Sister Mary Frances

Sister Mary Frances is a nun like no other. She is a rich heiress whose father (who had been "a professional atheist") had tied up her legacy in such a way that it could not be used for religious purposes. But, by the agreement of her order, she can access it through her credit card for non-religious purposes, such as her detective work expenses. All her profits can then go to her order. She has become a licenced private investigator, and keeps the certificate "hung between a copy of the Sistine Madonna and a gold-framed photograph of her mother". She says, "I offer discreet services. I do investigative work". When pressed she would go on to explain, "Nuns do very unusual things these days".

She is "pretty. but not too pretty; in her thirties, curly auburn hair ... Her education was at Connecticut prep schools .... Men always looked twice at the face, an unusual face that some thought quite attractive". She is the Provincial Head of her order of Our Lady of Good Counsel, an order which had been "originally formed to counsel the daughters of the rich and aid them in spiritual and material difficulties like unplanned pregnancies, but today members of the order did many things. God's will was everywhere, their founder had said in 1859, and with this mandate, the sister's work had grown to cover unusual roles." This mandate "had led Sister Mary Frances in the direction of being a private detective. It was a serious profession and filled much of her time when practical: nuns had to make money these days."

The order was of French origin and "the cook was the daughter of a five-star French chef". So they subsisted on meals like "coq au vin, simmered gently with unconsecrated altar wine and shallots from the herb garden". Sister Mary Frances reckoned it "might be the only order in America to have a stockbroker. Sister Raphael played stocks like horses and usually came ahead".

Sister Mary Frances "loves physical work, especially when she has a problem to work out". Her education at a boarding school in Connecticut had been the chief factor in her position in the order, and she made good use of it." She is a thoroughly entertaining character.