New Book - The 7th Canon by Robert Dugoni (Pages 1 - 48)

 First Published: 2016

It is December 1987, and Father Thomas Martin run a shelter for destitute boys. 

Father Thomas is not the conventional priest, neither in his looks nor in his ideas. He fought hard to open the shelter, and by doing this he made some enemies. That night one of the boys that had come to the shelter is gone, and the priest tries to talk to a newbie, Red, but he is not receptive. Father Thomas tells one of his former chargers, Danny Simeon, who is now living in the shelter, that he needs to lock the place. As he goes into the recreation room, power suddenly goes out, and the priest slips and hits his hand. When he tries to stand up,, his hand touches something wet, which he thinks is water at first, but then he realises it is blood. Then at the end of the room he sees Andrew Bennet, the boy who came and went that day, curled in the crib, obviously dead.

The police come after the receive an anonymous call, and one of the detectives, Dixon Conor, who has never liked Father Thomas, goes into his office and finds a paper knife covered in blood and some photographs of the boy. So he does not waste time and arrests the priest. The other detective John Begley thinks that Conor's methods are not right as he entered the locked office without a warrant. Their boss, Aileen O'Malley, learns about it and has to suspend the detective.

Peter Donley is a young lawyer, married and a young child. He works in the firm of his uncle Lou. The archbishop, who is a friend of Lou's, call him, and Peter is assigned this case. When he goes to see Father Thomas, the priest has his eyes closed and is praying the rosary. Something in his attitude and position makes Peter remember something terrible in his childhood and has an anxiety attack. Things get complicated when Lou has a stroke, and now Peter has to face the music on his own.

This case seems to interest many who supported Father Thomas in his campaign to open the shelter. One is the district attorney, Gil Ramsey, whose father is a former governor, and the old Ramsey (Augustus) comes to talk to him because he fears that this matter may cover him in mud. Augustus thinsk that Ramsey needs to get rid of this present problem. This man gives me the creeps and I wonder what he means.

I am sure that Father Ramsey has not killed the boy. We still need to learn more about Thomas and Andrew Bennet. Why would anybody kill the boy? Was it to frame the priest for some reason? Who has motives to want to hurt Father Thomas?