REVIEW: The Rosary Murders

The Rosary Murders
William X. Kienzle

The Rosary Murders was one of the first real adult suspense thrillers I ever read. In fact, as a teenager, when I brought it to the check-out counter at my small hometown library, the librarian called my father to get permission to check it out to me. Still makes me laugh to this day. My dad's response to the librarian? He'd rather I read murder mysteries than bodice ripper romance novels with half naked people on the front. I found that funny because the book cover has a dead woman in a bathtub.....it doesn't show anything vital, but the naked is implied. I guess dead naked people are acceptable, while half naked women contemplating sex with rogues is less so. :)

But I digress......I remember that I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. And the movie with Donald Sutherland (even though it made significant changes). But for whatever reason, I never returned to read more of the Father Koesler series. I was a teenager....who knows what I was thinking. :) There are several series that I started when I was younger and never finished....I've decided to backtrack and read them! The Father Koesler series is one....and the Dana Fuller Ross Wagons West! series is another.  Just to mention two.....there are more, but I will never get to the review for The Rosary Murders if I keep rambling.

Back on task.....

The basics: Father Bob Koesler is a priest in Detroit. A killer is targeting priests and nuns in the city. Killing them brutally....then draping a black rosary around each one's hand before leaving the scene. Koesler works with the police to try and catch the murderer. They struggle to investigate as more killings occur. The case heats up when one victim lives long enough to scrawl a clue in her own blood, and then Father Koesler has a frightening run-in with the killer inside the confessional. Koesler cannot reveal what the killer said to him in the confessional. He struggles to aid the investigation without breaking the seal of confession. It all builds to an exciting conclusion!

Although it can't be much of a surprise that a story centered around murders of Catholic priests and nuns would contain a lot of details about the Catholic church, for non-Catholics some of the details and situations in this book might be a bit confusing, or at times, even boring. There are many details about church politics, conflicts over Vatican II changes, Catholic practices and the duties of priests and nuns. I grew up Catholic so I didn't find it tedious. Others might though. I rewatched the movie starring Donald Sutherland as Father Koesler after I finished the book. The movie made a lot of changes to the story, but some were obviously made to keep the focus on the murder mystery, rather than Catholicism. As usual though some changes between the book and film versions seemed arbitrary and ridiculous. For instance one murdered nun in the book is middle-aged and a religious coordinator for a church in Dearborn, but in the movie she is young and beautiful, preparing to renounce her vows to get married.  I guess they wanted to add a little extra drama? *eyeroll*

Kienzle wrote so well about the Catholic church, its inner issues, politics and drama because he was a priest from 1954-1974.He left the priesthood over doctrinal differences.

I'm so glad I re-read this novel. This time I didn't have to get parental permission. ha ha. I'm going to read more of this series (there are 24 Father Koesler books). I'm interested to see how Koesler's character develops throughout the series.