William X(avier) Kienzle

Start Free Trial

Benedicamus Domino

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Last Updated August 6, 2024.

[In his The Rosary Murders, William Kienzle] has rounded up a great crowd of current church types and brought them vividly alive in a zippy, church-wise whodunit. His is a gently bemused but dry-eyed picture of the church in the postmodern world, a.k.a. the Archdiocese of Detroit in Murder City. But Kienzle likes his people. How often do murder mystery readers feel as though they've lost a friend in the murder victims? Of course, the church has changed: Chesterton's Father Brown emerged a mystery wrapped in an enigma; Kienzle's hero-priest emerges merely a puzzle. There it is. But Kienzle seems to intend the priest and nun victims as metaphors for religious servants' dedicated availability in today's frantic world, and their relatively easy destruction. Maybe that's a Weltanschauung. If it's humbug, it's very high-grade.

Joseph A. Tetlow, "Benedicamus Domino," in America (reprinted with permission of America Press. Inc.; © 1979; all rights reserved), Vol. 140, No. 17, May 5, 1979, p. 375.∗

Get Ahead with eNotes

Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Previous

Introduction

Next

From Massacre in Maine to Murder in Miami: Investigating a Lethal Fictional Foursome