Murder Most Catholic: Divine Tales of Profane Crimes

. Cumberland House Publishing, $14.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-58182-260-1

Fourteen accounts of immoral deeds uncovered (and even sometimes committed) by moral people comprise the absorbing Murder Most Catholic: Divine Tales of Profane Crimes, edited by Ralph McInerny, author of the popular Father Dowling and Sister Mary Teresa Dempsey mystery series. About half are set in the Middle Ages, a time of rich fodder for writers who ""wish to meld murder and the religious,"" while the remainder explore contemporary milieus and themes: in Stephen Dentinger's ""Cemetery of the Innocents,"" a 15th-century danse macabre turns truly deadly; in Ed Gorman's ""Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned,"" a priest at his 25th college reunion realizes that his lifetime of good works has failed to atone for a murder he committed in his youth.

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