Customer Reviews

The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain (A Father Blackie Ryan Mystery)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the blink of an eye, the charismatic and incredibly handsome Frere Jean Claude Chretien becomes the toast of France through his dynamic TV sermons. While filming a show on the excavations at Notre Dame Cathedral, Frere Jean Claude vanishes. Desperate to reduce the uproar over the missing Frere Jean Claude, the Archbishop of Paris, aware of American Bishop Blackie Ryan's sleuthing skills, asks the priest's boss Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Cronin for help. Naturally, Cardinal Cronin assigns Blackie to solve the case while accompanying his subordinate to France.

In Paris, Blackie begins to investigate. In front of St-Germain des Pres Church he meets Marie-Bernadette begging for money. When he learns she speaks English, Blackie hires her as his translator while he sifts through clues. However, as they work together, the duo soon learns that much of the French establishment do not want this case resolved.

THE BISHOP AND THE BEGGAR GIRL OF ST. GERMAIN is an entertaining cozy starring an intriguing priest. Blackie is a wonderful character, but the addition of Marie-Bernadette as his sidekick adds depth while her cynical wisecracking keeps him and the readers amused. The mystery is clever, but the story line slowly moves forward. Fans of Andrew Greeley will appreciate his latest tale, but anyone who wants action need to go to a different pew.

Harriet Klausner

The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain is a very exciting mystery novel. I'm relatively new to mystery novels, but this one was quite an interesting trip. A priest is missing in Paris, and Bishop Blackie Ryan is on a mission to rescue him. The missing priest is the most popular priest in all of France beacuse he is a television star and a hero throughout the nation of France. But his integrity is seriously doubted by the church. Blackie gets help from a hilariously sardonic Cardinal Cronin, and a beautiful begger woman. They discover that the police, as well as the Church don't care about the priest. But despite all this Blackie solves the mystery...in quite an amusing way to say the least. I would tell all of you beginner mystery readers to start with this one. Quite a wild ride! I loved every page of it!

I've been wanting to read his stuff for years, but for some reason I'm only getting around to it now. Before the book, I only knew of him as the priest who wrote sexy novels. Being Catholic, I'm surprised I didn't jump on this sooner, but good things come to those that wait.

I think the guy's writing is great! No preaching. Just an everyday guy who's profession just happens to be a priest. Definately opinionated, and covers all kinds of topics dealing with the church, from large-scale issues to petty quarrels with various members of the hierarchy.

As for the sexy parts, he does address them in a mature, readable fashion. I was once told by a priest that there is a saying that "the more you know, the more you can get away with". You get from this book that if two committed people in love want to start banging a little early, nobody's feathers are going to get too ruffled. He also hints that yes, he finds ladies attractive, and will do regular solo work to try and make the awesome pressure of celibacy a bit easier to bear. Whether this jives with church thinking or this is one renegade priest shooting his pen off, I'm not sure. But he does have a new hooked fan.

Oh yes, the book itself. It deals with one of his regular characters being sent to France to investigate the disappearance of a popular TV priest. It's a pretty short book, but so are Elmore Leonard novels, and I have no problem with them. He picks up the title beggar girl to be his translator, but since he speaks French already, it's probably more because she's cute. Here the story goes through standard investigation scenes, but I will admit the ending does take an unusual plot twist. How much it would have been able to be pulled off in real life is debateable, but it did make for great reading.

This is another of Greeley's Bishop Blackie mystery books. Many of his more recent mysteries have been set in some European city. This installment takes place in Paris. The city visited comes across less clearly than his earlier mystery set in Cologne but still offers a certain charm. His characters are classic Greelely--the innocent but strong ingenue, assorted clerics both sinners and saints, as well as the unassuming Bishop Ryan and his well-connected band of North Wabash Street Irregulars. Though in this book there are no real villans and the action is more psychological than actual.

Fr. Greeley's novels follow the formula closely, so you have a pretty good idea of how the story is going to unfold if you've read his earlier works. This books is faithful to Fr. Greeley's adaptation of the mystery story formula. You know he is going to help the ingenue and her beloved. You know he is going to solve the mystery. You know each interview is going to provide you with clues to the final outcome. You know that he is still going to take you on a merry chase with sufficient ambiguous leads to get you confused. Yet, knowing all this it is still fun when he reveals the final twist to the story and you are utterly surprised but also realize at the same time that it makes perfect sense. Now, having read some of the other reviews complaining of the ease of solving the mystery, I must confess that I may be particularly dense. However, I enjoyed the book and was surprised by the ending (it was one of the possibilities I figured might be the answer but I never thought that Fr. Greeley would acutally use that ending).

