Fundamentals of Murder

When the Lord sent Jerry Fanning to New York City to convert sinners, the young Oklahoma fundamentalist had no idea that he'd soon be jailed for strangling three prostitutes and a model on four successive Fridays in Times Square. But Jerry has not been abandoned. Racing to the rescue are two rising stars on the investigative scene--the paraplegic Bishop Regan (more Nero Wolfe than Father Dowling) and his ex-cop assistant, Davey Goldman, ``a Jew ( and an atheist)''--introduced in The Chartreuse Clue. Despite occasional lapses in pace and a predictable solution, this ecumenical whodunit by a former Benedictine monk and banker is a brisk, diverting read with a smashing climax. (July)