Kirkus Reviews QR Code
HER DEATH OF COLD: A Father Dowling Mystery by Ralph Mclnerny

HER DEATH OF COLD: A Father Dowling Mystery

By

Pub Date: Feb. 26th, 1976
Publisher: Vanguard

It should come as no surprise that McInerny, whose novels explore the dilemma of Catholic religious in a secular society, has introduced a priest-detective who sleuths at a minimum. Instead Father Dowling hounds his conscience to respect the significant shading between sin and crime. An elderly woman in the parish has been killed by a blow or perhaps by storage in the freezer, from which someone later removes the body to thaw on the kitchen floor. The concluding paradox--that the murdered woman was never murdered--is explored on both a civil and clerical plane. An original, best for those of a philosophical/churchly bent.