Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb

When a priest named Father Miguel Flores dies during a funeral mass, everyone in the church was shocked. Father Miguel was loved by everyone; he had an energy, a kind of caring that was as tough as it was gentle. Who could have wanted to kill such a man as he?

With Eve Dallas on the case, however, some disturbing facts are uncovered. For one thing, whoever this man was, he wasn't actually Miguel Flores. Father Flores actually existed, but whoever this man was, it wasn't him. All they have to go on are several old injuries, a removed tattoo, and an old silver medal taped to the back of this man's dresser, engraved to "Lino" from his mother. Who was Lino? Someone this man had killed? Someone who this man used to be? Someone he knew?

The man was poisoned with the communion wine, and since the wine wasn't poisoned at the regular mass earlier that morning, that gives the police knowledge of a window of opportunity that the killer had, to poison the wine between the morning mass and the funeral. But so many people were coming and going in the rectory that it is impossible to tell who might have done it.

But before Eve can come to any strong conclusions. another priest, Evangelical Preacher Jimmy Jay Jenkins is poisoned on stage in the middle of a prayer meeting that is as much stage show as worship ceremony. In this case, the poison came from the water bottles that Jimmy Jay drank while he was onstage, preaching and moving and sweating his shirt through. But is this another murder from the same killer, or just a copycat?

While poisoning usually trends female as a sort of murder, men can also use poison. So, is this a serial murderer with a hatred for priests and other men of faith? When it comes out that Jimmy Jay Jenkins was not exactly as pure as the driven snow like a priest or preacher should be, it becomes a possibility that the men were targeted not because they were men of faith, but because they were a mockery of what men of faith should be.

But when Eve discovers the true killer of Jimmy Jay, attention resolves once more on the ersatz Father Miguel. Who was he, really, and did this former gangbanger, a member of the gang called the Soldados, or Soldiers, die to pay for something his gang did, or something he did? Why did he come home to New York in a false face, and who took it into their hands to kill him?

Wow, this was a really good book, and I liked the fact that while this forced Eve to think about religion, the author, Nora Roberts, didn't use it to revisit the trite cliché of the hero or heroine all of a sudden discovering or rediscovering religion and suddenly getting with the God program. Eve, as befits her past, is completely secular, doesn't understand religion very well, and would rather rely on herself or her husband rather than some God who never lifted a finger to help her when her father was raping or abusing her, and who had to kill her father or be killed herself.

It's being true to the character that Eve understands the religious impulse, somewhat, but doesn't feel it herself. She seems to view it as a curious oddity and doesn't seem inclined to fall into it. She's been to plenty of funerals, and seems to realize that it comforts the family of the victim, but for her, there is no connection between needing comfort and herself. Growing up someone who was a victim, she found the strength inside herself to survive, and doesn't need an outside crutch to help herself feel better. This isn't to say religion is good or bad, it's just something I can't see Eve needing. She and Roarke make their own strength, and she doesn't need to rely on an outside source of it.

Aside from the religious aspect of the book, a lot of the book deals with masks, and the people who wear them and why. Jimmy Jay wore a mask both onstage with his flock and offstage with his family and associates, as he was a boozer and adulterer. And the putative Father Miguel, he wore a mask with everyone. It's the uncovering of the faces beneath the masks that causes heartache and hardship for everyone around the deceased. And the false Father Miguel's takes longer to unravel, as he was the bigger sinner, with more to hide.

In tracking down the man posing as Father Miguel, and his killer, Eve finds a number of people who had histories as bad or worse than hers. But yet, while Eve used her pain to try and make things better for others, in the people she encounters in this case, they just used it as an excuse to act bad and be horrible. Having chosen the one way herself, Eve wonders how she can arrest someone who had it as bad as she did. Aren't they victims, too?

But Roarke has the answer, that it's one thing if you use what happened to you the way Eve did, as fuel to make things better, to make sure that no one else has what happened to you, happen to them. It's quite another to use it only to justify why the universe owes you for what happened to you as a kid. Using the first way improves the world. Using it the second only leads to more victims. And Eve is always on the side of the victims over the abusers. That's what makes her stories so compelling to read. She is a cop with a deeply flawed past, and a persona that still has cracks in the present. She'll never be completely healed, and she uses the memory of those cracks and flaws as a means to make sure it never happens to someone else again on her watch.

She's beautiful and flawed and full of emotions that are still raw and untamed, and it makes her fascinating to watch and read about. If they ever make a movie series or TV series from the books, they'd better do it right. Me, I'll continue reading the best damned futuristic cop series ever, because reading these books is like carrying lightning in a jar and feeling the sizzle in every page. Read these books. There is nothing more I can say that won't sound like shameless pimping. Just read these books.