Customer Reviews

Happy Are the Clean of Heart: A Blackie Ryan Novel (Father Blackie Ryan Mystery)

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In my view, the best part of this book are the meditations of Father Blackie, who is a likably honest character who seems to genuinely believe in the pursuit of religious faith. That makes him for most of us heroic at best, and authentic at worst, which is in itself compelling. Greeley layers theological contemplations onto this very basic story, creating most of his detail in character backfill and conversation, sparing us too much complexity of plot. Fundamentally a character study, the book highlights the decisions of its characters with some fairly advanced philosophical and religious concepts explained over a series of interactions. It does not feel manipulative, although to one opposed to these beliefs it might be repellent. It might be said that a mystery is going on in the background here, since it is a very simple one, with mostly false clues to keep us from seeing directly into the motivations of these relatively simple characters. That is not a problem since the focus of the book is explaining the learning undergone by Lisa Malone, its actress heroine, and her balancing of love of the spiritual with love of the flesh. I would recommend this for general readers with a flair for abstraction; for mystery readers, it may not offer enough of a challenge.