A Whispered Name: A Father Anselm Thriller

At the start of Brodrick’s poignant third Father Anselm mystery (after The Gardens of the Dead), Anselm has an unsettling encounter with a woman in the Larkwood Priory cemetery near Sudbury, England, that raises questions about Fr. Herbert Moore, Anselm’s spiritual mentor, who died in 1985. Charged by his prior with investigating Moore’s involvement in a WWI court martial, Anselm searches through military records and family histories to piece together an event that altered Moore’s life. With impeccable pacing, Brodrick reveals the story of Joseph Flanagan, an Irish soldier whose desertion from and return to the Passchendaele battlefield set the stage for his fateful meeting with Moore. Flashbacks to Flanagan’s hardscrabble childhood provide a poetic contrast to brutal war scenes, and Brodrick’s unflinching depiction of battle serves as a haunting backdrop for the unfolding conflict between Flanagan and the British army. Readers seeking a thought-provoking, nuanced story that engages difficult moral questions will appreciate this tale of courage, sacrifice, and redemption. (Sept.)