JUST WORDS: A Review
Joe Benevento’s THE
MONSIGNOR’S WIFE is one of the best mysteries I have read in a long time.
Monsignor Tony Cupelli is a modern Catholic priest, with
a doctorate and a feminist theology and a strong ambition and faithful friends
and a traditional Italian family, and a secret “wife.” He is rational in his
theology and rationalizing in his behavior.
When his “wife” is murdered…
The story is set in NYC, Queens specifically, with a
polyglot population, in the Roman Catholic ethos, and I wondered if a hillbilly
Methodist living in the remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan could even
understand it. Not to worry. Queens is one of the characters in the story, and
Benevento writes so well that I not only could follow along, I enjoyed getting
to know Queens, along with Cupelli and his friends and family and enemies.
The writing is good, the setting and characters are
interesting, the plot is multi-layered. It’s just a very good story. I
recommend it.
Now, don’t pay attention to the following quibbles.
That’s all they are. This is a good book, and the quibbles don’t really
distract from the story, because Benevento does so very well what Elmore
Leonard called the secret of good writing: “Leave out the parts people skip.”
A tiny quibble: Do all RC priests in big cities,
especially NYC, have to have brothers who are cops or criminals? I guess so.
Cupelli’s cop brother, with whom he has always had a competitive relationship,
is a necessary part of the story, though.
A small quibble: There is a LOT about food. Benevento
uses it, of course, to illustrate the appetites in general of Monsignor
Cupelli, but if Cupelli, in his mid-40s, really ate like this, he would weigh
400 lbs. And the food is ethnic, Italian and Lithuanian and everything else that
a hillbilly, even a college-educated hillbilly, will not recognize. Past pork
chops and sweet corn, I’m lost. I know, of course, just to enjoy the sounds of
the names of the dishes. I can enjoy a story without understanding every word.
In fact, being introduced to new words/dishes is a good thing. So forget
everything I just said in this quibble.
Perhaps a larger quibble: Benevento is a professor. He
uses long words. Not big words, not difficult words, just long words. They are
not the words one usually sees in a mystery. The author is not showing off; he
just has lengthy ganglia in his brain. Long words don’t distract me. In fact, I
enjoy them. And Benevento uses them well. I worry, though, that some readers
might be turned off when they encounter those words, along with references to
Borges, Poe, et al.
Benevento’s next book, Saving St. Teresa, will be published by Black Opal Books in late
2014 or early 2015.
John Robert McFarland
A Disclaimer: My novel, VETS, will also be published by
Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015. BOB is a well-established
publisher of romance novels but is branching out into other genres with writers
like Benevento and myself. I wanted to read another BOB author but am not
inclined toward reading romance novels since I have lived in a romance reality for
a long time. I did not know about Benevento previously but liked the title, The Monsignor’s Wife. I’m glad I did.
In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: Some writers show
you words. Others show you pictures.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life
and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a preacher,
but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really a “call,”
though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know, I’ll do
something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE THE MAIL
and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball
poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
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