A Gentle Murderer
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
He came to confess a murder. Then he vanished. Now a priest and a detective must race to stop him—one seeking redemption, the other justice.
In the quiet of a New York church, a shaken young man steps into the confessional. His voice is raw. He’s killed someone—he says he didn’t mean to—and he’s still holding the hammer. Before Father Duffy can act, the man disappears into the night.
The next morning, a woman is found bludgeoned to death. For Father Duffy, the confessor becomes a moral burden he cannot ignore. For NYPD Sergeant Ben Goldsmith, it’s a case of motive and madness. Neither man knows the other is searching for the same tormented soul—one trying to save him, the other to stop him.
With unforgettable psychological intensity and dual protagonists navigating justice from opposite moral grounds, A Gentle Murderer delivers a soul-deep confessional arc that lingers long after the final page. Grand Master Dorothy Salisbury Davis’s classic noir combines elegant prose with haunting emotional depth, earning comparisons to Patricia Highsmith and Graham Greene.
Praise for A Gentle Murderer:
"A simmering tour de force of detection from both ends of the trail…" ― Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in 1951, this solid if somewhat dated mystery from MWA Grand Master Davis (1916–2014) opens on a sweltering August evening in New York City. Father Duffy, assistant pastor of St. Timothy's, one of Manhattan's largest Catholic parishes, is winding up his stint in the confessional when a final parishioner comes in, a hammer in his hand. "I think I killed someone," he tells the priest, and goes on to reveal clues to his identity and that of his victim. Duffy believes he has persuaded the young man to go to the police. When, the next day, the body of a young woman is discovered and no one comes forward to confess to the murder, Duffy decides to find the killer himself. His investigations run parallel to those of NYPD Det. Sgt. Ben Goldsmith, and eventually the two converge. A third strand of the story follows the murderer. The pace can be slow in places, and as a study in psychology it's rather simplistic by today's standards. Crime fiction scholars will best appreciate this entry in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series.
