Amazon.com
The Bishop and the Missing L Train is the ninth entry in Andrew Greeley's deservedly popular Father Blackie Ryan series. Auxiliary Bishop Augustus Quill, recently posted to the Chicago Archdiocese, could not be described as a loved man. His nickname, bestowed upon him by fellow seminarians, is "Idiot." Despite his relatively high position, one that implies significant intelligence, wit, piety, and compassion, the man seems lacking in all departments save piety. In fact, so disliked is Quill that someone is willing to stop at nothing--at least nothing short of absconding with an entire subway car, bishop included--to keep him from his appointed rounds.
Sean Cardinal Cronin, the Archbishop of Chicago, is no more a fan of Quill's than anyone. Still, the act of losing a bishop (or, more precisely, not retrieving an absconded-with bishop) would not be smiled upon by Rome. Fortunately for Cronin (and fans of humorous, clever, well-written amateur-sleuth mysteries everywhere), Bishop Blackie Ryan is on his side. "We cannot permit this, Blackwood!"
"Indeed."
"Auxiliary bishops do not slip into the fourth dimension, not in this archdiocese."
"Patently."
"Especially they do not disappear on L trains that also disappear, right?"
"Right!"
"You yourself have said that we will be the prime suspects, have you not? Don't we have powerful reasons for wanting to get rid of him?"
"Arguably," I sighed. "However, as you well know, in the best traditions of the Sacred College we would have dispatched Idiot with poison." As with any amateur sleuth worth the paper he's written on, Ryan has a cadre of variously talented (and oft-related) professionals--cops, psychologists, reporters, etc.--at his beck and call. And good thing, too, for there are that many and more likely suspects--about the same number, arguably, as there are reasons to devour the entire Ryan series. The Bishop and the Missing L Train is another ecclesiastical lulu. --Michael Hudson
From Publishers Weekly
The lighthearted Bishop Blackie returns with this thoroughly beguiling entry in Greeley's series detailing the misadventures of venerable Bishop John Blackwood Ryan, the erudite assistant to Sean Cardinal Cronin, archbishop of Chicago. An embarrassment to the Vatican, oafish and mean-spirited Most Reverend Augustus (Gus) Quill is appointed by Rome to Cronin's archdiocese as an auxiliary bishop, infuriating Cronin, who calls Quill by his seminary nickname: Idiot. But when the unwelcome Quill disappears, along with the L train he was riding on, the sardonic, benevolent Bishop Blackie is in charge of finding him and unraveling the mystery of why the L never arrived at the terminal. Intertwined with the Quill enigma are the dual quandaries of Tommy Flynn Jr., a young trader at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who's smitten with Notre Dame's All-American star women's soccer captain, Christy Logan, and irresistibly sexy Jenny Carlson, an abused ex-wife of a Nobel also-ran, who is having a steamy affair with her boss. Tommy's lustful fantasies and Jenny's struggle to find happiness are waylaid when they both become suspects in the investigation, each having made public threats against the missing bishop. When Blackie finds Quill in an alley drugged with heroin, he sets out to track the villains. Bemused observers of Greeley's trademarkAan arguably adolescent, definitely titillating preoccupation with soft-core sexAwill not be disappointed. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The inimitable Bishop Blackie Ryan resurfaces in fine form to solve another new mystery set on the streets and in the parishes of Greeley's native Chicago. When Auxiliary Bishop Augustus Quill and the L train he is riding on inexplicably vanish, there is no shortage of suspects. Loathed and despised by his current parishioners, Quill had also managed to acquire a host of enemies by denying church-sanctioned marriage annulments to worthy applicants during his long tenure as a Vatican legate. Commissioned by Sean Cardinal Cronin, archbishop of the Chicago diocese, to recover the unfortunate bishop, Blackie undertakes an investigation that will eventually compel him to expose a fellow priest with a festering grudge against both Quill and the ecclesiastical hierarchy that passed him over. As usual, the author interweaves the central plot with a couple of tangential romances cleverly designed to culminate with the resolution of the mystery. Vintage Greeley fare. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A fascinating novelist...with a rare, possibly unmatched point of view."--Los Angeles Times
