The Bishop Goes to The University

Rating:
Summary: well written Bishop Blackie tale
Review: Cardinal Sean Cronin sends Bishop Blackwood Ryan to investigate the locked door murder of Russian Brother Semyon Ivanivich Popov. The Cardinal is more concerned with the wardrobe the police found at the crime scene than who killed this instructor at the University. Apparently Brother Semyon had garbs that are only given to archbishops and cardinals and His Eminent Lordship Cronin sarcastically believes that Chicago does not need two cardinals.

Blackie visits the Divinity School and learns that when Brother Semyon was shot in his locked office only four other people, all professors, were in the building at the time. He questions the foursome to see what he can learn. However, instead of a simple homicide case, the espionage community, Russian and Italian mobsters, and the Vatican are tripping over one another doing their own inquiries. Blackie is warned off the case with bullets to emphasize the advice. If he fails to heed this expert advice, he will see his maker a lot sooner than he expected.

THE BISHOP GOES TO UNIVERSITY is an entertaining modern day Catholic Church who-done-it that quickly spins into a cloak and dagger thriller. The story line moves forward rather quickly even when Andrew Greeley deftly makes a left turn. The support cast is solid as each key participant enhances either the understanding of aspects of the Church or insight into Blackie, whose pride in his perfect crime solving record comes across a bit arrogant, making him humanly falling into one of the seven deadly sins. Readers will appreciate this well written Bishop Blackie tale.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: It's time for Father Greeley to stop coasting
Review: Father Andrew Greeley once had a powerful impact on pubishing with his saucy novels. In recent years that has declined somewhat. However, he continues to write and his body of work expands yearly.

This book shows the ongoing adventures of "Blackie" Ryan, a Priest/Detective who is the star of the mystery novels written by Father Andrew Greeley. "Blackie" actually sprang from Father Greeley's earlier books when he appeared as a beloved sleuth/cleric who helped settle mysteries that baffled others. Eventually, "Blackie" gained his own series of books which brings us to the current one.

This is a fun look at the world of Priest/Sleuth "Blackie" Ryan as he solves the murder of a monk on the University of Chicago campus. All the usual Greeley touches are here--descriptions of the life of a priest and how he relates to the congregation, the world of the rectory, the interrelation of the Catholic hierarchy with each other, the locked room murder and all the typical aspects of a "Blackie" Ryan mystery are here.

Yet, I can't help think that Father Greeley needs to energize the "Blackie" Ryan series. This is a great series that appears to be going through the motions. Yes, this is a good book but one suspects that it can be much better. Father Greeley is coasting a bit and it shows. The kicker is that he still has the ability to write a great mystery and the charactars to do so. He needs to refocus and do just that.

I'd suggest he get a very strong charactar, Cardinal Sean Cronin, to become more involved in the stories. This charactar has been reduced to a minor role in his books and the series has suffered. I'd also suggest the charactar Mike Casey be involved more as he too is interesting. Father "Blackie" needs to get more involved in solving a crime related to the Catholic church which Father Greeley knows well and can weave many fascinating aspects to in his stories that actually get you thinking about this faith.

To some extent, Father Greeley has strayed from writing about the Catholic Church to focusing on academia and it makes for a less interesting novel.

In short, this is a good book by a good author who has gotten into a rut so to speak. One hopes Father Greeley can rediscover the magic he once had and get "Blackie" Ryan back into some more interesting and rich adventures.

Rating:
Summary: A quirky but amusing mystery
Review: Greeley, a Catholic priest and sociologist, writes a mystery series featuring Bishop "Blackie" Ryan as an amateur investigator. Far from being a procedural, this story spends more time on church and Cold War politics than it does on investigation. In this case, a Russian monk teaching at the University of Chicago is found murdered in an apparently locked room. The reasons for the monk's stay in Russia are more interesting than the crime. It turns out that the body on the floor isn't the monk in question. Though the Bishop's dwelling place is shot up by Russians, he never loses his aplomb. Greeley tries to leaven the story with humorous repartee, but the Irish jokes wear off by the middle of the book. The locked room question gets lost in the narrative, being resolved in an off-hand remark. The ending is anticlimactic. Yet the book has a certain quirky charm.

