The Man Who Murdered God

Joe McGuire Mystery #1

by John Lawrence Reynolds

Book by Reynolds, John Lawrence

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halfway between a psychological thriller and a police procedural!

John Lawrence Reynolds has crafted a very impressive debut novel based on a thoroughly innovative concept! On might put the underpinnings of the story in the form of a standard riddle: What do you get when you cross a profoundly devout theistic Roman Catholic priest with very secular humanist tendencies, a jaded, streetwise atheist cop and an impressionable, deeply spiritual, artistic young deist with a thoroughly despicable pedophile? The answer (and it's hardly obvious) is a thrilling novel that is clearly a cautionary tale showing one of the many possible outcomes of the continuing cover-up of the pedophilia and the sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

I don't believe I've got it wrong when I suggest that the author has worn his atheist heart on his sleeve and allowed his novel to clearly showcase his horror and disgust at the continuing sexual abuse scandal within the Roman Catholic Church. And, in all fairness to readers of the review, I should disclose that my delight with the novel rests at least in part with my wholehearted atheist agreement with the author's sentiments. That said, the author has also penned a very sympathetic, believable and likeable priest and ended the novel with a very interesting philosophical discussion on the nature of God and how one might be considered to be "the man who murdered God".

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the Amazon review of this book, written by an atheist who appreciated the life-view of one of the main characters because he shares a lot of the same ideas. He identified the views of the main character with those of the author. He also stated that the author presented some theistic characters sympathetically. As authors sometimes have their characters adopt a viewpoint other than their own to explore its consequences, I was interested to see if I came to the same conclusion about the author's worldview. I am not sure I do, entirely (but I don't want to explain why due to possible spoilers), yet given the language the author employed and some of the scenes described (although they were short and fairly easy to skip over), I would be surprised to find that the author's worldview was entirely Christian, either. I cannot recommend the book due to the offensive language and the few scenes, but the story-line was interesting, and the problem addressed very real.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good book! Someone is murdering Catholics - a couple priests, a Jesuit teacher, a monk; and also, against pattern, a random homosexual man and an older woman. Joe McGuire is the detective in charge of the case, but he has problems of his own; he's not crazy about his new partner, he doesn't like his boss, his ex-wife is dying of cancer, and he doesn't believe in God. So when a priest from the local diocese offers to help, he's not too crazy about that idea either. The killer leaves a mysterious message at one of the murders. We see the murders occur, other people meet the murderer, but we don't know for sure who he is or why he is doing it. McGuire and the priest ferret out some of the reasons behind the killing spree - the betrayal of an innocent child by the church, a psychiatrist who makes the wrong diagnosis, etc. Can they catch the killer before he murders a room full of Catholic nuns? Riveting story, and some good points about the cover-ups perpetrated by the Catholic church as a whole.

[loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book about a battled hardened Boston detective and was intrigued with the premise. One of the things that came through to me was how difficult the life of our police is. They see too much, have lousy hours and little pay. It is easy to see how it affects their psyche and their personal life. I love the character of Joe McGuire and look forward to reading more about him

[Jenna · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb I read about this book and some reviews made this sound interesting but when I picked it up I just couldn't get into it and did not care much about the characters or the clash in world views. A bit more like a police procedural i found the writing a bit dry.

[cynthia m. jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read

Kept my interest from beginning to end. Couldn't put it down. Loved the different plot twists. First I've read by this author. Definitely will be reading more.

[Mary Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intense

Depressing. Well written, strong characters. An loveable serial killer. Very sad. 😞 and here are the eight more words required. Amen.

[Gertrude Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting!

One of the best books I've read in a while. Couldn't put it down. Just wish they would leave the bad language out.

[Joe Esposito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

I am glad I did not pay full price for this book. I finished it but I did not like the main character and it was pretty easy to figure out what was going to happen.

[Ginny M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, moving book. You know "who" did it by half-way into it or less, but the story pulls you thru. Written as neither screed nor case study, it had me sobbing at the end - not my usual reaction to a police procedural/fictional account of the shocking events that were just beginning to be exposed at the time of publication (1989).

[Spuddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite surprisingly enjoyable book. Why surprisingly? Well, I picked it because of the author's name, for the 'read a book written by someone with the same last name as you' category for my 2016 reading challenge. So, a random selection, really. It's the first of a short-lived mystery series that was published back in 1989, the main character being Joe McGuire, a sort of tough-guy Boston homicide cop whose long-time partner just retired. So when a serial killer who's blasting priests to kingdom come with a sawed-off shotgun enters the scene, Joe is rather obviously missing Ollie (who's bought a fishing boat and is nowhere to be found) and wondering if he and his new partner Bernie will be able to work the same magic and continue the high clearance rate.

The book itself is of course, dated...before computers (except a big mainframe that only a specialist can enter and retrieve data from) and cell phones and back in the good old sexist days where the very few female cops were described by their legs and asses and male cops were oozing macho all over the place. Aside from that, though, not a bad story. I'm not sure if I'll actually continuing reading the series or not, but I could've done worse playing 'select randomly' that's for sure.

[Wendy Hearder-moan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the writing, the plot and the characterization.

[Silver Coles]

good crime/detective novel... pretty brutal. Not for the faint of heart...
but I liked it.