Larry G. (aardvark) reviewed on 9/10/2006 + 157 more book reviews

Well, I guess there needs to be a contrary voice occasionally. This is my first Bishop Blackie book, and I had trouble swallowing it.

Chicago Bishop Blackie (Blackwell) Ryan does his thing in a murderless hoodoo-done-it. A poltergeist is stalking the West Wing of the White House, where the newly-elected President John Patrick McGurn ("Machine Gun Jack") is accused of being a tool of the South Side Chicago Irish Mafia. Blackie (a South Side Irishman himself) is called in to get to the bottom of the poltergeist problem. Everyone immediately and automatically assumes that the Republicans are guilty of every evil thing going on because everyone knows that Republicans (not some or a few but all) are nothing but wealthy, corrupt, right-wing-extremist crooks. Meanwhile, most of the book is dedicated to eulogizing Democrats in general and a Bill Clinton clone in particular. One would suppose that Blackie, a respected Catholic bishop, would be a fair and unbiased observer, but he, along with the rest of the West Wing, participates freely in the Republican-bashing, even instigating a dubious sting operation (without legal authorization or the President's knowledge) to nail a group of extremists who may indeed deserve the punishment but have nothing to do with the reason Blackie has supposedly been called to poltergeist duty. Evidently a good book for Blackie fans, but I'll go back to my historical mysteries.

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