WILLIAM KIENZLE: William Xavier Kienzle, a literary Catholic priest from Detroit who ran his diocesan newspaper and other publications for 20 years and then turned in his collar and robes to write nearly two dozen best-selling mystery novels, died on December 28th aged 73.
His first book, The Rosary Murders, was made into a 1987 film starring Donald Sutherland as his protagonist priest.
Born in Detroit on September 11th, 1928, he once said he made the change in professions so that he could share all the weird and funny things that happened during his two decades as a Motown priest.
Educated at Sacred Heart Seminary College and St John's Seminary, he demonstrated a flair for writing from the time of his 1954 ordination. During his work in five Detroit parishes before leaving the priesthood in 1974, he contributed articles to the Minneapolis magazine MLPS under the pseudonym Mark Boyle.
From 1962 to 1974 he was editor-in-chief of the archdiocese's Michigan Catholic, earning a Michigan Knights of Columbus award for general excellence in journalism and a Catholic Press Association acknowledgment for editorial writing.
He spent five years segueing from priesthood to novelist, serving as editor-in-chief of MPLS and then teaching contemplative studies at Western Michigan University and the University of Dallas.
But in 1979, he published his first novel, patterning his kindly, liberal hero priest and Catholic journalist of Detroit, the Rev Robert Koesler, somewhat after himself.
First novels rarely do so well. But, as one reviewer noted, "heaven seems to have smiled", and William Kienzle's The Rosary Murders landed on the top-10 best-seller lists, was adopted by several book clubs, was reprinted in paperback and was quickly picked up for the motion picture.
In the initial tale of The Rosary Murders, Robert Koesler, portrayed on screen by Sutherland, hears the confession of a Detroit serial killer of priests and nuns and must contend with his inability to tell police because of a canon law promising confession-booth confidentiality dating from medieval times. To tout the film, the Hollywood ads teased, "Bless me father for I have killed."
The ex-priest's second book, published in 1980, was titled Death Wears a Red Hat. William Kienzle continued to spin the books out successfully at a rate of one a year - Mind Over Murder, Assault With Intent, Shadow of Death, Kill and Tell, Sudden Death, Deathbed, Deadline for a Critic, Marked for Murder, Eminence, Masquerade, Chameleon, Body Count, Dead Wrong, Bishop as Pawn, Call No Man Father, Requiem for Moses, The Man Who Loved God, The Greatest Evil, No Greater Love, Till Death and The Sacrifice.
William Kienzle is survived by his wife, Javan Herman Andrews, whom he married in 1974.
William Xavier Kienzle: born 1928; died, December 2001