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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Clergy Detectives in Fiction
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
I've recently started reading some clergy detective stories, and I'd be interested to know if others like this genre and what they've read.
My current one is 'The Night Watch' by Alison Joseph. The 'detective' isn't precisely clergy but near enough for me - a RC sister - Sister Agnes.
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The classic one being, I suppose, Chesterton's Father Brown.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
Yes, I found that site Rose, and very helpful too.
Its good as well to know which have appealed to other readers, such as us here.
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
Can you tell me (us) more about Rabbi Small, Polly?
I don't know them. Is he contemporary or historical.
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doubtingthomas
Shipmate
# 14498
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Posted
Paul Doherty's Brother Athelstan series, set in 14th-century London.
Also, does Don Camillo count as a detective...?
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'We are star-stuff. We are the Universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out'
Delenn (Babylon 5)
Posts: 266 | From: A Small Island | Registered: Jan 2009
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
I've read the Brother Athelstan series - they are great.
I just looked Paul Doherty up on Wikipedia. Amazing! How can a man be headmaster of an 'Outstanding' secondary school AND write eighty books! And what a range of pen names he uses.
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Sir Pellinore
Quester Emeritus
# 12163
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Posted
Like he does for others, Father Brown still rings my bells. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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Well...
Posts: 5108 | From: The Deep North, Oz | Registered: Dec 2006
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Spiffy
Ship's WonderSheep
# 5267
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Posted
Nobody's said Fr. (Bp.) (Abp.) John Blackwood "Blackie" Ryan yet? I am surprised.
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Posts: 10281 | From: Beervana | Registered: Dec 2003
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Antisocial Alto
Shipmate
# 13810
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Posted
The website Stop, You're Killing Me indexes mysteries by location, time period, occupation of the main character etc. Here's their list of clerical sleuths.
I'm fond of the Clare Fergusson series by Julia Spencer-Fleming, myself. She obviously knows her stuff and doesn't sugarcoat.
Posts: 601 | From: United States | Registered: Jun 2008
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Antisocial Alto:
The website Stop, You're Killing Me indexes mysteries by location, time period, occupation of the main character etc. Here's their list of clerical sleuths.
I'm fond of the Clare Fergusson series by Julia Spencer-Fleming, myself. She obviously knows her stuff and doesn't sugarcoat.
My vote goes for her too – as well as Father Brown, of course.
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
quote:
Also, does Don Camillo count as a detective...?
I remember reading Don Camillo as a teenager and laughing at the schemes of both the priest and the Mayor. Peppone, I remember?
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Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Antisocial Alto:
I'm fond of the Clare Fergusson series by Julia Spencer-Fleming, myself. She obviously knows her stuff and doesn't sugarcoat.
Yes -- I was lucky enough to meet her several months ago. (There's a new book soon to be released!)
I have so many I can't name them off the top of my head, but a few favorites -- not always clerical sleuths, but all eccleciastical mysteries:
Being an Episcopalian, I naturally head towards the Episcopalians and Anglicans -- Kate Charles (probably my favorite), Isabelle Holland, D. M. Greenwood, Lis Howell. (Oddly, all female authors.)
R.C. priests -- the books by William Kienzle and Ralph McInerney. I've read some of Greeley's but am always annoyed afterwards for spending so much time on books I don't like. (The later Kienzle books I felt were time wasters as well.)
For pure sillines -- Suzette Hill and Mark Schweizer.
There are so many more -- I'll try to put together a more complete list.
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~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
On the outer limits of what might be described as 'clergy' there's the Buddhist monk in H R F Keating's Zen There Was Murder.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
Ah yes. I read the first Merrily Watkins a few weeks ago when I started reading in this genre. It read well, but I felt could have been just about 50 pages shorter. A good human character though. I must read more.
I like the old fashioned detective story too - the 'golden age' style where the footman did it in a country house at a weekend party style. Not sure if there are clerical detectives in that period, apart, of course, from the good Fr Brown.
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Posts: 33 | Registered: Apr 2012
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
The detective is not a clergyman, but have you read Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin?
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Avila
Shipmate
# 15541
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Posted
I just spotted this on the list above - and as she is based in a part of the country I know - am currently doing a library search to see what ones I can borrow...
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Meerkat:
The 'Merrily Watkins' series of books by Phil Rickman has kept me reading for yonks... and she comes over as so 'normal'... with worries and doubts regarding her faith.
The series is also a paean of love to Herefordshire and makes me incredibly homesick for the place, even though I only lived there for three years, 35 years ago.
