Pious Deception - Hardcover

Dunlap, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394571681 ISBN 13: 9780394571683

Publisher: Villard, 1989

Synopsis

Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, a female medical examiner, applies her forensic talents to an investigation into the bizarre death of a beloved parish priest, who had been found hanged from the altar of his church, a case that embroils Kiernan in scandal, religious politics, and murder

About this title

About the Author

Susan Dunlap is a prolific author of mystery novels. Born in New York City, Dunlap majored in English at Bucknell University and earned a masters degree in education from the University of North Carolina. She was a social worker before an Agatha Christie novel inspired her to try her hand at writing mysteries. Six attempts and six years later, she published Karma (1981), which began a ten-book series about brash Berkeley cop Jill Smith. Since then, Dunlap has published more than twenty novels and numerous short stories. Her other ongoing characters include the meter-reading detective Vejay Haskell, former forensic pathologist Kiernan O’Shaughnessy, and Zen student/stunt double Darcy Lott. In addition to writing, Dunlap has taught yoga, worked as a paralegal, and helped found Sisters in Crime, an organization created to support women in the field of mystery writing. She lives near San Francisco.

From Publishers Weekly

At the promising start to a new detective series by the author of the Jill Smith mysteries, a young priest is found hanged in particularly compromising circumstances in his parish church in Phoenix, Ariz. To determine whether the death was suicide or murder, the diocese's bishop calls upon Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, a young medical examiner turned private eye. Kiernan runs into obstacles at every turn, not the least of which are the cremation of the priest's body before an autopsy could be performed and her name forged on his false death certificate. While struggling with her own painful memories dredged up by the case, Kiernan uncovers a clan of hostile mountain villagers, a bizarre castle, a hidden shelter for abused women, and the diocese's plan to build an elegant retreat-resort in the nearby White Bone Mountains. Feisty Kiernan has appeal, but her debut is overburdened with subplots, complaints about the weather and hard-to-credit emotional conflicts regarding Kiernan's sister.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0394571681
• ISBN 13: 9780394571683
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 209