The Bishop's Man

A priest charged with cleaning up church scandals finds his faith tested in this "engrossing" novel "with the page-turning energy of a thriller" (The Globe and Mail). Father Duncan MacAskill knows all the devious ways priests allow themselves to indulge their temptations. He's known as the "Exorcist"--an enforcer employed by his bishop to discipline wayward priests and suppress political scandals. He's also called upon to moderate the emotions of the victims--a task that increasingly wears away at his sense of justice and calling. When an impending public controversy arises, Duncan willingly goes to a country parish to avert the scandal. But this new parish is very near to where Duncan grew up and long nights in the rectory give him too much time to drink, and reflect, on his turbulent childhood. Teetering on loneliness and self-knowledge, Duncan meets a woman he thinks he might love. He also meets a boy who may have been a victim of a fellow priest Duncan was charged with disciplining years ago. As tragedy push him to the breaking point, Duncan discovers how hidden obsessions and guilty secrets either find their way into the light, or poison any chance we have for love and spiritual peace.