City of God (A Thomas Dunne Book) - Hardcover

New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the world's largest Gothic structure, provides an eerie and atmospheric venue for a serial murderer out to sweep the moneychangers from the temple. Bill Donovan, head of the NYPD's West Side Major Crime Unit (last encountered in Death Games ), is called to investigate the fatal bludgeoning of Dale Charbaux, a promoter staging a silent film festival in St. John's, which has broadened its outreach to include community activities with little or no religious bearing. Further murders of men using or enabling the use of the cathedral for secular purposes set Donovan on a personal quest for a killer who calls himself Marcus (St. Augustine's given name). As Donovan searches through the labyrinthine corridors and forgotten rooms of the enormous building, his approaching marriage with black policewoman Marcie Barnes is endangered when her best friend is murdered during the New York Marathon and Marcie becomes obsessed with revenge. Despite an occasional infelicitous turn of phrase, Jahn shows sensitivity in depicting a biracial relationship, and he captures Manhattan's Upper West Side with gritty realism and touches of mordant humor.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A madman calling himself Marcus (St. Augustine's given name), revolted by modern money-changers--a sculpture exhibit, a Save the Amazon concert, a political lawyer's press conference--in NYC's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, declares war on the depraved City of Man and begins to kill the interlopers with a stonemason's mallet. As Lt. Bill Donovan of the West Side Major Crimes Unit (Night Rituals, 1982; Death Games, 1987) and flaky documentarist Michael Avignon try to track Marcus to his lair in the vast cathedral while avoiding tripping over fresh corpses, Donovan's colleague/bedmate Marcie is pounding the streets looking for the Central Park punks who killed her houseguest Jennifer Peel in the middle of a marathon--a case whose problems won't end when she confronts the perps. Laugh-a-minute Donovan does more honest detecting than usual, but both he and the hastily sketched suspects here are overshadowed by creepy, impressive St. John's. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.