The Only Good Priest

Schoolteacher and amateur sleuth Tom Mason and his lover, baseball player Scott Carpenter, are asked by friends to investigate the suspicious death of Father Sebastian, a priest involved with Chicago's gay community, in this latest mystery by Zubro ( A Simple Suburban Murder ). When Mason's nephew disappears after overhearing another priest, Father Clarence, talk about being implicated in Sebastian's death, the investigation takes on an added urgency. As the church hierarchy colludes with Chicago police in a cover-up, Mason and Carpenter question--and spy on--Sebastian's associates, including high-priced hustler Prentice Dowalski; Priscilla Kapustaglova, volatile leader of a radical lesbian group; powerful Bishop Smith, a friend of Sebastian's since seminary days; and Father Clarence, who takes his vow of celibacy lightly. While Zubro uses his authorial pulpit to lash out at Catholicism's intolerance of homosexuality to good effect, his supporting characters are stock figures, a lone red herring is old and smelly, and the solution to the mystery hinged weakly on a hunch. (Mar.)