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I read another in this series a while back and I remembered liking it. I liked this one too but I had some reservations.

Gregor Demarkian is the "Armenian-American Hercule Poirot", according to the Philadelphia newspapers. As often happens with fictional detectives, he appears in the papers from time to time. I can't remember seeing any detective featured in any newspaper article in real life, but I suppose it happens.

The case is confusing and there are many characters. The whole thing starts at a monastery that allows homeless people to spend the night in the barn on the property. The monastery is cloistered: its residents do not interact with the outside world, except for a few "extern sisters". We learn that there are monasteries that are for women, that these women may be nuns or simply "religious sisters". One extern sister in particular figures in the story. Sister Maria Beata is a lawyer and thus is called in to assist with a little legal problem. The head nun (I forget her title, just remember that she is not a "Mother Superior") is the sister of a prominent conservative talk show host. The host, Drew Harrigan, has given some of his property to the monastery. Unfortunately, he did so after being arrested on a drug charge and being sued by the man he claimed procured the drugs for him.

That's all very straightforward, yes?

It gets muddy fast. We meet the tough corporate lawyer. We meet the human rights lawyer (his former wife). We meet the head of an operation called Philadelphia Sleeps, a nonprofit that helps homeless persons to get into shelters during the bitter cold winter nights.

We also get to see Gregor's friend Tibor, an elderly soul with whom Gregor has breakfast every morning. Oh, and the media company that features Drew Harrigan on its radio station. There are so many characters who figure one way or another into the story that I had a bit of a time keeping them straight. And when the case was solved it felt a bit like real life in a way, in the way that not all loose ends are tied up, or at least not all motivations explained.

It's an entertaining and sometimes provocative bit of work. Many of the characters are in some way political, and those who say they are not still are. I felt a bit like the author was treating us to her own political philosophy at times and I wasn't entirely taken in by it. There are also characters who are more caricatures. Fortunately, these are in the minority but their presence was irritating to me. So I felt it was, for me, a qualified success. ( )

Gregor encounters nuns and homeless men ( )

No. 21 in the Gregor Demarkian series.

One of the very good aspects of this series—one that allows Haddam to keep it interesting despite very formulaic plots—is that she uses the genre to explore different social themes with each book. She does have recurring ones: religion, which she treats with great sympathy; the very rich, which she does not; and community. While her writing is not brilliant thematically, it is usually very good, adding interest and complexity to her stories.

Unfortunately, this time the “theme”—contemporary politics—gets in the way. Hadddam has a tendency to be heavy handed many times in her exposition of a point of view, and with this book, it really detracts from the story. I’ve visited her Web site, and it does appear that she is a Libertarian, which is fine; I personally lean very strongly towards that stance myself. BUT Haddam pounds away and pounds away at what she views, through her characters, as the problem with contemporary politics, using even Father Tibor Kasparian as a mouthpiece; while I might agree with a good part of her analysis, the exposition finally becomes boring.

The plot and its development are standard Haddam for this series. She uses the homeless situation as a matrix for her plot and also for her exposition of her political views. She also touches on the preferential treatment given celebrities in the justice system. She does both very, very well, and that’s what kept me reading through too many pages of “libertarianism vs authoritarianism” ranting.

Not her best but still a good read for fans of the series. ( )