CITY OF GOD

A madman calling himself Marcus (St. Augustine's given name), revolted by modern money-changers—a sculpture exhibit, a Save the Amazon concert, a political lawyer's press conference—in NYC's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, declares war on the depraved City of Man and begins to kill the interlopers with a stonemason's mallet. As Lt. Bill Donovan of the West Side Major Crimes Unit (Night Rituals, 1982; Death Games, 1987) and flaky documentarist Michael Avignon try to track Marcus to his lair in the vast cathedral while avoiding tripping over fresh corpses, Donovan's colleague/bedmate Marcie is pounding the streets looking for the Central Park punks who killed her houseguest Jennifer Peel in the middle of a marathon—a case whose problems won't end when she confronts the perps. Laugh-a-minute Donovan does more honest detecting than usual, but both he and the hastily sketched suspects here are overshadowed by creepy, impressive St. John's.