This thread makes me remember Stephen Chance's Septimus novels (Septimus and the Minster Ghost, Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery) for the first time in about ... oh, 35 years again. Septimus was a former police Inspector turned vicar, if I remember correctly, with a handy knack for mysteries turning up on his doorstep. This is of course an occupational hazard for any successful fictional amateur detective.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
Mollie Hardwick, who was perhaps best known for writing novels associated with the original Upstairs Downstairs TV series, also wrote the "Doran Fairweather" series of detective novels featuring an antiques dealer and her "friend" who was a clergyman.
http://embden11.home.xs4all.nl/Engels2/hardwickm.htm
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Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I like Fr. Brown and Blackie Ryan. Fr. Dowling was a US television series in the 80s.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
The detective is not a clergyman, but have you read Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin?
Edmund Crispin is the pen-name of Bruce Montgomery, a composer-performer of church music, among other genres. In his 'The Case of the Gilded Fly' part of the solution to the crime involves certain stops on the chapel organ, and in 'Holy Disorders' the cathedral organ also figures in the crime.
Also (and I may be quoting inaccurately) 'Holy Disorders' contains one of my all-time favorite lines -- 'Come and play for the services, someone's murdering all the organists. Don't know why, the choir's not THAT bad.'
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Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
I hoped someone would mention Merrily Watkins!
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Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I've recently come across Donna Fletcher Crowe's The Monastery Murders series with a central character an American, Felicity Howard, studying at a fictional Community of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire. (The author is connected with Mirfield.) Together with a Father Anthony, she investigates dark events linked with history, in the first with Cuthbert, in the second with the Knights of St John and, separately, Julian of Norwich.
I don't find them as gripping as Greenwood's books, or Tremayne's Fidelma and Eadulf books. (Do they count?) The churchmanship is high, which isn't something I feel totally at home in. Though Crowe is American, she is clearly familiar with Britain, and I haven't been brought up short by anything obviously wrong - she makes a point of getting landscape right.
The stories of the first two are of the racing across the country in pursuit of clues sort, though not in the Dan Brown category - the McGuffins aren't too demanding of suspension of disbelief. (DB gets a mention in the Templar Church episode.)
I also like Irene Allen's Quaker mysteries set in Cambridge (USA), though it's probably stretching things to call a Meeting Clerk a clergy detective.
Penny
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
Does William of Baskerville in "The Name of the Rose" count? He was a Franciscan Friar.
Brilliant book, awful film.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Polly Plummer
Shipmate
# 13354
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Posted
SFG, Rabbi Small lives in a small town in the USA, in the fifties or sixties I think, and solves the crimes by Rabbinic reasoning. The social setting is a bit old-fashioned and sexist but the stories are interesting. The members of the rabbi's
congregation are (many of them) pretty ignorant so he gets to explain stuff about Judaism, which helps ignorant readers like me. The author is Harry Kemelman.
Posts: 577 | Registered: Jan 2008
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
In the rare category of female religious detectives, there's Boris Akunin's Sister Pelagia.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I am partial to Fr. Brown and I have also enjoyed several Blackie Ryan novels.
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
Isn't P D James's Inspector Dalgliesh the son of a clergyman?
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Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Not quite a detective (except in Call for the Dead ), but John le Carre's George Smiley was based on the Rev Vivian Green
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Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
I like Fr. Brown and Blackie Ryan. Fr. Dowling was a US television series in the 80s.
Fr. Dowling was incredibly silly and hokey but it had Tracy Nelson on it and she is soooooooo hot! Then again, as a former Ctholic, I DO have this thing about nuns!
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Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Masha
Shipmate
# 10098
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Posted
Darn it Meerkat - you've cost me money!
I bought the first Merrily Watkins and I'm rather enjoying it as it's so different to what I'd usually read.
I bought it yesterday and had half of it read by the time I went to sleep - with a two hour break to lead a bible study. So that's pretty decent going. It must be good!
Posts: 308 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Meerkat
Suricata suricatta
# 16117
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Posted
Pleased to be of service, Masha. They are a damn good read, even if there is a similar theme...
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Simples!
Posts: 160 | From: Herts, UK | Registered: Jan 2011
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Masha:
Darn it Meerkat - you've cost me money!
I bought the first Merrily Watkins and I'm rather enjoying it as it's so different to what I'd usually read.
Me too. 450 pages in five days - I think I've broken my 'readers block'!
