KIRKUS REVIEW
When born-again Okie Jerry Fanning, just arrived in the Big Apple to claim it for Jesus, gets jailed for the stranglings of three prostitutes and an ambitious model-exec, Nero Wolfeish Bishop Francis X. Regan and his legman Dave Goldman go to work to get him off. The Bishop zeroes in on non-hooker Laura Penniston's murder as the crucial killing and sends Dave off to worm or bully his way into the confidence of Laura's friends and associates, who turn out to be involved with drugs, an elaborate embezzlement scheme, and each other. Author Love's decision to keep the charmless Bishop on the sidelines pays off in some gorgeous episodes of Dave's Goodwinesque clowning and persiflage with the suspects before the sadly overextended climax. Brighter and tighter than the pair's debut last year in The Chartreuse Clue: this welcome series could take off if only Dave, who's by no means a dope, could get over his implausible ignorance about the Church.