Last Things: A Father Dowling Mystery (Hardcover)

by Ralph McInerny (Author) "You don't know me, she said as if he should..." (more)
Key Phrases: faculty manual, tweed hat, palm top, Father Dowling, Father Bourke, Horst Cassirer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Father Dowling's 22nd absorbing outing (after 2002's Prodigal Father) from the prolific McInerny is guaranteed to mystify. Ill with prostate cancer, Fulvio Bernardo, patriarch of a wealthy and influential Chicago-area family, despairs of his three children. Raymond, the eldest, was ordained a priest and was the great white hope of St. Edmund's College until he took off for California with a nun and the nun's order's car and credit card. Daughter Jessica is an author with a contract for a novel of which the lightly disguised subject is her own family. Younger son Andrew is an English professor at St. Edmund's; enter Horst Cassirer, a brilliant Ph.D. who has recently joined the department and wants tenure immediately. But his fellow professors, despite his high reputation as a researcher, find him deficient as a teacher and colleague and reject his bid. Following the deaths of Fulvio and Raymond's Edmundite mentor comes the requisite third tragedy: Cassirer's battered body is found lying in the street. Suspects abound and the suspense builds until the final chapter, when Father Dowling has a flash of inspiration. The plot moves crisply on the wings of believable dialogue among the multitude of well-drawn college-town characters. As always, McInerny explains just enough about Catholicism to make non-Catholic readers feel at home.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
McInerny returns to his long-running Father Dowling series, and once again academic infighting at St. Edmund's College leads to murder. Father Dowling first becomes involved with the Bernardo family when Eleanor Wygant asks him to try to persuade her niece, Jessica Bernardo, to stop writing a novel based on the Bernardo family. Eleanor is afraid of the resultant scandal if her long-buried secret is revealed. Meanwhile, Jessica's brother Andrew is on a committee charged with determining tenure for a young, obnoxious English professor who begins to threaten the Bernardo family when it looks like the decision may go against him. There is a murder for Father Dowling to solve, of course, but this time McInerny seems more interested in exploring the motivations and entwined family relationships of his characters. There's also plenty of the Catholic minutiae that Father Dowling fans enjoy. A solid addition to a perennially popular series. Sue O'Brien
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur (July 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031230899X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312308995
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,036,767 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 22 in The Father Dowling Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very entertaining amateur sleuth novel, July 3, 2003

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Father Roger Dowling, the priest of St. Hilary's church in Fox River, Illinois, is rather shocked when Eleanor Wygnant who is not a member of his congregation, asks him to stop Jessica Bernardo from writing a book about her family. Realizing that Jessica's doings are not his concerns, he refuses to talk to the woman. The Bernardos are going through a difficult time of it right now with the patriarch of the family hospitalized and not expected to survive.

His son Raymond, who he hasn't seen in a decade, returns home knowing that his father despises his for leaving the priesthood and running away to California with a woman he later marries. Eleanor is worried that once Raymond's father dies, the love letter she wrote him during an affair will become public and hurt her sister-in-law. Raymond's younger brother Andrew, a college teacher with tenure is being held in jail on a homicide charge. Father Dowling doesn't think Andrew is guilty and sets about to prove it.

LAST THINGS is a very entertaining amateur sleuth novel starring a protagonist who is so likable readers will feel an immediate bond with him. Much of this novel is a relationship drama starring the Bernardo family and it is only the last quarter when the mystery really takes off. In fact, this is one Father Dowling mystery in which the popular priest plays a secondary albeit important role. Ralph McInerny has written another pleasing who done it.

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the better in the series, July 1, 2003

By	Ellen Finan (Cortland, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fans of Father Dowling will not be disappointed in Last Things. In fact, I found it better than most of the previous titles, because of its interesting characters. I liked the plot line following the development of Raymond, the fallen away priest, and also Jessica, the aspriring novelist. I found the insights into their thoughts the most interesting aspects of this novel. The "mystery", however, is easily guessed at way before Dowling "solves" it. But that is not why we read these books, is it? It is to enjoy the company of Fr. Dowling, Marie Murkin, and the denizens of Fox River for awhile. And that makes this a very satisfying read.