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Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Edith
Shipmate
# 16978
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Posted
If you haven't read anything by William Brodrick you are missing a treat. Start with The Sixth Lamentation. Father Anselm, a former lawyer turned monk engages in detection and has a deep moral vision and profound psychological insights. And this is combined with superb writing.
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Edith
Posts: 256 | From: UK | Registered: Mar 2012
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Masha
Shipmate
# 10098
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Posted
Right, I've now finished the first two Merrily Watkins books.
Weird but quite cool. Dead easy to read.
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Laxton's Superba
Shipmate
# 228
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Posted
Thank you to all those who have recommended the Merrily Watkins books - I am thoroughly hooked,and, knowing the area quite well, it's a bonus.
Thank you too to whoever it was either on this thread or another who recommended the Jordan Lacey books - those too have proved very readable, even if for some odd reason the library only had them in large print.....
Posts: 187 | From: I wish I knew | Registered: May 2001
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
Here is a new one on me. Sister Mary Helen is the detective and the author is a nun, Sister Carol Anne O'Marie.
I jZust got a book in this series, seems light and fun.
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Posts: 33 | Registered: Apr 2012
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Meerkat
Suricata suricatta
# 16117
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Posted
OK... A tangent of sorts. Since I first mentioned Merrily Watkins, I feel I should ask... if a film was to be made, who would you see playing her?
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Simples!
Posts: 160 | From: Herts, UK | Registered: Jan 2011
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Masha
Shipmate
# 10098
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Posted
Good question (I got through the first three in a week by the way...thanks for helping me drain my bank account Meerkat )
Hmm...Difficult. I want to know why it's important to the stories that she's beautiful, just out of interest. It doesn't say that much about her as I recall - just that she has dark hair, it doesn't include ethnic background either so...
How about Naomie Harris?
Rachel Weisz or Emily Mortimer?
[ 18. May 2012, 18:22: Message edited by: Masha ]
Posts: 308 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
I love Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma novels.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Anselmina
Ship's barmaid
# 3032
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Caissa:
I love Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma novels.
Me, too. They're unusual, atmospheric and intelligent. Am I right in thinking she was of the old Celtic monastic tradition, in the days when Monks and Nuns could marry??!!
Like Lord Jestacost I love the Merrily Watkins books, as much for Hereford/shire as the story. I lived there for several years, and loved it; and I find myself wandering round the city in my head as I read the book. As it happened I spent a lot of time in and around the Bishop's Palace and courtyard, and Cathedral area, so it almost feels like home reading about Merrily's office tucked away in the gateway entrance to the Palace!
The books are a bit OTT - to say the least - but Merrily is a great character, and Rickman's depiction of the Welsh Marches/Herefordshire folk is pretty much spot on, imo!
Posts: 10002 | From: Scotland the Brave | Registered: Jul 2002
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SFG
Apprentice
# 17081
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Posted
Sister Fidelma is great and it gives a fascinating insight into the Celtic church of the time. tremayne writes with authority! And I do hope he is accurate - its a splendid way of learning about a different period of history and greeting the feel of it.
Cadafel is similar, but for me Tremayne's detail is greater than Elllis Peters, and slightly more evocative.
I'd love to see the Sr Fidelma series televised.
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Posts: 33 | Registered: Apr 2012
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birdie
fowl
# 2173
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Posted
If Phil Rickman is experiencing a sudden up-turn in sales I think the reason can be found on this thread. I decided to have a browse at my local bookshop yesterday, and the first Rickman book I picked up started with a loving description of a mountain I can see from my bedroom window. SO that's me hooked.
I decided to be logical and buy the first Merrily Watkins book rather than the first I picked up, and finished it in a day. Compelling and fairly easy reading, but I was a little disappointed by the ending - the tying up of loose ends was implied rather than described and there were a few characters I wanted to know more about, but I will be reading more.
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Captain Jack Sparrow
Posts: 1290 | From: the edge | Registered: Jan 2002
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Meerkat
Suricata suricatta
# 16117
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Posted
Look what I started by mentioning Merrily Watkins!!! I should have asked Phil Rickman for a rake-off of his royalties!
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Simples!
Posts: 160 | From: Herts, UK | Registered: Jan 2011
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Kasra
Shipmate
# 10631
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Posted
Not exactly a clergy detective, but the Church features pretty highly... Lis Howell's books "Flower Arranger at All Saints" and "Chorister at the Abbey" are ones I've enjoyed.
Disclaimer: Lis is related to me. But that doesn't mean I like all her books - not so wild about the earlier ones. These two are my favorites.
Kx
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Posts: 309 | From: Lincoln, NE | Registered: Nov 2005
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