laid out an entire speech about how miserable her life was (she is typically very upbeat). Little did she suspect that he had a passionate attraction to misery and they were married just over a year later.

Fast forward 26 years, three children, four grandchildren and 20 years of James working for the Federal government. He was diagnosed with a highly treatable but still very scary form of cancer. As so often happens, this brush with mortality inspired him to do something he’d always wanted to do, write a novel. After the publication of the second Father Tom Mystery, Susan joined him as coauthor. As far as the Mathises are concerned, writing together is the most fun a couple can have sitting at a computer.

Reviews

[Rebecca Carter-Daughtrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome series!

I love this series! With the way the characters interact with each other despite their shortcomings and sins, they love each other and are a family unit even though they aren't related by blood. The fact that Helen and Dan want to make sure they get the right person for the crimes that were committed is refreshing as I know that this isn't how the justice system normally works. But the contrast between Helen and Father Tom and the fact that they both, by way of their choice of career, have to keep secrets from each other, makes for a marriage like no other. Of course, the fact that Father Tom has been given dispensation to marry is unusual in itself I assume (I'm not catholic so I'm not aware of how that church works). I am looking forward to many more escapades from Father Tom and Helen and the gang in the years to come and am anxiously awaiting the next book in the series. My only complaint is that I read the books faster than J.R. and Susan Mathis can write them!

[Paula Corregan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very engaging and enjoyable read. Father Tom, Helen along with their friends and fellow parishioners, Dan, Miriam, Martin, Mae, Steve and Bridget go to a mountain lodge for a few days of marital counseling for Steve and Bridget before the Catholic Church recognizes their marriage. While there and during a huge storm, one of the lodge's staff disappears. While Helen and Dan are investigating the dissapearance, two mens' bodies are found, and the there are more questions. What happened to the men? Read this compelling book and find out. I highly recommend this book to other mystery readers. I received an ARC of this book, and the opinion expressed is strictly my own.

[Karen L. Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great mystery in the Father Tom and Chief Helen series. Great characters and a good mystery.