The Discourtesy of Death: A Father Anselm Thriller

Early in Brodrick’s mild fifth Father Anselm thriller (after 2012’s The Day of the Lie), the prior of Larkwood Priory near Sudbury, England, hands Anselm, who has made a reputation for himself as a detective, a typed anonymous letter, which obliquely accuses Peter Henderson of murdering his disabled wife, Jenny Henderson, two years earlier. The letter’s author may be Jenny’s father, former Army captain Michael Goodwin, who’s bent on taking revenge on his son-in-law, who’s about to be released from prison. Anselm uses his skills as a former barrister along with the assistance of Mitch Robson, a criminal he worked with in the past, to begin the search for justice, but what could have been an engaging investigation becomes mired in tangential essays regarding the morality of mercy killing and confusing threads that have little to do with the central plot. Anselm identifies the killer long after it becomes obvious to the reader. (Aug.)