cover image Religious Conviction

Religious Conviction

Grif Stockley. Simon & Schuster, $20.5 (286pp) ISBN 978-0-671-79869-7

The action occurs in Arkansas, but this novel's spiritual territory is Graham Greene country: the plot involves religion, murder, suicide and pornography. Although the author's jauntily colloquial prose is nothing like Greene's, the two writers also share a preoccupation with their characters' moral dilemmas. Stockley ( Expert Testimony ) is more interested in ideas than thrills; despite a juicy courtroom scene and numerous surprises, those who prefer mysteries heavy on mayhem probably will be disappointed. The hero is Gideon Page, a struggling attorney and lapsed Catholic living in a community where nearly everybody else belongs to the fundamentalist sect, Christian Life. Page is approached by the area's most powerful lawyer to assist in the murder trial of Leigh Wallace, daughter of Christian Life's leader, who is accused of killing her husband. As he tries to get information from an uncooperative client and witnesses who are either lying or stonewalling, Page gradually realizes that he has that he has been lured into a case that is not at all what it seems. Few readers will anticipate the trial's twists, fewer still the final denouement. Stockley doesn't quite achieve Greene's level of subtlety and skill, but he has produced a high-quality thriller with more on its mind than whodunit. (Jan.)