The Day of the Lie: A Father Anselm Thriller

Journalist John Fielding asks his friend Fr. Anselm Duffy, an English monk and former lawyer, to help a former Polish freedom fighter, in Brodrick’s labyrinthine fourth Father Anselm thriller (after 2008’s A Whispered Name). Róza Mojewska was John’s source for a story on the resistance in 1982, but they were betrayed to the secret police, costing John his press credentials and landing Róza in prison. Róza wants to find the informant—and finally expose the operative who killed her husband in 1951 and forced her to keep a devastating secret. With his prior’s permission, Anselm heads to Warsaw to uncover the truth behind the decades-old betrayal. The ensuing story is dense, complex, full of misdirection, and populated by characters who are either eager to forget or driven by remorse for what they did to survive. The history is fascinating, but the plot is hard to follow and the characters are difficult to keep straight. The book is less a thriller than a philosophical treatise on the search for balance between justice and mercy. (Mar.)