Nebby Nun: A book review of "Old Habits Die Hard"

Lone bird on a branch at sunset.
Outside "Fennel Farmhouse" at
"Fairfield" retirement center

Old Habits Die Hard

By Melissa Westemeier

265 pages.  Published 2025.

I loved this book!  In all her books, Ms. Westemeier knows how to create characters the reader can feel sympathetic toward, despite their foibles and failings (the characters, not the readers).  I find it hard to read a book with no sympathetic characters.

Sister Bernadette (“please call me Bernie”) is a nun, retired from teaching, and living in a retirement home located in the building that was formerly the school where she taught.  This woman knows how to tell a fib, or ten fibs if necessary.  She knows the best places to hide out for eavesdropping.  But that’s blessed behavior, because it’s all done to solve a mystery in service to humankind.  I like the portrayal of the police detectives, one of whom was Bernie’s student back in the day.  And loved the author’s clever way of naming one of the bad guys, to evoke a real-life bad guy.  

This is a murder mystery, but not too gruesome for me to read.  The good news for me is that this is Nun the Wiser Mysteries Book 1, the first in a series.  I know it might be a while, but I am looking forward to the next adventures of Bernie the retired teacher-nun.   I haven’t met the author in real life but have corresponded with her.  I feel that we are like sisters – not nun sisters, but soul sisters.

Like in Alexander McCall Smith’s books (of which I am also fond), this one includes some poignant observations about humanity and the world.  And also a brief but accurate description of how snorkeling can blow one’s mind.  

The setting reminded me very much of the retirement place where my parents and aunt lived.  To preserve anonymity I will call that place "Fairfield" on this blog.  To my knowledge there never has been a murder at the real-life Fairfield retirement center.  In Old Habits Die Hard,  the author expertly captures the pace of life, the way people interact, the daily events of a retirement center – all spot on, based on my visits to Fairfield.

The real-life Fairfield campus still has the original farm owner’s house, which I will call Fennel Farmhouse.  For many years, it was set up as a guest house with four guest rooms, and our whole extended family would stay there while visiting my Mom, Dad, and Auntie.  Fennel Farmhouse had a back staircase, with secret access to each of the guest rooms, and the creepiest basement in the universe.  There was a full kitchen with many sharp cooking implements.  The fancy living room and dining room provide ample space for elegant parties, or for Hercule Poirot to gather the suspects and reveal all.  There would be no better setting for a murder mystery.  

I mentioned to my brothers that I was reading a mystery set in a place very like Fairfield.  My brother wrote back: 

Carolyn,

I'll see your Murder-at-a-place-similar-to-Fairfield, and raise you

"Murder at Fennel Farmhouse".  I found it in a Little

Library today.  Sticker says 14.95 euros, and on sale for "buy one

get one at half price".

No idea if it's any good.

It won't be the first time I've read a dubious book purely because

the title resonates.

"Christmas is fast approaching when a dead stranger is found lodged

up the chimney of Fennel Farmhouse..."

The title to Melissa Westemeier’s book Old Habits Die Hard definitely resonates.  I found four books with that same title on the Storygraph app.  Ignore those other ones; read this one.

I highly recommend Old Habits Die Hard by Melissa Westemeier for a cozy murder mystery.  Well done, Melissa!

The John Grisham section in the library
at "Fairfield" retirement center.