(GayWebSource.com – Gay Media & Press Network) – Posted by Jake Simpson – TheGayUK.com
Julian Tremayne is a missionary priest in a remote Philippine village during the Marcos dictatorship.
by Chris Bridges | 13th September 2013
★★★★
After championing the Communist rebels, he finds himself imprisoned for the murder of a local military commander. Three decades later, following his own mysterious death, a cult develops around Julian and there are calls for him to be made a saint. When Philip Seward is sent out to investigate on behalf of Julian’s family, he is drawn into a labyrinth of vice, violence and corruption where nothing and nobody are what they seem. This is a novel peopled with a gallery of engaging characters ranging from priests to prostitutes, GIs to gangsters, tribesmen to terrorists and street children to Imelda Marcos.
Michael Arditti’s new novel is by turns, a psychological thriller, a challenging moral mystery and a voyage into a dark and exotic landscape. Like Arditti’s previous work, ‘Easter’, this novel deals with broad theological themes, much in the style of his eminent predecessors Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. Don’t let this put you off though as the book isn’t simply a dry philosophical work but is a razor sharp thriller which is both entertaining and captivating. It’s a rare feat to be able to entertain and thrill as well as to provoke thought and contemplation but Arditti pulls this off with aplomb. The unfamiliar world he evokes is a gripping setting for this moral mystery and a superb platform for a writer with exceptional gifts.
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