The Enemy of God

From Publishers Weekly Former NYPD deputy commissioner Daley, perhaps best known for his nonfiction account of police corruption, Prince of the City, is unlikely to win many new fans with this cliché-ridden tale, which ranks several notches below Year of the Dragon, his excellent novel about New York City's Chinese gangs. Others have done a better job of recounting the changing dynamics among a group of high school friends; Daley's quartet have grown up to become an award-winning columnist, a successful prosecutor, a high-ranking NYPD official and an unconventional priest at odds with his church's traditional wing. The priest's death, instantly categorized as an apparent suicide, brings together the two surviving members of the clique, police chief Gabe Driscoll and reporter Andrew Troy, to try to understand what led their friend to a lonely Harlem rooftop and to identify the actual cause of his death. Characters who fail to come to life, an improbable mob hit and a final twist that's neither compelling nor credible all make for a lackluster effort. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile From the Bronx to Harlem, from Vietnam to Africa, this novel follows the efforts of a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the NYPD's chief of internal affairs as they try to understand what drove their boyhood friend, an unconventional priest at odds with the Church's teachings, to suicide. Richard M. Davidson delivers the lilting Irish brogue of a Catholic monsignor with the same deft expertise he displays for the low, menacing growls of seasoned cops. His presentation of venial church officials creates distaste beyond his words. Yet despite Davidson's expertise, the characters, and the moral dilemmas that define them, fail to come to life. K.A.T. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.