Rating:
Summary: A quirky but amusing mystery
Review: Greeley, a Catholic priest and sociologist, writes a mystery series featuring Bishop "Blackie" Ryan as an amateur investigator. Far from being a procedural, this story spends more time on church and Cold War politics than it does on investigation. In this case, a Russian monk teaching at the University of Chicago is found murdered in an apparently locked room. The reasons for the monk's stay in Russia are more interesting than the crime. It turns out that the body on the floor isn't the monk in question. Though the Bishop's dwelling place is shot up by Russians, he never loses his aplomb. Greeley tries to leaven the story with humorous repartee, but the Irish jokes wear off by the middle of the book. The locked room question gets lost in the narrative, being resolved in an off-hand remark. The ending is anticlimactic. Yet the book has a certain quirky charm.

Rating:
Summary: A drop in quality
Review: Having read and liked all the previous Father Blackie mysteries, I eagerly began this latest one and had a problem getting through it. It's not easy to say exactly why or where this sagged. It could be that the details of the romance of the professors got in the way of the murder story. That should never happen, especially when the love affair does not envolve the hero and when the romance has nothing whatsoever to do with the main plot. In this case, the love story was gratuitous. It's as if the writer said, "Editors insist on a love affair, so I'll stick this one in and make the editors happy."

The book does start to move when we begin to learn the background of the murdered monk, but it isn't enough to save this from being considered the least of the Father Blackie series. In truth, Father Blackie has little to do with unraveling the mystery. It just sort of happens. The monk's diary appears. People step forward with clues. And suddenly the book is finished.

I do hope for better things from Blackie. He's a nice man. Arguably....

Rating:
Summary: A drop in quality
Review: Having read and liked all the previous Father Blackie mysteries, I eagerly began this latest one and had a problem getting through it. It's not easy to say exactly why or where this sagged. It could be that the details of the romance of the professors got in the way of the murder story. That should never happen, especially when the love affair does not envolve the hero and when the romance has nothing whatsoever to do with the main plot. In this case, the love story was gratuitous. It's as if the writer said, "Editors insist on a love affair, so I'll stick this one in and make the editors happy."

The book does start to move when we begin to learn the background of the murdered monk, but it isn't enough to save this from being considered the least of the Father Blackie series. In truth, Father Blackie has little to do with unraveling the mystery. It just sort of happens. The monk's diary appears. People step forward with clues. And suddenly the book is finished.

I do hope for better things from Blackie. He's a nice man. Arguably....

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I have always looked forward to the Blackie Ryan books but I had a hard time getting through this one. The back story of the monk/priest/cardinal was just too convoluted and unbelievable, especially as it was inserted into the middle of the book as the priest's journal. By the time I was done with the "journal" I had a hard time remembering who the present-day characters were. And I never did understand why this was such a big deal that people were shot at and killed over it.

Finally - I found the continuous involvement of characters from the "Beggar Girl of Ste. Germaine" annoying and unnecessary - just an advertisement to get people to read the earlier book.

Rating:
Summary: Ecumenical Secret Cardinal Archbishops! Oh My!
Review: In Bishop Goes to the University, noted author, scholar and Catholic priest, Andrew Greeley returns to one of my favorite characters in all of his fiction writings, Bishop Blackie Ryan, priest-detective. This is the tenth Blackie Ryan mystery.

Bishop John Blackwood Ryan, or 'Blackie' as he prefers to be called is an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago (fictional of course for they don't make them quite as human as he is) who is noted for his crime solving abilities. In the Bishop Goes to the University, Blackie is ordered by his boss, The Cardinal Archbishop Sean Cronin, to -- "see to it" -- meaning Blackie has been charged with straightening out the goings on at the local seminary university where a Russian Orthodox Bishop is thought to have been murdered in his office.

Layering more complexity upon the already confounding, Greeley presents a wonderful puzzler of a story here. First off, the Orthodox Bishop is murdered in a locked room where no one would have been able to "get in or out" in order to commit the homicide. And, that's the easy part for Blackie!

The more challenging aspects of the story have to do with exactly who the Orthodox Bishop was. It seems that there is a chance that this was no ordinary Orthodox Bishop, but may in fact be a secret Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church; one elevated 'in petto'. If such is the case, Bishop Ryan and his boss have even greater interest in attending to the swift conclusion of the matter.

