FICTION

Prayer

by Philip Kerr
Putnam. May 2014. 432p. ISBN 9780399167652. $26.95. F
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Raised Roman Catholic in his native Scotland, Houston FBI agent Gil Martins is suffering a loss of faith, endangering his marriage to his increasingly evangelistic wife, Ruth. At the same time the Bureau is seeking a serial killer dubbed Saint Peter for the murders of a handful of particularly upstanding, do-gooder residents of the Houston-Galveston area. Then Martins's close friend, retired archbishop Eamon Coogan, alerts him to the mystifying deaths nationwide of prominent people who publicly reject, even ridicule, organized religion. When a woman, just before committing suicide, confesses to killing one of the victims, Martins is drawn further into a life-threatening investigation of the Izrael Church of Good Men and Good Women and its charismatic pastor.
VERDICT Kerr is known for writing in, and mixing, various genres, and the moral complexity of his protagonist, World War II homicide detective Bernie Gunther (Man Without Breath), in his praised historical crime series has been noted. Here moral complexity is raised to a new high in a contemporary psychological thriller that is eerily terrifying and disturbing. [See Prepub Alert, 11/10/13.]
Reviewed by Michele Leber, Arlington, VA , Mar 15, 2014
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