THE BECKET FACTOR

Shades of Blount and Burgess glimmer in—of all places- -Canterbury Cathedral, when ex-Intelligence agent Richard Harrison, now supervisor of the church's infrastructure (Diocesan Dilapidations Officer) is prevailed upon by Brigadier Greville, his one-time boss, to begin a secret investigation within the Cathedral's precincts. A new Archbishop is soon to be chosen; a leading candidate is Bishop Maurice Campion, whose outspoken liberal views are anathema in some powerful quarters. Greville thinks that there may be a sinister connection between Campion and the recent death of Canon Cratchley, and that the journals of the late Bishop Harvey Watson, Campion's close associate, may uncover a treacherous past. Harrison's wheelchair-bound wife Winnie is dismayed at this intrusion into their quiet lives, but Harrison stubbornly follows a confusing trail that lurches through a welter of red herrings, double-crosses and shocking revelations to its bleak conclusion. Echoes of le CarrÇ abound in this elegantly written, densely overplotted first novel—full of the ritual, pomp and underpinnings of the great cathedral. More clarity, simplicity, and economy might make the author's second even better.