Life Without Shoes: The First Father Ambrose Mystery

By: Emma Cyrus

Narrated by: David Sloan

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Brother Cadfael meets Walt Longmire. Everyone has an inner life.... Father Ambrose found a simple, worthwhile path leading a secluded spiritual community in Northern California. He spends his days happily focused on guiding the farming and teaching meditation. Then, someone dumps a body in one of their orchards.  

Now, the confusion and violence of the modern world have come crashing through the gates. Father Ambrose wants Sheriff Charlie Cormley to believe the body has nothing to do with them, but it’s not that easy.  

He reluctantly takes on the sleuth’s role to find the truth and clear new life of suspicion. He finds himself moving out into the world in ways he never imagined, and life in his community will never be the same.

©2017 Square Root Press LLC (P)2019 Square Root Press LLC

Critic Reviews

“New Life should be a place of rest and healing. So why would anyone dump a body in the orchards? Can the visionary Father Ambrose hold onto his own peace of mind, help his fragile community survive, and assist the police in catching a murderer? Life Without Shoes is a gentle newcomer in the world of clerical mysteries - welcome!” (Donna Fletcher Crow, The Monastery Murders) 

“A butchered and bagged body shatters a spiritual community’s peace in California. The interactions between characters are skillfully rendered, as is the dialogue. A well-written story.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Fuggedabodit

Story is filled with stereotypes from the 1970s. The narrator is reading lines as if he never read dialogue before. The ‘cult’s ‘Monks’are altruistic and the bad guy turns out to be a Jewish lawyer? All very one dimensional and repetitious!