THE SEVENTH STATION

As in Father Dowling's first, Her Death of Cold (1976), this offers more theological tee-hees than criminological touches. Desperate for a retreat from his Fox River, Ill., parish, conservative Dowling selects Assisi House, where one ""will have difficulty believing that the Second Vatican Council ever took place,"" and leaves the masses to his singing & dancing, progressive replacement. The retreat becomes a murder investigation, however, when an unlikely group of non-clerical meditators--what do they have in common?--begin a reprise of Ten Little Indians. Dowling and ex-priest, now-cop Phil Keegan figure it out--but more by doggedness than detection Still, McInerny's a charmer, and a taste for Pascal's PensÉes or for jokes about folk-rock liturgies will see the undemanding communicant through.