Killing Faith is the story of Father Alastair Fildew, a Catholic priest in Leeds, England, who has the misfortune of witnessing a murder during his confessional. The murdered woman had come to elicit his aid in saving his brother, whose existence up to this point Alastair was oblivious to. Enter DI Melissa Lloyd, newly appointed as a detective with a chauvinist for a boss. When circumstantial evidence that is too solid to ignore points to the murder as being committed by Lachlan Dunne, henchman for Australian mafia boss, Amhurst Rudd, DI Lloyd convinces her boss to allow her to follow the trail to Perth, Australia, and Alastair insists on coming along. He soon realises he is in way over his head, and to her credit, DI Lloyd realises the same when it becomes obvious that there are police officers in the employ of Mr Rudd and DI Lloyd cannot turn to the Force for assistance.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse as Alastair and DI Lloyd try to prove Lachlan Dunne committed the murder with the knowledge of Mr Rudd. But will they get out of the game alive? There were a few minor errors which could have been picked up by a thorough proofread and edit, however, I’ve yet to find a book (my own included) that is completely error-free. The errors didn’t detract from the flow of the story too much, and I was able to get back on track quite quickly. For a lot of the story, I was unsure who the main character was. The blurb on Amazon suggests it was DI Lloyd, but events in the story would suggest it was really the priest, Alastair Fildew as his scenes begin and end the story. That being said, we do see Alastair evolve from a priest with little experience in the world to a confident man, able to hold his own against the evil of an Australian mobster. As a female in a male dominated career, DI Lloyd desperately tries to prove her worth to her supervisor, struggling to survive, and along the way, realises that solving crimes is a task best shared. While Amherst Rudd is the mafia boss, he is more of a byline of the story and the real criminal action is performed by his henchman, Lachlan Dunne. Dunne remains constant throughout the story, except at the very end, which I won’t spoil!
The story has plenty of good dialogue to keep the action moving along. However, my only slight critique is that the author has used Americanisms such as ‘mom’ and spelling words with a ‘z’ may distract some readers seeing as the book is set in Leeds England and Perth Australia, and neither country uses these spellings/terms. It is acknowledged that B. J. Woster is an American author and therefore these spellings/terms would be quite commonplace.
This is a fast-paced story, although it is easy to keep up with the action. B J Woster’s Killing Faith has all the elements of a good crime solving story which I enjoyed very much.
I award this book 4.5 stars.
