The Bishop Goes to the University

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 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....