WAGES OF SIN

Father Greeley (The Cardinal Virtues, 1990, etc., etc.) returns with a new cast of randy, middle-aged Chicagoans who, between attending mass and making well-adjusted love, must clear up a multiple murder that happened decades ago. Is it possible for a recently divorced, incredibly wealthy, Irish Catholic commodities broker to find happiness and mutually supportive sex in his sixth decade? Yes! says the frisky sociologist/priest whose winking, nudging novels never fail to shock but not, you know, too much. The midwestern mogul looking for happiness with the lost love of his 20s is Lorcan Flynn. One of Mr. Flynn's daughters is about to marry the son of Moire Meehan, the feisty baseball-playing woman who disappeared from Flynn's life after a night of innocent groping on the shore of Lake Michigan— the same night her foster parents were blown to kingdom come by an assassin unknown, the same night Flynn succumbed to a memory- erasing fever. Now, as he wonders whether he and Moire can resume whatever it was they were doing on that fateful night, Flynn also wonders whether it could have been he himself who detonated that blast. Father Greeley lets us see into Lorcan's mind through sessions with his clever Irish Catholic psychiatrist who, when things gets too confusing and dangerous, sends Lorcan to her brother, the clever Irish Catholic priest. Such danger as there is comes from someone mysterious who doesn't want the old mystery solved. Oh, and by the way, Moire's splendid bosom is just as it was decades ago, if not even better. Safe sex for senior citizens.