Body Count

March 2, 1992
This slow-moving mystery, the 14th for the engaging Father Koesler, mires the Detroit detective-priest in conflicts between old and new Catholic theology. Hitman Guido Vespa loudly confesses to Koesler that he has bumped off Father Keating, the spiritual leader of a nearby parish, and buried the body in the grave of the long-dead, much beloved Monsignor Kern. Overhearing the confession, exuberant new resident priest Nick Dunn is delighted: one of the reasons he came to St. Joseph's was to be near its sleuthing pastor. Nick's enthusiasm increases when the police ask Koesler for help with Keating's disappearance. Muffled by the seal of confession, an unhappy Koesler trails along, saying nothing, even when Kern's body is exhumed by the diocese to investigate his possible sainthood and the missing priest's body is not found. In a clandestine meeting Vespa tells Koesler that his confession was a lie but then is killed before he can explain. The actual mystery of what happened to Keating finally gets rolling, but not before the reader's interest has been numbed by a plot protracted to serve Kienzle's ( Chameleon ) considerations of the rite of confession.

April 15, 1992
In Kienzle's fourteenth mystery, series hero Father Robert Koesler and his usual collaborators--homicide inspector Walt Koznicki and Lieutenant Alonzo "Zoo" Tully, "Detroit News" reporter Pat Lennon and protege Pringle McPhee (the latter recovering from injuries she suffered when mistaken for Lennon in a previous Koesler outing)--are joined by an enthusiastic newcomer, Father Nick Dunn, a young priest from suburban Minneapolis. Father Dunn moves into Koesler's rectory while auditing classes at the local Jesuit university. Fascinated by the older priest's involvement in police investigations, Dunn overhears a Mafia hitman confessing to Koesler that he has completed a contract to murder a priest; the seal of confession ties the tongues of both clerics when the police seek Koesler's help in locating the missing pastor of one of the diocese's richest parishes. Before the representatives of Detroit's first, third, and fourth estates manage to connect the pieces of the puzzle, the reader learns a good deal about the Catholic church's procedures for naming saints and annulling marriages (and about computerized journalism and metropolitan gossipmongering). Kienzle's fans will enjoy "Body Count"'s leisurely pace, thoughtful discursions, and unexpected but generally believable solution. ((Reviewed Apr. 15, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)