The Enemy of God
Posted on September 22nd, 2009
The Enemy of God by Robert Daley
Publisher: Harcourt. ISBN: 0-15-101244-X
Quite mysteriously, Father Frank Redmond has died. His mangled body has been found on the sidewalk on West 146th Street in Harlem. Was he murdered? Was it an accident? Was it suicide? Were there any witnesses to whatever happened? Those questions haunt Gabe Driscoll, the fifty-three year old veteran of the New York City Police Department.
And Gabe will not rest until he gets answers. Gabe, after all, owes at least that much to Father Redmond. They go back a long way together. As teenagers, Gabe and Frank were on the same swim team in high school. And as adults, even though their lives had gone in different directions professionally, they had remained good friends. In fact, in a provocative twist to their friendship, throughout the recent years Frank often relied upon Gabe for much needed help in the priest’s Harlem parish: Frank would discretely give Gabe the names of dangerous criminals and drug dealers who were infesting the priest’s parishioners’ neighborhood, and Gabe would use the full force and authority of the NYPD to remove the unsavory offenders.
Now Gabe wonders if Frank’s covert cooperation with law enforcement might somehow be connected to the priest’s mysterious death. Perhaps he was pushed from the roof of the fourth floor building near where his body was found. Or perhaps the answers to the many questions surrounding Frank’s death have something to do with some undisclosed part of Frank’s personal life—some secret about which even his good friend Gabe knows nothing.
As Gabe digs further and further into Frank’s life—and at the same time into the lives of several other lifelong mutual friends and acquaintances—Gabe slowly begins to find the answers to the mystery. More significantly, though, Gabe begins to understand more and more that perhaps one person can never truly know another person.
Robert Daley’s powerful novel is not so much a traditional mystery as it is a thoughtful examination of friendship. Through frequent flashbacks and vivid characterizations, Daley explores the ways in which lives paradoxically become both enriched and complicated by familiarity and loyalty, by personal and professional decisions, and by the constant tensions between life and death. Readers who enjoy a thoughtful meditation upon the evolution of relationships should enjoy The Enemy of God.
Tags: City Police Department, Dangerous Criminals, Driscoll, Enemy Of God, Father Redmond, Friend Gabe, Harcourt, Mangled Body, Mutual Friends, Mysterious Death, New York City Police Department, Nypd, Old Veteran, Parishioners, Personal Life, Robert Daley, Swim Team, Traditional Mystery, York City Police Department
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