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Summary
Summary
"Even for 1927 New Orleans, a city that has seen the utmost in sanctity and sin, the story is shocking. Somebody has taken the life of Father Patrick Walsh, the city's most beloved priest. The scene of the crime: an abandoned waterfront warehouse. The method of killing: torture. Yet most shattering of all is the astonishing secret Father Walsh had hoped to take to his grave." "Daman Rourke, the homicide cop who fights hard and hurts easy, knows the killer is arrogant but cunning. He knows that this slaying of a good priest comes from a place deep and dark in the soul. He also knows that he'll have to walk a fine line of danger, in a town already seething over the pending execution of a young black man. At the same time, teenage girls devoted to the cult of Remy Lelourie, reigning queen of the silent screen, are turning up dead one after another." "And Rourke's brother, Paulie, himself a priest, confides to him a transgression with a soul-shattering payback." "Seeking the blood-red thread that connects these seemingly random events, Rourke is about to unmask a monster and rediscover the truth he has never denied: that some things stay mysteries, especially when they live in the human heart."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Det. Daman Rourke is on the case of a murdered priest in this rousing thriller by Williamson (Mortal Sins) set in New Orleans in 1927. Rourke and his partner, Fiorello, have their hands full after a young hood on the run from the mob discovers the "crucified" corpse of Father Patrick Walsh, a popular clergyman who was disliked by Church hierarchy for his flamboyant preaching, which borrowed elements from evangelical Protestant services. When the coroner delivers the news that Father Walsh was actually female, the revelation, and the fear of its potential impact if leaked, fuels Rourke's determination to find the killer and close the case quietly. It seems Father Walsh developed an underground protection network for abused wives that angered Father Ghilotti, a fellow priest. To complicate matters, Rourke's brother Paul is also a priest at the rectory, and he too has something to hide: an affair with a married woman. Parallel to the parish mayhem is Rourke's rekindled romance with glamorous New Orleans-born actress Remy Lelourie, who's been receiving threats written in blood from a stalker who calls himself Romeo. When teenage girls in Remy's fan club turn up murdered, Rourke puts his investigative skills into high gear. Williamson entwines the two murder plots and speeds toward a surprising, exhilarating conclusion. Though much of the vernacular is unabashedly contemporary, she goes far in evoking the giddy atmosphere of Jazz Age New Orleans as well as its dark underside, rife with wanton violence, prejudice and racial tension. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
Mortal Sins' Detective Damon Rourke investigates the crucifixion of a priest who turns out to be a woman. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.