From Publishers Weekly
Fans of McInerny's ( Abracadaver ) Father Dowling series, especially those who abhor the young nun assistant added for the TV show, will be delighted with this tale that mixes corporal sins with questions of theology. A seminary friend of Dowling's, former priest Chris Bourke, and his ex-nun wife now promote sexual liberation as televangelists of Enlightened Hedonism (EH). Meeting Dowling one day after Mass, Bourke asks the parish priest to talk about the hard facts of religious life with his daughter, Sonya, who wants to enter the convent. Before Dowling can do that, Sonya is reported kidnapped and then found stabbed to death. Soon afterward, the vice-president of EH is discovered dead in his car and Bourke's wife files for divorce. Dowling, housekeeper Marie Murkin and his friend police captain Phil Keegan sift through steadily accruing facts to determine whether Bourke is killing those near him or is the victim of a horrible plot. Dowling, worldly-wise and armed with ready references to St. Paul and other Church fathers, is at his vintage best.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Father Dowling's quiet days at the rectory of St. Hilary's Church in Fox River, Illinois (The Basket Case, etc.), are dramatically interrupted one morning by the appearance of his one- time fellow seminarian Christopher Burke. Burke had been a priest and his wife Janet a nun when they broke away to become the gurus of a movement called Enlightened Hedonism, in which they scorned the tenets of Catholicism and preached (to great financial profit) the joys of sexual freedom. Now their grown daughter Sonja is threatening to enter a convent, and, as Father Dowling later learns, Janet is threatening divorce. Worse is to follow, with the murder of Sonja, whose body is discovered in the battered Toyota of seedy lawyer Tuttle, and the purported suicide of Craig Wilhelms, Burke's right-hand man. There's little sleuthing craft expended in turning up the murderer but considerable cleverness in Father Dowling's successful resistance to being added to the list of victims. Some non-boring religious love, mostly unhackneyed characters, and a lively flow of events make for one of the better efforts in this series. --
Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
