Review – Playing saint

As a televangelist with a burgeoning congregation, physical and electronic, and with fame approaching national levels, Parker Saint is well on his way to having it all. He has his 28-minute sermons timed down to the second, with all leading to a flattering catchphrase his congregations love: “God is awesome, and so are you!”

But Parker Saint has been accused of assaulting a female airline employee. To avoid an arraignment that would ruin his ministry, he accepts the head prosecutor’s demand that he assist Detectives Paul Ketcham and Corinne Kirkpatrick in solving a series of serial murders that involve satanic rites. Saint knows nothing about things satanic—he doesn’t even preach about hell—but he manages to fake it with the detectives by consulting the Internet.

The prosecutor’s requirement launches him on an odyssey that means confronting the threatening members of a satanic cult, keeping the detectives partly satisfied, and dealing with a mysterious trio who claim to be undercover Jesuit agents sent there by the pope for find and return a missing sacred relic. And Saint must do all this while maintaining his ministry and satisfying his demanding mentor in profitable televangelism.

The author weaves these varied threads skillfully into a single narrative. Surprises keep coming and tension keeps mounting as the novel progresses to a thrilling climax that involves spiritual as well as physical conflict. In summary: A very entertaining debut suspense novel.