Really enjoyed this book. Great plot and engaging, believe characters. I was drawn right into the story. Would definitely recommend.

Alibis & Angels by Olivia Mathews is the third book in the Sister Lou Mystery series. Sister Lou is focused on the upcoming Lenten season when she is asked by the mayor to look into a recent murder. The mayor's finance director is murdered, but it seems that the mayor may have been the intended target. While this book definitely has a religious theme, I love the author's gentle way of discussing the topic. Sister Lou is a wonderful character, and the supporting characters are equally charming. The smart characters and wholesome writing make this one of my favorite cozy mystery series.

The Sisters of St. Hermione of Ephesus offer sanctuary to Mayor Heather Stanley after her finance director dies in what appears to be a slip and fall accident, but since the mayor has been getting threatening notes it may not be the case since the victim was wearing the mayor's coat and driving her car. Burglaries, muggings make it seem that there are some voters that don't want the mayor re-elected.

Sister Lou and the nuns are great characters and the story centered around the Lenten season expands the reader's involvement in the religious aspects of the story. Twists and turns keep the reader searching for the resolution until the end.

I enjoy this series. It’s one of the few religious themed cozies that I read and was my first non Amish series. I love the sisters. I look forward to many more in this series as everyone I’ve read so far has been wonderful.

Ms. Matthews has done it again, a prevailing theme in the Sister Lou trilogy has been women empowerment. That theme is most glaring here in Alibis & Angels. The featured characters are all strongwomen: from the mayor and her all women staff, Shari Henson the reporter, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Hermoine of Ephesus and of course Sister Lou. These women will not be pushed around, they stand their ground and are now afraid to go toe to toe with any of the equally powerful that they come up against.
Ms. Matthews, took the time to further develop the characters and the relationships that they were involved in, I was happy for the background information on the conflict between the Mayor Heather Stanley and Diego De Varona, the publisher of the town's newspaper. As it turns out the fleshing out of this conflict was a significant turning point in discovering the identity of the killer. Ms. Matthews also fleshed out more beloved characters, Shari Henson and Sr. Lou's nephew Chris La Salle. Watching Shari work through her issues and open up to Chris appealed to the romantic in me.
As always Ms. Matthews gives you a fair share of suspect and systematically works through to eliminate them as suspects. Going back to the empowerment of women, it is only through one woman refusing to lay down and accept her situation that the killer is brilliantly played and tricked into not only identifying himself, but confessing to the murders as well. Well done, Matthews hope that Sr. Lou's hiatus/retirement is a short one.

Oh, the best laid plans.....Sister Louise (Lou) LaSalle has decided to give up sleuthing for Lent. She is firm in this. Until Mayor Heather Stanley comes to her for help finding out who is stalking and threatening her. Heather had been silent about it and, when the time comes to attend a Board meeting, she is too upset to go and asks her finance director to take her place. Opal agrees and ends up wearing Heather's coat and driving her car. When Opal later dies from a tragic fall, wearing Heather's coat, the police say accident but Heather feels it was an attempt to kill her and turns to Sister Lou for help.
Now the question becomes is the stalker the killer, is it tied to her job as Mayor (and somebody doesn't want her to run for re-election) or is it buried deep in her past and is very personal. If anyone can find out, it's Sister Lou along with her nephew Chris and his girlfriend, Shari. They are quite a team and this isn't the first time they have investigated a murder. I hope it won't be the last. This is a series I would like to see have a long run. It can be read as a stand alone but, if this is your first introduction to Sister Lou, be ready to pick up the previous mysteries to catch up.

A fairly standard cozy mystery with very good characters, but very slow pace. There is very little happening and very little suspense.

Heather Stanley may not be the nicest person around but she's the mayor of Briar Coast. AND, she doesn't deserve to be murdered. Unfortunately, her chief of Finance, Opal is killed and that sets off the hunt for who is targeting her. Sister Lou, along with her nephew Chris and friend Shari, hide Heather so that they can investigate. This is a nice cozy series, with good characters (especially Sister Lou) and a nice setting (although there have been a lot of murders in this small town!). Thanks to Netgalley for the ArC. Low key and entertaining.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
This is the 3rd book in A Sister Lou Mystery Series, and I have been lucky to have read them all.
As I have stated before, I love this series because of the location, characters and the relationships/friendships that are developing between the 3 main characters.
I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery and I can’t wait to read the next book in the the series.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading cozy mysteries.

It's the second book I read in this series and I liked it.
It was nice to meet again the cast of characters and it was a pleasant and entertaining read.
The mystery was good, no plot hole, and it kept me guessing till the end.
I appreciated that the writer reduced the number of adjectives, I didn't care for the religious part that was more present than in the previous good.
I look forward to reading the next instalment in this series.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Kensington Books and Netgalley for this ARC

This is the 3rd installment in the Sister Lou mystery series. The mayor (Heather Stanley) has been receiving threatening letters as she is getting ready to start her re-election campaign. Opal the Mayor’s director of Finance falls to her death and local law enforcement think it was just an accident. Heather does not think it was an accident as Opal was driving her car and wearing her coat. She reaches out for help and Sister Lou cannot say no. With the help of Chris her nephew and reporter Shari they search out the culprit. This was a good paced mystery and I hope this series continues. Recommend.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book it was a great experience love little cozy mysterys

I did not care for Alibis and Angels for many reasons. First the writing is forced - too many adjectives for the nouns in the sentence. Second, the competitiveness of the intern reporter with the beat reporter has been done to death. It's not even interesting. Third, too much religious focus. I don't really care about giving something up for Lent and I'm not that interested in what characters in a mystery are doing about it. I don't like the idea that the non-Catholic is feeling pressured to give something up.

Sister Lou is back with another mystery. In this story, the mayor is receiving threatening letters. Her campaign for re-election will soon be announced and someone doesn't want the mayor to be re-elected. After the director of finance, Opal, falls to her death, the mayor decides to seek out help. She doesn't want the local law enforcement or the public to know about the mysterious, threatening letters, so she turns to Sister Lou for help.
I liked it! It was a good mystery. It was nice to see Shari, Chris and Sister Lou back again. The mystery was written at a good steady pace and the author did a great job with the antagonist who was annoying Shari! Of course, a Sister Lou mystery wouldn't be complete without the ever pushy Sister Marianna!
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kensington through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a great premise with interesting characters and a solid cozy whodunit. However, I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the previous books in the series.

Another delightful entry in the Sister Lou mysteries. This time someone is targeting the mayor with anonymous, threatening letters urging her not to run for re-election. She takes refuge at the motherhouse and enlists Sister Lou and her team to help.

But viable suspects aren't in great supply. Will they solve the danger to the mayor?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I love the characters and the way we learn more about them in each new book.