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Executive Times |
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2008 Book Reviews |
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The
Bishop at the Lake by Andrew M. Greeley |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click
on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Grand The
sixth novel in Andrew M. Greeley’s Bishop Blackie Ryan series is titled The
Bishop at the Lake. After someone attempted to murder a fellow bishop
(and potential competitor for a job) visiting a summer home on Lake Michigan,
it’s up to Blackie to uncover the mystery of a locked room. It just so
happens that Blackie’s sister has a summer home in the neighborhood, and
Blackie’s boss wants him on the case. As has been Greeley’s usual structure,
there’s also a budding romance as a motif. Here’s an excerpt, from the beginning of Chapter 2, pp. 19-21: "It doesn't look much like an English country home, does it,
Uncle Blackie?" my nephew Joseph said, the last-born child of my sister,
Mary Kate, and her long-suffering husband, Joe Murphy. "No more than our dunes
look like Sherwood Forest." "It's a blend of a cottage
on the lake and a fantasy about what an English country home was really
like," he replied. "For one thing there are a lot more bathrooms in
that house and central heating and air-conditioning. It's best just to admire
it and laugh at it." As a child and a teen Joseph
Murphy was what his grandmother would have called a galoot—a large, awkward,
quiet kid. He read a lot, failed in every sport he tried, and kept pretty
much to himself. Some- time between seventh and tenth grade he became a man
transformed, tall, strong, articulate, and a superb basketball player. First
time I saw him after this transformation I scarcely recognized him. He had become
six feet two inches of solid muscle and deep reflection. Scary fellow, I
thought. Now he is home from two Peace
Corps years in Honduras, a serious, reflective, and a handsome black
Irishman like his father, the ever patient Joseph Murphy MD looking much like
a suspect gunman of the Irish Republican Army. "You've been in
the house,
Joseph?" I
asked. "Not
exactly inside it, but they only use it for a
month maybe
six weeks at the most. So naturally Grand Beach kids sneak under the
fence or climb
over it and mess around on the grounds. We never did any damage. Our parents
warned us that rich people can be very mean. We contented ourselves with
hassling the two groundskeepers who live in one of the adjacent cottages.
Their outside security system on the grounds is pretty good, the one of the
house would be a challenge to the CIA." "And they never joined the
Grand Beach Social Club?" "The real Grand Beachers would have been
embarrassed." "Not your mom and dad?" "Nothing ever embarrasses
them," he laughed. "They're cool." "Patently." "Spike Nolan has always
been a little crazy people say. In 1938
when he was fifteen years old he went off to England on a tramp steamer, lied
about his age, and joined the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Battle of
Britain, collected a bushel of medals, married an impecunious young
noblewoman, and ended up as a Group Captain, kind of like a colonel. He was
twenty-three years old, my age. He worked at his father's company which made
auto parts, inherited the company, and converted it to aviation electronics.
Spike is more than a hero and more than just a crazy Irishman. It turns out
that he is a genius. He intuited what kinds of equipment airplanes would
need and was almost always one step ahead of his competitors. His latest
invention is the plastic composite that Boeing uses in the 787. Aviation
Electronics, as he still calls it, is now a multibillion-dollar worldwide
enterprise. He owns two Gulfstream jets, one for continental flights and one
for intercontinental." Joseph had done research on the
Nolans. Fascinating. It was a perfect Grand Beach
day: temperature about eighty, clear blue sky, enough of a wind for the beach
boats to be underway but smooth enough for the water skiers. The young people
who had grown up in Grand Beach through the years felt that days like this
were an anticipation of heaven. "And he still runs the
company?" "Chairman
of the Board, his son, the Archbishop's brother is the CEO. He's not a genius
like Spike, but he's supposed to be competent." My
grandnephew knew a lot about the inhabitants of Nolan's Landing. But then he
knew a lot about a lot of things. "And the teenage English
noblewoman?" "Lady Anne Howard as she
sometimes calls herself. Still very much alive. A lot of tragedy in their
lives. Kids dying young, others running away, bad marriages, cocaine,
embezzlement, the usual sort of stuff. It is said that they spoiled their
sons and grandsons and overprotected their daughters and
granddaughters." "How did they do
that?" "They sent their young
women to a convent school in Switzerland where the nuns kept a close eye on
them and taught them good manners and French, Spanish, and Italian. Then when
they came home to England or California or New York, wherever their home
might have been, the family controlled their dating. Some of the husbands
were already promising young men in the corporation. The young women were
very docile and did what they were told.... Poor Spike." "Where does the name come
from?' "Sean Patrick Ignatius Killian.
He added the `E' for Edward, his confirmation name.... They say his
great-grandfather owned all the land between New Buffalo and Long Beach and
began to sell it off at the beginning of the twentieth century. By 1950 that
was a lot a capital to put into aviation electronics." "Kind of a melancholy
story, Joseph." "A man like Spike Nolan,
Uncle Blackie, comes along only once every couple of generations. From what I
hear, no one in the family has ever been a match for him. Margaret may be an
exception, too early to tell." In all
his novels, Greeley presents ways in which good people make the world better,
and the finest relationships are loving ones with open communication. The
Bishop at the Lake provides reading pleasure to those who like a grand
story, well-told. There’s predictability and comfort side by side in this
novel. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Steve
Hopkins, December 20, 2007 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the January 2008 issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The Bishop at the Lake.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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