Assault with Intent

"Kienzle's are the best books ever written about a cleric and among the best of everything in the past quarter century." —Otto Penzler, in Mystery Magazine

"There are few authors whose books a reader anticipates from the moment he finished the last effort. . . . Add William Kienzle to the list." —Dallas Times Herald

"Father Koesler is on the case, thank God." —Baltimore Sun

In the fourth Father Koesler thriller, William X. Kienzle proved his versatility. Assault with Intent combines raucous humor with the same clever plotting and strong characterization that are his trademark.

Murphy's Law seems to be the only force preventing four arcane conspirators from accomplishing their murderous plans to assassinate priests teaching in Detroit's seminaries. Incredibly, each of their attacks is thwarted by strange coincidence and ineptitude until they finally succeed—or do they? Father Robert Koesler, the crime-solving hero of Kienzle's mysteries, is drawn into the case first as a concerned friend of the intended victims and then as a target himself. Inspector Walter Koznicki returns to investigate for the Detroit police department and reporters Joe Cox and Pat Lennon continue their romance amid the rivalry of their two newspapers, the Detroit News and Free Press.

Who is responsible for this series of assaults? A disgruntled seminary student who has gone too far? The dangerously fanatical leader of a secretive arch-conservative Catholic society? Another priest? There are far too few clues and too many possibilities. And when a zany crew of movie-makers arrives from Hollywood to film the story before the crime itself is solved, Assault with Intent becomes a three-ring circus of mystery and slapstick.