A clean, readable Christian mystery with an unsurprising outcome.
Stewart’s novel is a classic murder mystery with a Christian bent set in an upstate New York town that is no stranger to corruption.
Heroine Kate Feeney finds herself at the center of that corruption when she stands up to the school board to protest a proposed sex education program and gets thrown in jail. It’s only the beginning of Kate’s adventures. After the president of the school board is murdered, Kate begins working with police Detective Mike Roberts, formerly of the NYPD, to track down the killer. Suspects include a wealthy sheik from the fictional country of South Arabyia, police officers who have a blackmailing operation and a local family of moonshiners. Before she can do much, though, Kate is unfairly arrested again, this time after an altercation at an abortion clinic protest. While being transported in the back of a police cruiser after her arraignment, Kate manages to avoid being raped by a corrupt cop. She flees to the woods when she hears shots fired, only to come out and find the cop dead. Although she saw nothing, she heard the killer’s voice, and this makes her a target for the unknown murderer who tries more than once to bring down the gutsy woman. A number of twists and turns produce an action-packed story, and thanks to the relationship between Kate and Mike, there’s a hint of romance. Though Kate and Mike are baffled, regular mystery readers will likely deduce the killer’s ID thanks to a few subtle hints. The story is marred by clunky dialogue that is asked to carry too much of the back story, such as this comment made by Mike: “Because my mother’s suicide was caused by mental instability, your childhood abuse makes me afraid you might become mentally unstable. I’m worried that your risk-taking is a suicidal impulse.” Nonbelievers may wonder if Kate’s prayers are falling on deaf ears when they see she must fight off a rapist, gets kidnapped by a sheik and both her aunt and her dog get shot, but Christians will likely admire her steadfast faith.
A clean, readable Christian mystery with an unsurprising outcome.Pub Date: June 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477429365
Page Count: 328
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it...
Harris, creator of grand, symphonic thrillers from Fatherland (1992) to An Officer and a Spy (2014), scores with a chamber piece of a novel set in the Vatican in the days after a fictional pope dies.
Fictional, yes, but the nameless pontiff has a lot in common with our own Francis: he’s famously humble, shunning the lavish Apostolic Palace for a small apartment, and he is committed to leading a church that engages with the world and its problems. In the aftermath of his sudden death, rumors circulate about the pope’s intention to fire certain cardinals. At the center of the action is Cardinal Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to manage the conclave that will elect a new pope. He believes it is also his duty to uncover what the pope knew before he died because some of the cardinals in question are in the running to succeed him. “In the running” is an apt phrase because, as described by Harris, the papal conclave is the ultimate political backroom—albeit a room, the Sistine Chapel, covered with Michelangelo frescoes. Vying for the papal crown are an African cardinal whom many want to see as the first black pope, a press-savvy Canadian, an Italian arch-conservative (think Cardinal Scalia), and an Italian liberal who wants to continue the late pope’s campaign to modernize the church. The novel glories in the ancient rituals that constitute the election process while still grounding that process in the real world: the Sistine Chapel is fitted with jamming devices to thwart electronic eavesdropping, and the pressure to act quickly is increased because “rumours that the pope is dead are already trending on social media.”
An illuminating read for anyone interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church; for prelate-fiction superfans, it is pure temptation.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-49344-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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