Book Review: Sister Agatha: The World’s Oldest Serial Killer, Domhnall O’Donoghue
Mystery: Sister Agatha: The World’s Oldest Serial Killer, Domhnall O’Donoghue
Blog Tour June 20, 2022
Sister Agatha: The World’s Oldest Serial Killer, Domhnall O’Donoghue
Blog Tour, June 20, 2022
Not growing up Catholic, or Irish, my perspective on Irish nuns is not shaped by either culture, experience, or childhood impressions. I cannot say, though, that anything would have prepared me for the title of this book: Sister Agatha: The World’s Oldest Serial Killer.
Sister Agatha has been blessed with a long life. At 118 years of age, she is the oldest person in Ireland and the fifth oldest person in the world. She attributes this to many things. She has led a healthy life and remained free of vices. She receives regular checkups. And she made a vow to God to become the oldest person in the world.
Even in the fine health she enjoys, though, she does occasionally become confused or mishears things. Like when her doctor says that there is likely less than a week remaining and “she” should be “killed” right away. Sister Agatha understands this to be a prognosis of her own health and flees the clinic in terror. Hopefully it is not giving too much away to assure the gentle readers that the doctor’s words were neither a prognosis nor a prescription and Sister Agatha was in no more danger than any other person of her age.
Of course, there really were only four other people of her age in the world, and if Sister Agatha is to fulfill the vow she made to God, she had better take it into her own hands to make it happen. She has been religiously (?) collecting articles and stories about her competition. She knows where they live. It is unfortunate, but needs must. Sister Agatha embarks on an epic around-the-world journey to assist those other four persons along the path to their final reward. Of course, with only a week to do so herself, the clock is ticking.e
What follows is an absurd, hilarious romp. Sister Agatha has never before been on a plane. She has never before been out of Ireland. She has never before seen the Sahara, or the U.S., or any of the other places she has to visit. Sometimes nerves take control, so she has some champagne to calm her down. A lot of champagne. Sister Agatha has never before been drunk. Nor has she ever before vomited all over a pretentious man in first class after lecturing him on etiquette.
As far as her new career in crime? Well, I’ll leave you to read the book. Let’s just say that the move from sister to serial killer is both closer and farther than you might expect. Sometimes, God works in mysterious ways, bringing a nun into a life to make a change while evoking in this reader more than a little nod to Gilbert and Sullivan.
Domhnall O’Donoghue may have provided the most entertaining “villain” in the history of crime novels. Sister Agatha takes herself quite seriously, even when preparing for a body check at the airport. I’ll leave it to your imagination what might happen when an aged nun with no travel experience is told she has to have a body exam. (Your imagination is not as wild as O’Donoghue’s, I promise!) Be ready to laugh. Read this book and your day will improve.
And it’s said that laughter is good for both longevity and the soul.
Our thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Random Things Blog Tours for our copy of Sister Agatha, provided so we could take part in this blog tour. The opinions here are solely those of Scintilla. For other perspectives on this novel, check out the other bloggers on this tour.
Book Review: Sister Agatha: The World’s Oldest Serial Killer, Domhnall O’Donoghue