Terry Dunn it

An odd one, this. The protagonist appears to be a priest, situated in Rwanda when we first met him

An odd one, this. The protagonist appears to be a priest, situated in Rwanda when we first met him. I'm not giving much away, however, when I reveal that he has never actually taken Holy Orders.

Terry Dunn is the man, a bit of a tearaway, whose mother's wish was for him to be ordained. Back in Detroit and wishing to collect money to aid the orphans back in Rwanda, he teams up with ex-con and putative stand-up comedienne Debbie Dewey in order to extort said cash from her ex-boyfriend, a wealthy restaurant owner.

As he is allied to the Mafia, various underworld figures make their entrances and their exits, there is a lot of smart-ass, in-your-face dialogue, a killing or two and various twists and turns of typical Elmore Leonard-ish plot.

This author has always been good on villains, quite often drawing them more three-dimensional than the good guys. In the present volume he gives us Mutt, a completely amoral yet likeable thug, who ends up as a deus ex machina bringing the storyline to a nice, neat conclusion. Also there is the chief Mafia boss, Tony Amilia, suffering from prostate cancer but still willing and able to give his enemies a quick kick up the transom - shades of another Boss, closer to home?

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Light, bright, easy on the little grey cells, Pagan Babies may not be vintage Leonard, but it will do until the Great Man knuckles down and gives us another LaBrava or Glitz.

Vincent Banville's last thriller was Sad Song.