Of the writers who deal with mystery and murder as seen through the eyes of a priest, Ralph McInerny and William X. Kienzle are probably the two leading American practitioners…. Mr. Kienzle's man is Father Robert Koesler in Detroit. He first appeared in "The Rosary Murders," which attracted a good deal of attention. Now Father Koesler is back, in ["Death Wears a Red Hat"]….

Basically the book is a procedural. Father Koesler works with the police. But the thrust of the book is religious, with many observations about Catholicism in the modern world. The murders can be solved only by someone with a Catholic background. And very perplexing murders they are. Somebody is hacking the heads off victims and putting them on statues in churches. It so happens that all of the victims are villains, and there are those in Detroit who want to give the murderer the...