I'll confess that I'm addicted to Fr. Greeley's novels. The addiction can be frustrating. Sometimes the stories fall flat and only serve to develop Bishop Blackie or one of the other standard characters a bit. This book not only adds an element or two to Fr. Greeley's literary universe but is fun to read.

and this novel makes for a neat twist on the "locked-room" mystery style that is Blackie Ryan's forte. One of the biggest problems an established author has with an on-going series is to make sure that the stories don't become too "formula," like the last couple of Bond films with Roger Moore did.

Greeley avoids this with his Blackie Ryan novels by going for interesting locales...he takes Ryan out of Chicago without taking the Chicago out of the good bishop.

So, without giving the story away (a sin for a reviewer of a mystery novel), suffice to say that Blackie Ryan has a wonderful time in Paris, with his boss, the more-than-formidable Sean Cardinal Cronin. My only major complaint is that the love-story-subplot in this novel is a bit formula.

Greeley's descriptions of Paris are excellent, giving the reader a good feel for the neighborhoods and the metro without being a Fodor's book. _Beggar Girl_ doesn't tackle any serious hot-button issues of the modern Catholic Church, but the author still throws out tidbits that make those who are interested in church politics and such say "hmmmmmm."

I like all of Andrew Greeley's novels, yet "arguably" as Blackie Ryan would say, this is my favorite one to date. It is "patently" a well-crafted tale, to use Blackie's other favorite adverb. I was truly surprised when he found the solution to another closed-room mystery, his specialty. This is a gentler, kinder book than many of his earlier offerings. Blackie has softened over the years, and has a detached and fuller understanding of the passions of youth.
Set in Paris, and poking fun at many typically French characters and attitudes, Greeley's book will make you smile and keep you wondering until the last pages.

Fans who have read all of the Beatitude and Blackie Ryan mysteries will be delighted by this latest tale. Fr. Greeley has delivered an entertaining mystery that is both a breath of fresh air and true to the well-established formula. New characters are as delightful as the old favorites. This one seemed to go very quickly, but is written so well, the images will linger for years, particularly of Mother Marie's wise words about love and a particular wedding ceremony near the end of the book.

Not incidentally, there is an especially fine treat for longtime fans of Fr. Greeley's on the back cover of the book - praise for the author's fiction from a member of the Church hierarchy. It is long overdue. I do find it sad, and more than a bit unusual, however, that the author puts a disclaimer on a certain fictional Cardinal's remarks to Blackie in a Note at the end of the book. Has it really come to this? Mon Dieu!

Blackie Ryan is asked by Cardinal Sean to accompany himself and his sister Nora to Paris. Apparently, a TV priest has disappeared and the Cardinal in Paris wants Blackie to find out what happened to him.

The Blackie Ryan series is one of my favorites. This book is formulaic, but it's a great formula. The author even adds characters from his Nuala Anne and Chuckie O'Mally series to the story. This works well as Blackie seems to find his way into most of Greeley's books.

Blackie is back and travels to France. In this latest book of the Blackie Ryan mysteries, Fr Greeley has Blackie and Cardinal Cronin travel to Paris and have to find a missing priest and uses this vehicle to convey a parable of love and devotion. This mystery will keep you guessing and the characters, new and familiar, will endear themselves to you.

This book is a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon but the topics will stay with you for weeks.

Reading Greeley is like drinking champagne: a frothy concoction that perfectly complements an evening of escape. Here Greeley's customary Irish charm competes with Gallic savoir-faire. We are introduced to the Paris of the protected visitor with translators, tucked-away hotels and famous restaurants.

Greeley's series hero, Bishop Blackie Ryan, is on a mission for "Cardinal Sean:" find Jean-Claude, a young Dominican priest who vanished without a trace while conducting visitors around cathedral ruins. Jean-Claude had a popular television program and was much admired by the students and nuns who were his ministry, yet everyone saw him differently, and all agreed he had mysterious depths and a magical smile.

Bishop Blackie has a gift for unearthing hidden depths in people as well as clues for his investigation. Befriending a young woman who seems out of place as a Cathedral beggar, he enlists her help in tracing the young priest who often seemed equally out of place as a Dominican priest.

The story line has the fascination of a moderately difficult crossword puzzle, the kind you know you can solve if you just put in the time. It also has about as much action and cliff-hanging action -- and short-term satisfaction as the Sunday crossword. Greeley gives us the world as we would like it to be, where problems are solved by a convenient phone call to Chicago and a couple of FedEx packages, and even the Cardinal benevolently distinguishes the Christian from the Church.

As Greeley is careful to note in an afterward, this is a tale of fiction. Unlike many readers, I was surprised by the ending, which fit the clues but seemed highly implausible. I will say only that Greeley gets the chance to share his very politically correct, enlightened views of the Church and the world. And he might encourage us all to beware of reading our own beliefs into situations that are not what they seem.

I'm not usually a fan of Bishop Blackie -- but I liked this one!