Kind of uneven. The author's religious background comes through fairly clearly, I think - he attempts a couple of sexy or violent scenes that come off rather remotely - not much passion in them. It's rather unfortunate, because the main character is kind of a remote guy, and watching the story unfold around him is pretty interesting. Where you really feel the passion come through, though, is in a scene where the priest attempts to get the murderer to confess his crime, not to be indicted or punished, but in the interest of saving the murderer's immortal soul. Will there be a confession or won't there? That's where you can really feel the emotion.

Some people might think the book dwells a bit heavily on the technical details of canon law. Some people might think the recurring Tuttle character isn't very realistic.

Some people might not want to read this book. But I think McInerny is a reasonable successor to the Christie/Sayers tradition of English countryhouse mysteries, and if you like those, you might well like this. ( )