Among the single family brownstones and converted apartment buildings are Fr. Tibor’s Armenian Church, the Roman Catholic St. Anselm’s, the Episcopalian St. Stephen’s and an independent, fundamentalist one with the sole purpose of preaching and picketing against all the others. Besides the usual residents, Gregor’s neighbors and friends we meet the local atheist and freethinker, an ivy-league educated bigot and hate monger, and the priests, parishioners and some unforgettable nuns. A pedophilia scandal involving diocesan priests in the 1960s led to a settlement which threatens bankruptcy for the new archbishop.

St. Stephen’s focus on charity towards homosexual parishioners causes fundamentalist picketers in angel costumes to threaten violence as well as divine tribulation against those who do not share their views. Add to this a truly obnoxious nun who believes in every radical cause except the ultimate Christian view, a troubled young man who hauls his wife’s corpse before the altar and commits suicide, and the imminent judicially mandated death of Bennis’ sister Ann Marie and Cavanaugh Street is teeming with turmoil.

Valentines’s Day is fast approaching and love of any sort - especially of one’s fellow man - is in short supply. Riots, exorcisms, poisonings, and violence replace faith, hope, and charity as the works of the church. Haddam leaves it to the reader to ponder the contrast between a “private” and a “public” murder, loving mankind and men loving men, as well as hatred and inadequacy disguised as righteousness. What constitutes a loss of innocence? Is it merely an adult male in a position of authority forcing himself on a minor or is also the realization that each individual has a responsibility towards others?

Haddam’s sense of humor is present throughout the pages, especially her tongue-in-cheek descriptions of parish administrators and the havoc they can wreak in their self-importance and misguided efforts to spread the faith. I truly enjoyed meeting her characters. Fr. Tibor’s equal enchantment with web technology and the Desert Fathers makes him a delight. Surfing the web he discovers a new site that focuses on mysteries and has the opportunity to expostulate on a 4th century heresy in one of the chat rooms. Haddam knows human nature as demonstrated by her tragic and comic characters and the mix of murder and malice with frenzied decorating and nagging about inadequate nutrition.

I know I’ll visit Cavanaugh Street again but I may wait till there are no holidays on the calendar. But then again, I might just miss something.... I will certainly make a return visit but maybe not around a holiday.

--Jane Davis