Someone Has Killed the Bishop

Who would want to kill a Bishop? Well, in fact, lots of people.

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A real “who-done-it” in the classic tradition, this 152-page paperback traces the convoluted ins and outs surrounding the murder of Episcopal Bishop Randolph Tucker Cabell at the 153rd annual convention of a diocese in the Upper South in the middle 1990s.

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The reader is introduced to a cast of characters, all of whom possess strong opinions about how the church should be run. But who among them feels strongly enough to eliminate Bishop Randy?

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The truth is uncovered, bit by bit, in a narrative told through the eyes of the Bishop’s staff member, cautious Canon Ned Cheyleigh. His companion in the investigation, and the object of his unrequited affection, is diocesan newspaper editor Arabella Howard Hampton, an amazing character who is a combination of Scarlet O’Hara, Lois Lane, and Annie Oakley.

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The Bishop’s secretary, former debutante Rosemary Ravenel Ravenscroft Tart, is married to a “porcine agriculturalist” with money, but she longs for a different life. Social activist the Rev. Bob Fairly chafes under the constraints of the conservative climate in the diocese, as do feminist the Rev. Cynthia Hardy-Compton and “high church” sophisticate the Rev. Douglas Edisto Rainier. Evangelical Vincent Thorn thinks they’re all going to Hell. Volatile auto mechanic Roy Lee Tart, Rosemary’s brother-in-law, may assist them in arriving there.
 

Woven into the plot are important issues of the time, including the fight over ordination of gay people and blessing of their unions, treatment of migrant workers, and conflicts between advocates of traditional and evangelical worship styles.