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Executive Times |
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2007 Book Reviews |
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Priest
by Ken Bruen |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click on
title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Melancholy Ken Bruen’s fifth novel featuring the ‘“We do not
choose as captain of a ship the most highly born of those aboard.’” Pascal, Pensees, 320 CLERGY TOLD AVOID
KIDS Priests in a scandal-hit diocese have been warned to avoid contact
with children while in public view. A code of conduct from the Ferns Diocese
states clergy and volunteers should not be alone in a car, building or closed
room with a young person. The Daily Mirror, 26 June
2003 The priest
case was heavy on my mind and I asked myself, ‘What do I care?’ Priests
and I hadn’t exactly a good history, but you grow up Catholic, they have you.
Deny all you like, they own your arse, and maybe my
interest in this was because of my father. He always had respect for the
clergy. He didn’t like them — who did? But he used
to say, ‘Their job
isn’t easy and our job is to
support them.’ I didn’t
believe that any more, but I still believed in him so I decided to have a
look at the case. Just maybe, I could achieve one thing he might be proud of. Was I
deluding myself? You betcha. But it’s what I do
best, and who knew? I might even gouge back some iota of respect for my own
self. I scoured
the libraries, collected all the back story I could.
I read till my eyes hurt and I got what the Guards had gotten. Nothing. Did that
deter me? Did it fuck. If it had
been easy, I’d have left it there. I determined to stick with it. If I’d
known then where this initial resolution would take me — into
the heart of the Irish soul — would I have turned
away? Probably not. I never
did before. That
pain-in-the-arse adage about those who ignore the
past being doomed to repeat it — they wrote that for
me. If I’d known all the torments of the past, the lost love, the
humiliation, shame and the oddest friendship on the face of God’s earth that
awaited me, would I have acted differently? With
knowledge aforethought, would I have said, ‘Nope, not
for me, thanks, I’ll preserve what little sanity I have.’ Alas, I’d
have still walked that road of unhappy destiny. Why? Because
I’m an eejit and, worse, a stubborn one. Sister
Mary Joseph was wringing her hands. It was her birthday, she was seventy
years old, and though she never told anyone when the date fell, offering it
up for the souls in Purgatory, she did allow for one treat each year — HaagenDazs, strawberry shortcake, large tub — and
ate the whole shebang in one fell swoop. This year, she was too worried to
eat. She was, in fact, worried sick. She’d known about Father Joyce’s little
temptations and had seen the altar boys crying, in obvious distress, but she
had never told a soul. She was a nun, it wasn’t her place. As Father Joyce’s little temptations grew uglier and
more obscene, she had to bite her tongue and pray for guidance. She couldn’t
go up against a priest, it was unheard of, and so she stifled her conscience,
turned a blind eye to the state of the altar boys. Now, with the murder of
Father Joyce, she began to wonder if perhaps the madman might come after her.
She took out her heavy rosary, stayed on her knees for hours, and still the
fear and trepidation only increased. In bed that night, she cried for the boys, and for the loss of the ice cream too, melting away
slowly beneath her bed. She could swear she heard it trickle. Bruen’s characters and language are moody and
addictive. Priest
is finely written, and Jack Taylor’s troubles will make your own feel like a
walk in the park. Priest
is crime fiction of the highest caliber. Steve Hopkins,
July 25, 2007 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the August 2007
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/Priest.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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