SOMETHING WICKED

A Jesuit priest tries to find who is responsible when a church explodes in Jerusalem in Myslinski’s mystery novel.

Sister Marie Therese is in Jerusalem for a conference on women and the church; she’s young, and bristles at what she sees as domineering male authority. One of the speakers at the conference, Sister Maureen, believes women should be priests and have more power in the church. While she is speaking, the church explodes, killing Maureen. Marie Therese was late to Maureen’s speech—she finds Maureen’s body after the explosion and vows revenge. Father Dan, the Jesuit priest at the church, wants to investigate. Dan and Marie Therese go to see Inspector Bennett, who is leading the investigation and is certain the bomb was a professional job; he suspects it’s a terrorist group, such as Hezbollah. The Pope is also interested in the case—he is in poor health and wants to solve the mystery before he dies (“while I am here, I want to get things done”). The narrative goes in circles for a bit as the characters investigate. The list of suspects is long, including terrorist and fundamentalist groups who might harbor hostility for Maureen (for her activism) or Dan specifically (before becoming a priest, he spent time in Beirut, and now his past is catching up with him), or who might not take kindly to women stepping out of their place. The threat could be from within the church as well. Dan doesn’t quite trust the investigators and does some of his own sleuthing, stumbling into a larger conspiracy. The novel has a lot of compelling supporting characters, particularly the clergy jockeying for position on the assumption that the Pope’s death is imminent. The mystery is engaging, with enough intrigue for readers to keep turning the pages. While set in the world of the Catholic church, the characters are not all stuffy nuns and priests; many have progressive views and run into obstacles while pushing for change. The story goes to some surprising places, andis overall a good mystery.

An intriguing mystery within the Catholic church.