Unholy Order: A Paul Devlin Mystery - Softcover

Heffernan, William

3.42

52 ratings by Goodreads

9780380818822: Unholy Order: A Paul Devlin Mystery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380818825 ISBN 13: 9780380818822

Publisher: Avon, 2002

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Inspector Jack Devlin investigates the Catholic Church in this thrilling new entry in the Edgar Award winning series.

When the mutilated body of a young nun is found stuffed in the trunk of a car, even the toughest cops in New York City are struck by the sheer horror of the crime. The young victim is a member of Opus Cristo, a highly controversial group within the Catholic Church, whose membership is rumoured to include some of the nation's most influential religious, business and political leaders.

Inspector Jack Devlin of the NYPD, experienced in working sensitive cases, is immediately assigned to investigate. But as Devlin and his team delve further, they realise this is no simple death. It is the first sign of a conspiracy of epic proportions. A secret organisation is responsible for a web of crime that extends to the highest reaches of the Catholic Church and every level of society. And when the cooperation of the NYPD is mysteriously withdrawn, Devlin discovers that not even the law remains uncorrupted by this conspiracy. Alone, Devlin and his team must face down two powerful and ruthless adversaries...

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About the Author:

William Heffernan won the 1996 Edgar Allan Poe Award for his novel Tarnished Blue. He is the author of eleven novels, including the international best-sellers The Corsican, Ritual, Blood Rose, and Corsican Honor. His novel The Dinosaur Club was a New York Times bestseller and is in development at Warner Bros. to become a motion picture. A former reporter for The New York Daily News, he lives in Huntington, Vermont, with his wife and three sons.

From Publishers Weekly:

HThere's a lot to like about Edgar Award winner Heffernan's (The Dinosaur Club; Red Angel) f1fth thriller featuring Paul Devlin and his elite NYPD homicide squad. First, like Polly, Heffernan knows how to put the kettle on and keep it boiling right till the end. No mean feat. Second, his characters, however dire the circumstances, never lose their sense of humor. Even his villains, a motley and murderous crew, usually find something with which to amuse themselves as they go about their grisly work. Third, the author's people never do anything stupid. Devlin's case is the proverbial time bomb: a nun, just returned from Colombia, is found dead, her body mutilated. Apparently, she was forced to swallow condoms filled with heroin and then murdered for their retrieval. She was a member of a special, and most powerful, order in the Catholic Church, the Opus Christi, which is reluctant to cooperate with the investigation. If this weren't enough to complicate Devlin's job, Catholic priests known to have AIDS are being murdered alphabetically. How does the killer know who they were and where to find them? Devlin knows he has very little time before the press blows up the story, while the archdiocese comes down on the mayor to cover up the uglier details. Heffernan builds enough tension to have his readers squirming in their chairs. His cops are smart, his villains deliciously evil. This is the stuff we read thrillers for. Agent, Gloria Loomis. (Jan. 29)Forecast: With The Dinosaur Club currently under development by Warner Brothers, a teaser chapter in the mass market edition of Red Angel (Dec.), a regional (New England) author tour, plus possible controversy from the depiction of the Catholic Church,

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