A Gentle Murderer
ByPublisher Description
He came to confess a murder. Then he vanished. Now a priest and a detective must race to stop him—one seeking redemption, the other justice.
In the quiet of a New York church, a shaken young man steps into the confessional. His voice is raw. He's killed someone—he says he didn't mean to—and he's still holding the hammer. Before Father Duffy can act, the man disappears into the night.
The next morning, a woman is found bludgeoned to death. For Father Duffy, the confessor becomes a moral burden he cannot ignore. For NYPD Sergeant Ben Goldsmith, it's a case of motive and madness. Neither man knows the other is searching for the same tormented soul—one trying to save him, the other to stop him.
With unforgettable psychological intensity and dual protagonists navigating justice from opposite moral grounds, A Gentle Murderer delivers a soul-deep confessional arc that lingers long after the final page. Grand Master Dorothy Salisbury Davis's classic noir combines elegant prose with haunting emotional depth, earning comparisons to Patricia Highsmith and Graham Greene.
Praise for A Gentle Murderer:
"A simmering tour de force of detection from both ends of the trail…" — Kirkus Reviews
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About Dorothy Salisbury Davis
Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916 - 2014) was born in Chicago, and worked there in advertising, as a research librarian and as an editor of The Merchandiser before she began writing crime fiction. Her novels explore psychological suspense, and she was nominated for the Edgar Award eight times. She also served as President of the Mystery Writers of America in 1956 and was declared a Grand Master by the MWA in 1985. She was on the initial steering committee of Sisters in Crime.
Other books by Dorothy Salisbury Davis
Leslie S. Klinger
LESLIE S. KLINGER is the two-time Edgar® winning editor of New Annotated Sherlock Holmes and Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s. He has also edited two anthologies of classic mysteries and, with Laurie R. King, five anthologies of stories inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Klinger is the series editor of Library of Congress Crime Classics, a partnership of the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks. He is a former Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and lives in Malibu, California.
Other books by Leslie S. Klinger
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