The Abbess Of Crewe

“The short dirk in the hands of Muriel Spark has always been a deadly weapon;” said The New York Times; and “never more so than in The Abbess of Crewe.” An elegant little fable about intrigue; corruption; and electronic surveillance; The Abbess of Crewe is set in an English Benedictine convent. Steely and silky Abbess Alexandra (whose aristocratic tastes run to pâté; fine wine; English poetry; and carpets of “amorous green”) has bugged the convent; and rigged her election. But the cat gets out of the bag; and—plunged into scandal—the serene Abbess faces a Vatican inquiry.