Joe Benevento & THE MONSIGNOR'S WIFE

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

Author Shortcuts

JUST WORDS: Author Shortcuts

I’m always uneasy with writer shortcuts. I understand the need for them, especially in this digital age. Still…

Lisbeth Salendar, for all her good qualities, was not adequate for the digital age, so she had a friend who knew all about computers and could produce any knowledge she needed out of the air. [1] Most heroes in the digital age, even Lee Childs’ lone cowboy Jack Reacher, have such a friend. Just how they became friends is never quite explained, nor why the friend is willing to go to such lengths to satisfy the hero’s every internet need. The digital age, and total surveillance, are a reality. Even a hero cannot escape the robot spies with the camera eyes. They are ubiquitous. So a writer has to explain how the hero negotiates that labyrinth. A friend who knows how to do it without him/herself being detected, perhaps even is ahead of the government and big business and the spy masters, is a nice shortcut. Still, it seems a bit of authorly dishonesty.

The same is true of the robot killers with the dead eyes. If any explanation of why they are like that is given, it is usually perfunctory. He was mistreated in an orphanage, or he was just born that way. It shortens the story, and allows the writer to concentrate on the hero character and his friends, but evil is not that simple, either in origin or function.

On the other hand, a good mystery/action story is not a theological exploration of the origin of evil, nor is it a computer manual, so I guess I need to learn to live with the shortcuts. I think it is a bit more honest, though, to do it by not putting the hero into a situation where she needs the shortcuts.

John Robert McFarland

1] Steig Larrson, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015.

In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” Dorothy Parker

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

KEEPING CHARACTER NAMES STRAIGHT

Jennifer Moss is a novelist http://jennifermoss.com/ and an expert on names, especially baby names. http://www.babynames.com/ She recently started sharing her naming ideas for authors via http://characternames.com/

To Jennifer’s helpful list I would add the method I use to keep my characters straight at I write. I use the initials of the person’s role for his or her name. For instance, the county sheriff might be Charles Slabaugh; the first wife, Fran Winslow; the bar tender, Brad Taylor, if he’s young, and Bud Taylor if he’s old, and so on.

As I write, I know, of course, I know that my case includes a county sheriff, a first wife, and a bar tender, so their names come quickly to mind.

If the sheriff’s county is in Scandinavian territory, and that is germane to the story, I would use Slajus instead of Slabaugh. If the first wife is French, she might be Francesca. Taylor isn’t a highly memorable name, so if I want people to recognize the bar tender quickly, and outside the bar, his last name might be Thistle or Toomey.

Of course, you need to be careful of duplicates. If there are in the story both a pervert preacher and a philosophy professor, you might get confused, but there are obvious workarounds.

[I can’t resist cutesy names, so I’m likely to call the philosophy prof something like Plato Professino as I write and then realize that will make readers cringe and have to change it to Peter Parker. Oh, wait, that won’t work…]

A further suggestion I make as a reader: Don’t assume that the reader can keep character names straight. If Amy Reynolds, the army recruit, hasn’t shown up for a few pages, don’t just refer her to as Amy. I don’t want to have to waste time thinking, “Is she the volleyball player or the sidekick’s girlfriend or…” Either say directly “army recruit Amy,” or let her appear as “Amy, a bit awkward in her new army uniform…”

John Robert McFarland

My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015.

In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: What will writers do when everything has finally been compared to everything else?

I tweet as yooper1721.

A RANDOM BOOK REVIEW: I don’t normally like dead-eyed psychopathic villains. They are one-dimensional and thus not very interesting. However, Michael Koryta gets around that in Those Who Wish Me Dead. The villains have a different way of relating to each other, and the other characters are able to rise to their challenges. Koryta keeps getting better.

           

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

JUST WORDS: WWHD?

When faced with a dilemma, Christians ask, WWJD? What would Jesus do? When faced with a dilemma, of plot or characterization or anything else, writers ask, WWHD? What would Hemmingway do?

The answers of Jesus and Hemmingway are surprisingly similar: go fishing. Hemmingway’s answer is more complete: WWHD? Get drunk and go fishing.

John Robert McFarland

I am indebted to daughter, @KatieWritesBks, writer of MG and YA books, for the insight into what Hemmingway would do.

I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/

In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: Without courage no other virtue is possible.

I tweet as yooper1721.

           

My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in late 2014 or early 2015.

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

JUST WORDS-Gilt & Gladness, a poem

I love to read a prayer

By a Wesley or William Barclay

Full of Thees and Thous

And dosts and wilsts.

It is good to know

That Thou wilst.

Language about the holy

Should be edged

In gilt and gladness.

John Robert McFarland