Vespers: A Novel of the 87th Precinct (87th Precinct Mysteries)

SUMMARY: The priest lay on the bloodstained stones, his life drained from the wounds in his back.... In a walled garden surrounded by skyscrapers, Father Michael Birney met an unholy end, stabbed by an assailant who invaded his vespers prayers and then vanished as twilight overtook the big city. A stone's throw from the crime scene, a congregation of Satan worshipers chants its disturbing incantations -- an irony not lost on Detectives Carella and Hawes, who search among the cultists for a killer. But it will take more than a leap of faith for the cops of the 87th Precinct to expose the truth behind the deadliest -- and bloodiest -- of sins. A Catholic priest is brutally murdered. A church practicing Satanism is not four blocks away, and the cult sign of Baphomet is found scrawled on the the garden gate. The trail leads to a shadowy Easter Sunday, and the conclusion is breathtaking and ironic.- from Goodreads When the symbol of a Satanic cult is left at the murder scene of a young Catholic priest, the cops of the 87th Precinct must keep it from becoming the spark which ignites the racial and ethnic tensions smoldering in the city. IT WAS HIS CUSTOM to reflect upon worldly problems during evening prayers, reciting the litany by rote, the prayers a mumbled counterpoint to his silent thoughts.