What We're Reading: Brenda

Isadore's Secret: Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan Town by Mardi Link

This true crime story written by a Bay City native tells the story of a Felician nun, Sister Mary Janina, who disappeared in 1907 from a Catholic church in Isadore, MI where she taught. Her body was discovered buried in the basement of the church in 1918 and caused quite a scandal in this small, remote, mostly Polish farming community located outside of Traverse City in Leelanau County. To this day the people of Isadore don't like to talk about the "tragedy" and are very secretive about it. The story has all of the elements of a good murder mystery: rumors of a love affair, a hidden body, a scandal in the Church, and an eventual trial. The mystery is also the basis for the Broadway play and film "The Runner Stumbles." At the end of the book you will be left wondering if the right person was convicted and what really was the motive for the nun's murder.