A Donald Westlake novel following the inhabitants of a monastery who face the unwelcome prospect of having their home sold out for under them to a developer and relocated. They struggle to stop this, while the narrator, Brother Benedict, finds himself questioning his vows while falling in love with their landlords daughter.
Tropes:
- Anti-Villain: Mr. Flattery is a troubled man, guilty when confronted with his actions, and being pushed by financial problems. Ultimately, he gives up the whole affair without much fo a fight, although under the condition of Benedict staying away from his daughter.
- Badass Bureaucrat: Brother Clemence and Brother Dexter work hard to dig through old paperwork to find proof of their ownership through carious secondary documents to support a copy of the stolen lease they've found.
- Christianity is Catholic: The story follows a group of Catholic monks.
- Family-Values Villain: Mr. Flattery is a loving family man, and is troubled by his conscience due to being raised Catholic.
- Mentor Archetype: Brother Oliver is a source of profound, comforting wisdom to Benedict, although also a somewhat unworldly man after spending most of his life in the monastery.
- The Mole: After the Flattery's sabotage them in a way which indicates insider information, the monks worry about this prospect. Only it turns out that there was no spy, just a listening device.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The monks come from all lots in life before ending up where they are; a Vietnam war deserter, a self-loathing gay man, a former corporate attorney, a boxer, a Reformed Criminal, a former actor, a banker, and a merchant marine sailor, just to name some of them.
- Scatter Brained Senior: Brother Zebuluon, one of the two oldest monks, isn't quite all there, although he does remember some useful tidbits now and then.
- Shady Real Estate Agent: Zigzagged. Mr. Dwarfmann is a bit of a cold businessman plowing through old buildings, but his proposed replacement project doesn't sound necessarily bad, everyone else in the area wants to sell to him, and its the monasteries landlords who do the actual attempts to sabotage the monks efforts to stay while Dwarfmann remains oblivious to the whole thing.
- Shout-Out: One of the monastery's former abbots wrote an eleven-volume biography of a saint named Jude the Obscure.
- True Companions: The monks really do care for each other, and the sense of family they've developed.
