Wages of Sin
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
* Penn Williamson's previous hardcover, Mortal Sins (Mysterious Press, 6/00), grossed nearly 50,000 copies. The paperback edition will be released simultaneously with, and contain a teaser chapter from, The Crucible Of Death.
* The author's novels are extremely popular in Europe, especially France and Germany, where they are best-sellers.
* The Crucible Of Death continues Williamson's successful departure from her earlier women's fiction titles, written under the name Penelope Williamson. Here, in this stand-alone novel, she picks up where Mortal Sins left off in a riveting story of murder, desire, and intrigue that will further establish her as a mainstream author in the same vein as Sandra Brown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Det. Daman Rourke is on the case of a murdered priest in this rousing thriller by Williamson (Mortal Sins) set in New Orleans in 1927. Rourke and his partner, Fiorello, have their hands full after a young hood on the run from the mob discovers the "crucified" corpse of Father Patrick Walsh, a popular clergyman who was disliked by Church hierarchy for his flamboyant preaching, which borrowed elements from evangelical Protestant services. When the coroner delivers the news that Father Walsh was actually female, the revelation, and the fear of its potential impact if leaked, fuels Rourke's determination to find the killer and close the case quietly. It seems Father Walsh developed an underground protection network for abused wives that angered Father Ghilotti, a fellow priest. To complicate matters, Rourke's brother Paul is also a priest at the rectory, and he too has something to hide: an affair with a married woman. Parallel to the parish mayhem is Rourke's rekindled romance with glamorous New Orleans born actress Remy Lelourie, who's been receiving threats written in blood from a stalker who calls himself Romeo. When teenage girls in Remy's fan club turn up murdered, Rourke puts his investigative skills into high gear. Williamson entwines the two murder plots and speeds toward a surprising, exhilarating conclusion. Though much of the vernacular is unabashedly contemporary, she goes far in evoking the giddy atmosphere of Jazz Age New Orleans as well as its dark underside, rife with wanton violence, prejudice and racial tension.