"The lighthearted Bishop Blackie returns with this thoroughly beguiling entry in Greeley's series."--Publishers Weekly
"The inimitable Bishop Blackie Ryan resurfaces in fine form to solve another new mystery set on the streets and in the parishes of Greeley's native Chicago....As usual, the author interweaves the central plot with a couple of tangential romances cleverly designed to culminate with the resolution of the mystery. Vintage Greeley fare."--Booklist
Review
"A fascinating novelist...with a rare, possibly unmatched point of view."--Los Angeles Times
"The lighthearted Bishop Blackie returns with this thoroughly beguiling entry in Greeley's series."--Publishers Weekly
"The inimitable Bishop Blackie Ryan resurfaces in fine form to solve another new mystery set on the streets and in the parishes of Greeley's native Chicago....As usual, the author interweaves the central plot with a couple of tangential romances cleverly designed to culminate with the resolution of the mystery. Vintage Greeley fare."--Booklist
Review
"A fascinating novelist...with a rare, possibly unmatched point of view."--Los Angeles Times
"The lighthearted Bishop Blackie returns with this thoroughly beguiling entry in Greeley's series."--Publishers Weekly
"The inimitable Bishop Blackie Ryan resurfaces in fine form to solve another new mystery set on the streets and in the parishes of Greeley's native Chicago....As usual, the author interweaves the central plot with a couple of tangential romances cleverly designed to culminate with the resolution of the mystery. Vintage Greeley fare."--Booklist
Book Description
Millions of Blackie Ryan fans will be thrilled with his return in this exciting novel of mystery and suspense. Bestselling novelist Andrew M. Greeley has captured the imagination of the mystery reading public with the improbable Bishop Blackie Ryan, who works for the aristocratic, haughty, sometimes arrogant but often slyly good humored Sean Cardinal Cronin, the Archbishop of Chicago.
The Vatican has just assigned auxiliary Bishop Gus Quill to the Archdiocese of Chicago over the violent protests of Archbishop Sean Cronin, and the not so silent protests of Bishop Blackie. Bishop Quill is under the illusion, one might say delusion, that he has been sent from Rome to replace the good Cardinal when in fact Rome was dying to get rid of him because of his incompetence. Immediately on arriving in Chicago, he manages to disappear while riding the L Train and it is up to Blackie to find him. As the Cardinal says, "The Vatican does not like to lose bishops, even auxiliaries."
And thus begins the search for the missing bishop who no one really wants to find.
Of course, none of this is too much for the intrepid little Bishop Ryan. He faces these problems squarely and, with the kind of deductive mind reminiscent of G.K Chesterton's Father Brown, manages to find solutions to some of the most baffling mysteries he has ever encountered.
About the Author
A native of Chicago, Reverend Andrew M. Greeley, is a priest, distinguished sociologist and bestselling author. He is professor of social sciences at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona, as well as Research Associate at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. His current sociological research focuses on current issues facing the Catholic Church-including celibacy of priests, ordination of women, religious imagination, and sexual behavior of Catholics.
Father Greeley received the S.T.L. in 1954 from St. Mary of Lake Seminary. His graduate work was done at the University of Chicago, where he received the M.A. Degree in 1961 and the Ph.D. in 1962.
Father Greeley has written scores of books and hundreds of popular and scholarly articles on a variety of issues in sociology, education and religion. His column on political, church and social issues is carried by the carried by the Chicago Sun Times and may other newspapers. He stimulates discussion of neglected issues and often anticipates sociological trends. He is the author of more than thirty bestselling novels and an autobiography, Furthermore!: Confessions of a Parish Priest.
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