Review by Booklist Review
Inexplicably out of print for more than 30 years, Westlake's 1975 novel about the residents of a New York City monastery who desperately search for a way to stave off the impending demolition of their home is one of his best stand-alones. Narrated by Brother Benedict (in his pre-monk days, he was Charles Rowbottom, jilted fiancé), the book showcases the kind of careful, precise but seemingly effortless character-building and devilishly clever plotting that earned Westlake a devoted following among mystery fans. Sporting a spiffy new cover design (Paul Mann's painting perfectly captures the flavor of the novel), the book will either be a welcome trip down memory lane for Westlake's older fans or a first-time read for his younger fans. Either way, this delightful mixture of mirth and mystery is classic Westlake.--David Pitt Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this fast and easy comedy of errors first published in 1975 from MWA Grand Master Westlake (1933-2008), real estate developers cast avaricious eyes on the Manhattan monastery of the Crispinite Order of the Novum Mundum. Brother Benedict and the 15 other monks in the mendicant order scramble to save their home. They can't compete on the financial front. They can barely negotiate their way out of the neighborhood. Too many pages may be expended lovingly detailing street and train routes when the robed heroes go out to confront the developers, but one of their excursions introduces Benedict to Eileen Flattery, the daughter of the man who holds the deed to the property. Pursuit of Eileen eventually takes Benedict all the way to Puerto Rico. If this isn't a typical Westlake heist caper, the action does feature frantic searches for 100-year-old lease agreements, bugging devices, and a touch of burglary and arson. And what reader can resist the punning reference to "felonious monks"? Even a minor work such as this one from this gifted writer is an unalloyed pleasure. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A tiny band of monks facing the loss of their monastery in midtown Manhattan fight back in this slight, humorous 1975 charmer.You wouldn't expect to find the Crispinite Order of the Novum Mundum lodged on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets, and come New Year's Day, you probably won't. While they were meditating on otherworldly matters, their 99-year-lease, last renewed in 1876, was optioned from Daniel Flattery, the current owner of their land, by developer Roger Dwarfmann, who plans to raze historic structures all along the block to make way for a 67-story office building. The 16 sort-of-cloistered monks can't even find their copy of the lease, and they haven't a clue how to stop the wrecking ball from exiling them to the likes of New Paltz. The most important upshot of a delegation's visit to Dan Flattery is that Brother Benedict, the winsome narrator who's been a member of CONM for 10 years, falls head over heels in love with Eileen Flattery Bone, their leaseholder's daughter. Anyone familiar with Westlake's peerless crime comedies (Help I Am Being Held Prisoner, 1974, etc.) will be confident that the unlikely romance between Brother Benedict, ne Charles Rowbottom, and the divorce who predictably describes herself as "the sincerest of Flatterys" will end in laughter, and the high point of the tale is this modern Candide's trip to Puerto Rico to plead both his order's case and his own to a young woman with nothing but sun and surf on her mind.Not much in the way of felonies, and most of the other 15 monks are ciphers. But Westlake's sweetly consecrated hero, at once disconcertingly direct and utterly clueless, will bring you to your feet cheering for his impossible cause. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
