True Believers (Gregor Demarkian Series #17) » (First Edition)

Jane Haddam is the author of numerous articles and books, including sixteen previous mysteries featuring Gregor Demarkian, most recently Skeleton Key. Her work has been a finalist for both the Edgar and the Anthony Awards. She lives with her two sons in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

There's hell to pay in Philadelphia when Marty Kelly commits suicide over his wife's body in the sacristy of St. Anselm's Church. Everyone assumes that Bernadette Kelly, a diabetic, died of natural causes—until the autopsy reveals death by arsenic. But one of the nuns a St. Anselm's, certain of Marty innocence, recruits retired director of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit Gregor Demarkian to investigate for the new Cardinal Archbishop. His Eminence, dispatched to Philadelphia to clean up a scandal, expects Demarkian to act with discretion. But when a third death by arsenic is revealed in the neighboring Episcopal Church, not even God's grace can help the priest who becomes a prime suspect—and the murderer's next victim. Moving among three combustible parishes—Catholic, Episcopalian, and rabble-rousing fundmentalist—Demarkian must negotiate his way through holy hell to find the diabolically clever killer. Only then may God's will—and a homicidal reign of terror—be done...

Publishers Weekly

A small Philadelphia neighborhood, a melting pot of fervent religious beliefs, erupts in violence that calls for all the skills of Gregor Demarkian, the formidable retired head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, as he tackles his 16th case following last year's Skeleton Key. A Roman Catholic parish still suffering from the aftereffects of a pedophilia scandal that rocked the archdiocese; an Episcopalian church with a mostly gay male congregation; an independent, fundamentalist Baptist church; and atheist Edith Lawton all occupy the same block. Only Haddam's superb plotting and characterizations allow this microcosmic creation to achieve credibility. The new Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia first consults Demarkian when a suicide inside St. Anselm's proves more complicated than first believed and threatens to become a new scandal for the beleaguered Catholic church. Then Demarkian is coopted by the police when another death, thought to have been natural, proves to have been murder. As tensions escalate, Demarkian must unravel the motives behind killings that threaten to tear apart the delicate balance. To make things even more difficult, Demarkian's lover, Bennis Hannaford, is facing a personal crisis. Her sister's execution date is approaching and this time there appears no hope of stopping it. Haddam's large cast pulses with petty jealousies, vanities and fears as they confront the mysteries of life and religion. This is an engrossingly complex mystery that should win further acclaim for its prolific and talented author.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.