Philadelphia. Two churches - one Catholic, the other Episcopalian - plus one more, an extremist church that pickets the Episcopalian church because of its open acceptance of gays. The Catholic church, St. Anselm's, works to overcome its history of priest-molesters by replacing accused priests as well as upper-level luminaries.

On the same street lives a woman who is a "professional atheist" - writing for an atheist publication and sending letters to local newspapers. Edith Lawton also makes a life out of resenting a writer-acquaintance, Bennis Hannaford, who is successful at her writing career while Edith is not. And Bennis is the lover of Gregor Demarkian, police consultant (he prefers the title to "private detective" and prefers to work with the police).

Murder intrudes on the already-tense scene. A woman with diabetes dies and it turns out she was poisoned. Then a young man dies of the same poison. Demarkian is invited to help uncover the murderer.

Many unsavory characters and many vulnerable persons. Danger is at the door.

I have enjoyed Demarkian mysteries before. I liked but did not love this one. While more than one person is an atheist in this group, only Edith identifies as one, and she is crazy as well as careless and ignorant. While I recognize that the writer is not likely intending that we take her as an example of all atheists, nevertheless I felt some prejudice here, particularly considering that one of the traditional nuns at St. Anselm's is portrayed as the sane one, the sensible one. In my experience, and in studies, atheists tend to be more intelligent and longer on science and truth than the population in general.

I also felt that Demarkian was doing less detecting than landing on answers or maybe his intuition. It seemed like there was a big reveal at the end yet little to suggest an investigation throughout. ( )

#17 in the Gregor Demarkian series.

Religion is inescapable in the Demarkian series, if only because Gregor’s closest friend is Father Tibor Kasparian, pastor of Holy Trinity Armenian Christian Church. Quite a few books feature an order of Roman Catholic nuns, the Sisters of Divine Grace; they are some of the best in the series. In Baptism in Blood, Haddam takes a fairly positive look at Southern fundamentalist Christian in a small town; there is a lesbian community that more or less abrades the sensitivities of the fundamentalists, but there is no actual hostile action.

True Believers presents an extreme of fundamentalist Christianity, those who actively hate homosexuals. I use the word “hate” deliberately. It’s on thing to disagree with someone’s belief system; it is quite another to disagree violently. Rather than in a small southern town, the confrontation between an Episcopal congregation, St. Stephen’s, of gay men and a group of fundamentalists whose pastor actively pursues and harasses the gay congregation takes place in Philadelphia. In a delightful coincidence, St. Stephen’s is located directly across the street from St. Anselm’s, whose parochial schools is run by none other than—you guessed it—the Sisters of Divine Grace; Sister Mary Scholastica, whom fans of the series have met before, is the principal. Also making an appearance is the Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia who looks as if he’s modeled at least partly on the real life Archbishop of Boston, Sean Cardinal O’Malley: both are Franciscans, both were sent in to clean up the mess due to the pedophilia scandal, both are ascetics. Haddam portrays the fictional Archbishop in a very intriguing way—generally and heartily disliked by officaldom (including Demarkian), but in private, very introspective and far more “human” and compassionate than his public face would suggest. Haddam lives in Connecticut. It’s always tempting to speculate…..

Anyway, back to the book itself. As always, the Sisters of Divine Grace lend a very special air to any Demarkian book, particularly since members of the order have a distressing habit of being murdered! No exception here, although we have a very catholic (sorry) spectrum of victims.

One of the best parts of this book is the portrayal of the fundamentalist congregation and its obsessed pastor, Ray Phipps. It is neither pleasant nor in any way complimentary. The group is portrayed as people who have little education, not terribly intelligent, easily led, and prone to violence. Phipps plays on all of those characteristics while holding them—and the people--in contempt. In one section of the book, he basically incites a riot, and makes certain that he is in no way implicated.

One of the most outstanding segments involves a hilarious confrontation between the Cardinal Archbishop and the pastor of St. Stephens with Phipps. It’s worth the price of the book.

Haddam’s Demarkian series started out strong and then for a few novels was just mostly ok—still worth reading but not up to the quality of her earlier books. With this book and Skeleton Key, she comes roaring back with the same old formula she’s always used in her book structures, but fine writing and good plotting. Her husband died of cancer not that long ago, and it is easy to imagine that the situation impacted her writing. But she’s back stronger than ever, more power to her, and all her fans have to be delighted. ( )