The latest mystery from a two-time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award
Father Brennan Burke is struggling, and he's been coping the only way he knows how: self-medicating with drink. He's barely managing, but his troubles intensify when the body of one of his parishioners washes up on the coast of Halifax.
Meika Keller came to Canada after escaping past a checkpoint in the Berlin Wall. An army colonel is charged with her murder, and defense lawyer Monty argues that Meika's death was a suicide, which is the last thing Father Burke wants to hear. Guilty of neglecting his duties as a priest when Meika needed him most, Brennan feels compelled to uncover whatever instigated her cry for help and led to her death.
The story takes us from the historic Navy town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the history-laden city of Berlin, as Brennan and his brother Terry head to Germany in search of answers. And while Brennan will stop at nothing to find what, or who, is responsible for Meika's death, nothing could have prepared the priest for the events that unfold.
Father Brennan Burke is plagued by guilt when a parishioner he was supposed to meet with ends up floating in the Halifax Harbor. His penitence propels him to travel to Berlin to find out what secrets the murdered woman was carrying, and he'll stop at nothing to find out who is responsible for her death.
Anne Emery is a lawyer and the author of the Collins-Burke mystery series, set in Halifax, Cape Breton, Ireland, London, and New York. She has won two Arthur Ellis Awards, an Independent Publisher Book Awards silver medal, and the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction.
"And so, because you drank yourself senseless, you weren't here for our parishioner Meika Keller. She came looking for you here at ten o'clock last night. Said you had agreed to see her."
What? What was he saying? Meika Keller? Had she been talking to Brennan recently? Yes, of course. It was just . . . when? Yesterday, wasn't it? He tried to clear his head.
"What did she say to you?" the bishop asked now.
"Say to me? When?"
"For the love of God, Brennan, wise up here. What did she want to talk to you about?"
"I don't ...." It was coming back to him through the haze now. The woman had been chatting with him at Saint Mary's University, where she was a professor and Brennan a part-time lecturer. As Meika was leaving the campus, she asked if she could come and speak with him. Could she meet him that night after a charity event of some kind that she had to attend. That would have been last night.
"What time is it?" Brennan asked now.
"It's too late, Brennan. That's what time it is."
"No, no, I'll see her. Just let me . . ."
"Was it a confession she asked for, Brennan? At least, tell me that."
He tried to reconstruct the conversation with Meika Keller. She was usually cheerful, witty, full of personality. She had always struck him as unflappable. Yesterday, though, her manner was different. There was something on her mind and it must have been serious, if she wanted to meet Father Burke at ten o'clock at night.
"I'm thinking yes, Dennis, she may have wanted to see me in the confessional. Well, I'll track her down now and apologize and hear what she has to say. Maybe help put her mind at rest."
"No, you won't, Brennan."
Something in Cronin's manner gave Brennan a chill. "What is it, Dennis?"
"At seven thirty-five this morning, Meika Keller's body washed up on the beach at Point Pleasant Park."
Short Description
Father Brennan Burke is plagued by guilt when a parishioner he was supposed to meet with ends up floating in the Halifax Harbor. His penitence propels him to travel to Berlin to find out what secrets the murdered woman was carrying, and he'll stop at nothing to find out who is responsible for her death.
