DEATH OF A PILGRIM

A latter-day religious pilgrimage becomes a trail of death.

New York, 1905. Industrialist Michael Delaney’s prayers to St. James have miraculously cured his son of leukemia. Hearing of a long defunct pilgrimage route from France to Spain, Delaney is determined to go on a pilgrimage to expiate his many sins. He hires a young Yale Law graduate, Alex Bentley, to arrange the trip and gather as many Delaney relatives as possible to go along. The relatives, American, Irish and English, are joined by Delaney’s priest, Father Kennedy, and Bentley himself, whose knowledge of spoken French proves woefully unequal to his tasks, especially when one of the group falls or is pushed off a cliff at Le Puy-en-Velay. Determined to continue and certain that money can solve any problem, Delaney seeks a private detective to smooth their path. When Lord Francis Powerscourt and his wife Lady Lucy’s knowledge of French and their negotiating skills save the day, the group moves on, only to find that the first death was not the last. As the pilgrims enjoy the sights, the cuisine and the historical background, an opportunistic killer strikes again and again with impunity. Sure that the motive lies in Delaney’s past misdeeds, Powerscourt seeks help with background checks while the murders continue under heavy police protection.

Powerscourt’s eighth (Death on the Holy Mountain, 2008, etc.) is a Ten Little Indians on wheels that alternates descriptions of charming people and places with devices to keep readers in suspense.