A good Southwest mystery

I just finished Thief in Retreat, the second Sister Agatha mystery by Aimee and David Thurlo (best known for their Ella Clah novels).

I really enjoyed Bad Faith, the first Sister Agatha mystery, when I read it a few years ago. Sister Agatha is a nun in a cloistered community in New Mexico. She is an extern, one of the 2 nuns who has contact with the outside world. Bad Faith had a pretty good mystery, interesting character, and a fascinating look at the life of a cloistered nun.

Thief in Retreat is also good, if not quite as interesting as the first book. In this book, the archbishop asks Sister Agatha to look into a mystery of art missing from a former monastery turned into a hotel. I think some of the flatness of the story was that Sister Agatha spent all except the first chapter of the book out of the cloister. Also, there was a unrealistic and completely unrelated incident in the first chapter, where Sister Agatha is running errands for her house and accidently walks into an armed robber, who she takes out with the help of her dog.

I'll check out the third book when it is published later this year. Overall, I recommend the books if you like cozy mysteries.