Charisma - Hardcover

Papazoglou, Orania

3.18

33 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517570882 ISBN 13: 9780517570883

Publisher: Crown, 1992

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Ex-nun Susan Murphy attempts to find a link between the ritualistic murders of ex-nuns and the gangland-style executions of young boys residing at Damien House, a haven for runaways

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From Publishers Weekly:

Reclaiming her special niche in the crime fiction genre, Papazoglou ( Sanctity ) takes well-born 35-year-old Susan Murphy out of the convent after 17 years and depicts her life in her native New Haven, Conn. The week that Susan returns to her family's grand house to live with her brothers Dan, the Elm City's DA, and ne'er-do-well Andy, marks the beginning of two crime waves: the murders and ritual markings of former nuns and the execution-style murders of very young male prostitutes. Expertly building suspense, Papazoglou follows Susan as she begins to spend time at Damien House, Father Tom Burne's refuge for street kids in the city's worst section, and cuts to the unidentified murderer who kills nuns under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. New Haven's chief of homicide, Pat Mallory, must try to solve both sets of crimes as he and Susan are drawn together. While the intricate plot begs belief on some central issues, e.g., the pervasive pederasty in New Haven's upper echelons, and fails to resolve others, including the mysterious circumstances of Susan's parents' deaths, on the whole Papazoglou's latest keeps faith with its readers as it leaps to the revelations of its resolution.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The author turns again to the world of Catholicism (Sanctity, 1986) and to the once serene city of New Haven, Connecticut, where Susan Murphy has moved back into the family home after 17 years in a religious order. Her brother Dan, now New Haven's district attorney, and younger brother Andy still live there. Needing some purpose in her new life, Susan tries to be useful at Damien House, a refuge for damaged children run by Father Tom Burne. There, she meets Pat Mallory, police department head of Homicide, presently beset by a double run of killings--several young boys have been found shot to death, gangland style, and a series of women, all ex- nuns, have been ritualistically murdered. Rumors of a well- connected ring of pederasts; a hard look at the city's mean streets; an accusation of child abuse against Father Burne; the political ambitions of Dan Murphy; the deranged thoughts and plans of the serial killer, and much, much more come together in the chilling climax to a lurid story. Occasionally overwrought, sometimes straining credibility, and not for the queasy--but compelling all the way. -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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