Criminal Intent

May 1, 2002
In the latest Ben Kincaid mystery, one parish priest may be going to heaven soon; he's facing the death penalty for murder.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2002
Here's a series that found an audience early and has just kept rolling along, repeating its successful formula again and again. The eleventh Ben Kincaid novel (the first, " Primary Justice," appeared in 1991) is pretty much like its predecessors: a solid, by-the-numbers legal drama, suspenseful enough but saddled with frequently awkward dialogue and off-the-rack characters. There's nothing particularly wrong with the Kincaid mysteries, but there's nothing particular right about them, either. They deliver the basic legal-thriller package, but without any of the style or intensity that readers have come to expect from, say, Philip Margolin or John Lescroart. This time around, Ben is defending an Episcopalian priest on a charge of homicide; the prosecution's theory is that this man of the cloth murdered an associate because she was among a group of parishioners who wanted him replaced because he permitted gay and lesbian groups to hold meetings at the church. There are witnesses, suspects, false leads, and various legal-thriller shenanigans, but it all has the feel of been-there-done-that. Still, Bernhardt clearly has found his readers, and they are a loyal bunch. Readers'-advisory librarians might like to try an experiment: for those who request this distinctly middling Ben Kincaid novel, recommend in addition Jane Haddam's thematically similar but far superior 2001 thriller, " True Believers,"" "which concerns a Catholic priest accused of murder and a parish that ministers to the gay community.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)