Hailed by critic Anthony Boucher as "one of the best detective stories
of modern times," this classic tale by Grand Master Dorothy Salisbury
Davis combines suspense and psychological insight as a priest and a
police detective both race to find a self-confessed murderer before he
is compelled to kill again.
"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned ..."
Father Duffy has heard many confessions through the years, but none
quite so disturbing as the one he's heard tonight. A young man enters
the confessional just as the priest is readying to leave for the
evening; he's distraught that he has killed a woman in a paroxysm of
uncontrollable rage--and he's still wielding the hammer he used to do
the deed. Father Duffy tries to convince the young man to turn himself
in to the police, but he flees just as suddenly as he had appeared.
When the priest learns the next day that an escort was found bludgeoned
to death on the East Side, he sets out to search for the troubled
confessor. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ben Goldsmith of the NYPD is drawn deep
into the official investigation. Neither is aware that the other is
searching for the murderer, and both hope against hope that they're able
to find the killer before he strikes again.
"A simmering tour de force of detection from both ends of the
trail."-- Kirkus Reviews