O'Brien (The Next to Die) lashes out against religious hypocrisy once again in this slight but spooky tale of a serial killer who makes martyrs out of his victims. The book opens when a love-starved older woman returns to a seedy motel for one final tryst with her mysterious lover and is stabbed to death in a bathroom scene reminiscent of Psycho. The narrative then switches to a spring morning at Our Lady of Sorrows Seminary, where Father Jack Murphy, a seminary spiritual advisor, pulls the body of his favorite young charge, John Costello, from the lake. Could the two watery deaths be related? Upon realizing that John's death is only the latest in a string of "accidents" that have plagued the seminary over the past few decades, Father Murphy, who is attracted to John's older sister and charged with keeping the incident under wraps, searches for clues to John's death in school archives and crime scenes. Evidence uncovered by two seminarians casts suspicion on Father Murphy, but the killer's true identity isn't revealed until the novel's final frantic race to save innocent lives. O'Brien only skims the surface of character and plot development, relying instead on stereotypes of abusive priests and sexually frustrated youths. In the end, the author succeeds more in making a statement than in delivering a fresh, believable read. (May)
