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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A rough diamond that rewards the reader's patience., July 19, 2000
By A Customer
This book is hard to classify. It's not quite a mystery, though it involves a detective-story puzzle and is scarcely lacking in suspense; it's too straightforward and realistic to fit the description of a conventional thriller. William Redding has been a police officer for much of his life and it shows in this book. Though he succeeds in making us like nearly everyone in the novel (sometimes at high odds) and reveals a painfully benevolent view of his fellow man, he writes from close experience with a world in which the best one can do is to make one's decisions, accept the consequences, and hope to remain standing at the end of the day. The bureaucracy, petty frustrations, and corruption with which policemen must deal are relentlessly observed and one hundred percent convincing. At the same time, the book clings to some of the supports of popular fiction: perhaps one love affair too many, a few contrived plot twists and sparely sketched characters. The reader is kept guessing as to what sort of book Mr. Redding intended this to be. It was published by a small press and some lapses in the print and copyediting jobs will make it easy for some to condescend to it as a mediocre commercial number, but this would not be fair at all: it is obviously a labor of love put together with care and real skill by a man with serious things to say about the human condition. The result is more gripping and often more touching than many a finely written work of psychological fiction. Some polish would have produced a book to stand with some of Cornwell's best; but Redding seems to have different goals in mind than Cornwell. He has set himself the task of writing from within about hard-working people under stress, telling their story as each would understand it while it unfolds. This is not the aim of the average suspense writer. Yet if some of the loose threads of the story had been exploited more before being tied up rather neatly at the end, the book may have been better both as a suspense novel and as realistic fiction. How best to judge this book, then? A good way to start is that a good story, compassionate writing, realism and a poignant outlook on life are hard to find in the same package. Anyone who wants to know what it feels like to work as a police officer, or to live in a white Catholic suburb as a woman of color, or to do one's best and be left broken-hearted should read this book. And anyone who wants to know what is meant by old-fashioned values--meaning not a blind conservatism, but the values that will allow one to face the worst brought on by the decay of America--should hope to hear more from Bill Redding. This is a book with a heart and a writer with an inquiring mind. We can look forward to seeing him grow. And let me tell you, it does keep you reading!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Really Good Read!, May 30, 2000
Holy Orders is well written and keeps you interested. Hope to see more from Mr. Redding.D.A. Chadwick, author of Black Capes and Red Bulls.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Police Procedural, May 26, 2003
After years of reviewing books, and many decades of readership, this book sticks in my mind.
_Holy Orders_ ranks with the very best in its genre.
It is one of the few
self-published books that challenge the big names.
Unfortunately it has not had as wide a sale as its quality would indicate. A crime drama, yet it foreshadows the chuurch scandals that occurred years after its publication date. Be forewarned, there is a twist at the end that even the most seasoned mystery readers will not expect.I prefer Redding to Ed McBain; he is more authentic. John Culleton
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