Coming Soon: 'The Earth Weighs Heavy' by Alison Joseph

 
Published by Joffe Books
12 October 2025

The ninth book in the Sister Agnes series.

Sister Agnes has returned from the Order’s charity work at the Calais refugee camps. She was summarily sacked by Paula Gerrard, the charity CEO, and is still angry about it. Something bad happened there – a drowning, following a failed attempt by some of the men to board a dinghy.  Back in the convent, she is put to work documenting an archive of Russian icon paintings. She is troubled, with a sense that something unresolved about Calais will follow her to London.

Then – a disastrous flash flood in East London lifts the old stone flagstones in the convent cellar and reveals a skeleton.  Police investigation dates it as a woman who died there about fifty years ago. But there is no record of a missing person.

Agnes meets Frank Tillman, a man in his fifties who turns up on the doorstep with reels of tape recordings made by his late father, a Russian translator. The tapes imply that Frank’s father knew the dead woman - Celia Danziger, his father’s secret lover. Agnes and Julius listen to the tapes and wonder what to do. 

There is an old house on the corner which was also flood-damaged, owned by a wealthy young couple of City workers who live there with their baby. Stephanie confides in Agnes that her husband, Adam, is eaten up with fury at the damage to his house.

Meanwhile, Sister Josephine in the archive appears to know more about the dead woman in the cellar than she is letting on – and is more and more troubled by a missing Russian icon that is supposed to be in the Order’s collection.

Paula Gerrard, charity CEO, makes a surprise visit to London and asks Agnes to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement. Agnes is mystified and refuses. She wonders what Paula thinks she knows that is potentially damaging. She thinks it’s to do with the drowning. She remembers the drowned man’s sister, Medodzi, angry and grief-stricken and swearing revenge. Her colleague at the camps, Sister Winifred, tells her that Medodzi has vanished and is believed to have tried to come to London.

Then - a shooting at the corner house: Adam, in his fury, has committed suicide. Stephanie confides in Agnes about financial problems; secrets he’d hidden from her.   

Agnes, walking alone near the convent, glimpses Medodzi. She calls her name, but Medodzi flees. When Agnes learns that Paula was an old friend of Adam’s, and had visited him the night that he died, she realizes that her battle with her is about more than just her sudden sacking. It is as if the flood has not just lifted the stones from Celia’s grave but has washed up some evil from the shores of France right to the convent doorstep.  Agnes is determined to find out what Paula is trying to hide. 

Alison Joseph is a London-based crime writer and radio dramatist. She started her career in local radio, and then in television as a documentary director. She is the author of the series of novels featuring Sister Agnes, a contemporary detective nun based in South London. Alison has written about twenty works for radio, including The True Story and also dramatisations of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels. Her latest series features Agatha Christie. The latest book  is Death in Disguise. 

www.alisonjoseph.com