One Good and Deadly Deed

October 1, 2020
Do you suspect that the real attraction of crime fiction isn't the pow-pow plots but the chance to enjoy offbeat characters? If so, you're likely to enjoy Luke McWhorter, who paid his way through Yale Divinity School by delivering sermons. He was planning a career as a "gospel preacher," but his sheriff father was murdered, and he suddenly found himself forced to take Dad's job. Luke still sermonizes at the parish church in his Texas hometown, but he's ready when a gruesome double murder is discovered: two pilots are pushed into whirring propeller blades. The investigation quickly loses focus and so, for good or ill, does the novel. Along the way, Luke confronts Middle Eastern terrorists, a mummy, a company offering designer babies, a Falwell-like religious carnival, and wind turbines that catch fire and throw off blades. Somewhere in the midst of all this, readers must relax expectations and enjoy the vaudeville of Luke's adventures. Be ready when the narrative halts for stand-up. Why was the biblical Noah so bad at fishing? He only had two worms.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)