Caught in the Snare of the Hunter – A Christopher Worthy/Father Fortis Mystery #7

Category: Fiction ~ Mystery/Thriller
Pub Date: September 14, 2022
Price: $16.95 USD / $18.95 CAD / e-Book $5.99
Size: 6×9
Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 13: 9781684920716

Publisher:
Coffeetown Press

Description:

A Mystery of Nesting Russian Dolls  . . .

Lieutenant Christopher Worthy and Lena Fabriano forego a peaceful autumn vacation to accept Father Nicholas Fortis’ invitation to track down a missing priest with a shadowy past.    

Initial interviews reveal that church and community members in Saginaw, Michigan, are divided about Father Joseph, the missing priest.  Has something horrible happened to their beloved shepherd, or is he a “bent” priest?  As the case progresses, Worthy and Nick also find themselves divided over Father Joseph.  Is he an unstable narcissist or a misunderstood priest?  

The case seems at a dead end until they find the priest’s accomplice who divulges that Father Joseph traveled north into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  From there, Worthy and Nick trace the priest’s flight into Canada, seemingly at the request of a woman from his past who claims her life is in danger.  

Father Joseph’s disappearance depends on solving the mystery of Natasha Luzinsky, his fellow grad student, who fled Ukraine to hide with relatives in rural Canada. It is like opening a Russian nesting doll to find another doll inside. 

Arriving at the farm where Natasha has been hiding, Worthy, Nick, and Lena discover that they are too late.  Having heard that her criminal ex-husband, Sergei, had discovered her location in Canada and is coming for her, Natasha has fled with her baby and Father Joseph to an unknown location.   

Again, the team realizes that finding Natasha and Father Joseph now depends on first finding the revenge-seeking Sergei—another Russian doll nested inside the others. The trail ends on a remote island in a northern Manitoba lake where Worthy must face his own past if he is to find Father Joseph before Sergei does.       

Endorsements/Praises:

Praise for Enter by the Narrow Gate: “Lest anyone perceive Gate as a quiet book focused solely on the contemplative and monastic, rest assured that the mystery takes a spectacular twist.”  

—Jennifer Levin for Pasatiempo  

 “A consistently compelling and entertaining read from first page to last.  Highly recommended.”  

—Midwest Book Review

Praise for Let These Bones Live Again: “Powerful portraits of strong characters finding love through trust and forgiveness, amid all the sights and scents of modern day Venice—a masked lady who gives up her secrets begrudgingly.  All this and a crackling plot with many an unexpected twist.  Though this is the first Worthy/Fortis mystery I have read, it will not be the last.” 

—Michael Sears, author of Saving Jason and other thrillers in his Jason Stafford series. 

“Author David Carlson has created a great team in Fortis and Worthy.  The priest’s kind, open manner and knowledge of scripture and theology complement Worthy’s hard-nosed pursuit of killers.”  

—Rich Zahradnik, author of the Coleridge Taylor Mysteries.