Ash Wednesday

May 19, 2008
At the start of McInerny's uplifting 27th Father Dowling mystery (after 2007's The Widow's Mate
), a stranger asks the pastor of St. Hilary's if it's all right for the priest to have put ashes on his forehead. After all, as Nathaniel Green admits, he's not a Catholic. Furthermore, Nathaniel has just been released from prison, where he spent nearly 10 years after admitting he'd turned off the life support system of his wife, Florence, who was suffering from terminal cancer. Having lost his Catholic faith after Florence's death, Nathaniel is now returning to his old parish, much to the consternation of his sister-in-law and others. In his usual gentle, thoughtful way, Father Dowling makes compassionate decisions while other members of his parish become entangled in a complicated web of crime and deceit. Readers who long for a down-to-earth story of ordinary people and events will be well rewarded.

July 1, 2008
McInerny tackles the euthanasia controversy in his latest Father Dowling mystery. When a former parishioner is paroled after serving 10 years in prison for removing his dying wife from life support, not everyone in St. Hilarys parish is as supportive as Father Dowling, who believes that Nathanial Green may have confessed to a mercy crime he did not commit. As the good father reaches back into the past to investigate this resurrected case, he also ponders the true nature of sin, forgiveness, and redemption. The twenty-seventh installment in the Dowling chronicles will not disappoint fans of this thoughtfully wrought series of faith-based mysteries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)