The Good Priest

The author wrote a thriller that started with a bang and just kept going! The twists kept coming, so I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

Thank you NetGalley and Matador for the eARC.
This is a difficult book for me to review. In the one hand I liked the main character, Father John, the parish priest, who is a good man trying to be the best priest and man he can be, on the other hand I found the passages relating to religion fairly tedious, not being a religious person. I felt great empathy for Father John, who wrestling with feelings for men, while trying to serve God and his congregation as best he can. He knew he was gay since being a boy, but his love for God was greater, so he chose a life in the church.
While listening to confessions, he is visited by a dark presence telling him of the dark deeds he is about to commit. It seems it's a Cardinal from his past, who was supposedly killed on 9/11. Subsequent murders point to a serial killer on the loose, acts that make Father John's life a living hell.
Father John's mental struggles are terribly sad, the only happiness he finds is in God, his family, the comfort of his cat, Shula and the benign presence of the ghost of a little girl. In the meantime he tries to comfort his flock and attend to a dying nun.
There are many beautiful passages that affected me deeply, but the many religious chapters made me impatient, which is the reason I can only give THE GOOD PRIEST 3.5 stars.

SPOILERS

This raises some very interesting points on the Catholic church,the one that hit ho.e the most for me was the confessional.
You can't stop a murderer because you've taken a vow not to reveal what is said in confession?
There were times when the stream of villagers going into confession felt a bit dull,but I know it was just setting the scene for village life.
There were times when I wondered if John was mad and imagining the Cardinal,and other times when I wondered if he was mad and killing people himself.

As the whole story unfolded ,it made less sense to me,that someone would risk everything like this for revenge... but revenge isn't logical is it?

I'm not religious, but enjoyed this overall. It's an interesting mystery which is well-written. I really liked the main character, who is interestingly complex, and obviously wants to be a good person. The author is obviously talented, and except for the long religious passages, this is well-done.

I was really looking forward to reading this, however I was not expecting so much bible excerpts, found myself flicking past pages just to get back on track, story was great, the characters, brilliant, just not for me.

An amazing book!! I couldn't put the book down. Great characters especially the Priest in the title. The storyline just gets better and better as you read.
There are some gory bits and some sex too but it's all just part of the tale and isn't at all gratuitous.
I enjoyed the religious aspect in the book even though I'm not a churchgoer myself. These parts interested me and I think that I learnt from them too.
All in all a fantastic read. YOU need to read it now!!

Father John is the local Catholic priest in Westonville he is beloved by his parishioners. He is visited by a dark soul from his past in confessional. When the murders start Father John will find he cannot escape the past. He will need all his faith and love of family and parishioners to lead him through dark times. Will he be able to keep how sacred the confessional is with both police, press and public turning against him. This is a rollercoaster ride of a story which keeps you hooked till the end.
I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. Father John's angst, compassion and loving spirit were portrayed throughout the novel. Although there was a mystery , I think I enjoyed the portrayal of his parish life more compelling. I followed the lives of his parishioners with great interest and rapidly turned pages to find out what happened to them all. It is a story of redemption of the human spirit and I found it most uplifting. I would definitely recommend this book. Thank you

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was very intrigued by the ideas in this book, but the narrative, writing and characters just did not suck me in. I will look out for the authors next one because it seems like there’s some heavy stuff kicking around in that brain – but this one’s execution just left me all meh.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Tina Beattie delivers a sympathetic hero who struggles with his own demons in this white knuckled thriller that delivers the goods: Layered, intense, and rich with deadly characters. Let there be no doubt— The Good Priest will stay with the reader long after the last page !

I would say that the summary given on NetGalley is a good summary of the book, and gives a good idea of what to expect. I must say that I really enjoyed the book, and was very engaged with it – it was taken to work, and picked up in spare five minutes. It’s not often that I am that involved in a book.

I found the characters completely believable – even the most extreme ones – and Father John was a likeable character and a credible priest. I understood his viewpoint and his doubts were in line with his experiences. There was one passage of theological discussion/exegesis that I skipped over – this was the one part that jarred a little, although I think it was necessary for the plot, and to inform readers, it maybe could have been better introduced. It was a bit heavy for the setting.

I think that a non church goer might find some of the story a little too “Christian-centric” but Christianity, and Catholicism, to be precise, is at the very heart of the story, and so is a necessary part of the telling. Perhaps one criticism is that I felt the ending a little too rushed: while it was a believable conclusion, a bit more explanation of the motives and a slightly longer drawn out ending would have been more satisfying. But I have to admit that my sigh of relief as I finished the book drew some strange looks in the office!

A four star read. I’d recommend this book wholeheartedly.

I was swept along by the central character for the first half of this book - It is nice to read a story where a Christian isn’t belittled, written with irony or with an underlying sneer. For Father John to read Psalms, to read Bible passages and not to mock them, as a Christian that was the first time in a long time I have felt like that with modern literature.
However, it was too long. I think you could have cut 20% of the pages and not lost anything from the story. There was a lot of repetition (the feel of the cat on the bed!) and whilst that demonstrates the ordinariness of Father John’s day to day life, it was used too often.
I recognised many of the characters from everyday life as a churchgoer, and a volunteer in different organisations, and they were well written. Some characters started to feel a bit unreal the further I got into the book – I had so many questions about the ‘mystery’ part of the story – where was the Cardinal living, how did he leave no trace wherever he went?
I think this worked better as a snapshot of a parish than as a mystery / crime fiction, which seemed to stutter along. The ending was quite abrupt, and a bit rushed. It gave closure of sorts but wasn’t really that effective.
The last few sentences sound a bit negative – I don’t mean to be, hopefully it is constructive because as a whole I really enjoyed reading the book and think the writer has a lot of promise.

This was an intriguing murder mystery tale. It drew so many story lines together, so many different controversial and earth shattering events that have rocked our world in the last fifty years or so. And Tina Beattie manage to accomplish this feat with great skill and competence. In it we learn of the abuse by priests of unsuspecting minors, we learn of the impact of 9/11, we embark upon a murder investigation and we witness a priest, Fr. John, grapple with the roles and responsibilities that come with the collar worn in priesthood. Often so many storylines would sink a ship so to speak but here that didn't happen. The tale was well told. It was intriguing and held my interest through out.