Blackie Ryan is a delightfully off kilter character of a Bishop who while considered a great scholar and administrator is not a "front line kind of guy." Instead, Blackie is known for his remarkable way of appearing oblivious to the world around him and in making himself seemingly invisible by blending into the woodwork so as to seem all but absent from any gathering. Appearances aside, Blackie's dithering persona is only a clever cover for his keen powers of observation and remarkable intuition.
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Bishop Goes to the University is just a good yarn on the surface. Yet, more than developing a simple story line, Greeley continues to delight this reader with Blackie's approach to the world. There is comedy well blended into the suspense as Blackie approaches his cases. He is at once a character, a comedian and a genius in approach to the world and humanity. This a wonderfully believable story that one can get lost in. A page-turner and somewhere early on, one can't help but to start to giggle with and root for Blackie Ryan!

As with most of Greeley's stories, there is a bit of a love story intertwined in Bishop Goes to the University. And while some may dispute the holy or spiritual in Greeley's love stories, I do believe he is on to something. Every description of love Greeley has written of in his novels speaks of the most ideal and pure love of two hearts joining as one. And, if there is any dispute as to the sacramental nature of such a perfect union among imperfect human beings, Greeley's writings may sway a reader's cynicism.

Beyond being a plain good storyteller, Greeley offers the advantage as a writer of Church-related mysteries by having served as a priest (and often enough outcast one at that) in the Archdiocese of Chicago for most of his adult life. His home Archdiocese is home to Sean Cronin, Cardinal Archbishop and his trusty sidekick, Blackie Ryan.

I was most heartened to see a review by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago on the cover of this book praising Greeley's writing. Andrew Greeley has been ignored and treated as a leper for too long in his home Archdiocese because of his outspoken courageousness as a priest, sociologist and fiction writer. While Greeley has done a tremendous service to Chicago's Roman Catholic Church in his writings, for too long he has received nary a mention by the officials there. That Cardinal George is in print in support of Greeley's work is a major step forward for the Diocese; a little late in the game, but nonetheless, long overdue.

A wonderful and fun read! Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent--best Bishop in a long time
Review: When a visiting Orthodox Monk is found murdered in his University of Chicago office, nothing would seem to connect him to Chicago's crime-solving associate-Bishop. Nothing except the Monk's genuine Cardinal robes, robes that make no sense at all for an Orthodox monk, but make a great deal of sense to a Catholic. But what would a Catholic Cardinal be doing pretending to be Orthodox? And who would have murdered him. Of course, the monk's body is found in a closed and locked room--the kind that Auxillary Bishop Blackie solves without fail.

Blackie's investigation turns up a pair of lovers who need a little encouragement, and denials from both the Italian (Catholic) and Russian (Orthodox) Mafias that they had any involvement. The denial that has the least credibility comes from Blackie's source in the CIA. But why should the CIA care about a Russian monk who goes stomping around Chicago?

Author Andrew M. Greeley delivers a fabulous story this time. Bishop Blackie is in good form, solving mysteries, pushing lovers on the path of married happiness, espousing belief in a God who truly loves all of his creation, and braving the worst that the CIA, former KGB, and Catholic extremists have to deliver. Greeley's wit shines through and I found myself laughing out loud a number of times through this short novel.

Bishop Blackie uncovers a secret plot involving the CIA and the Vatican--a plot that probably didn't exist, but that could have existed in the world of the Cold War when the church formed itself as a bulwark against godless Communism. The plot, the discussions of the ancient scism between Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and Blackie's own faith add real substance to an entertaining story of mystery.

Rating:
Summary: A master plot with a twist...
Review: When Milord Cronin needs someone to solve a locked room mystery, he knows he can count on Bishop Blackie to see to things. Therefore, when a Russian Orthodox monk is killed in a locked room in the University, Blackie is sent to take care of things. Before long, he finds himself in the middle of a worldwide investigation, dodging bullets from the Russian mafia, and dealing with a woman whose mind is mired in sixties mode of militant feminism. If Blackie can live through this one, Cardinal Cronin is going to owe him at least a bottle of Jamison's.

**** Father Blackie's irrespressible humor alone makes any book in which he stars worthwhile. While some have been critical of the extensive discussion of church history and the differences between Orodox and Catholic branches of the church, I found it to be a fascinating and educational aspect to the story. As always, Father Greeley adds a slight twist that keeps the case from being too simple and manages to interweave a homily into the master plot. ****

Reviewed by Amanda