A Gentle Murderer

I discovered Dorothy Salisbury Davis from an obituary in The New York Times. I loved Davis’ Julie Hayes series, one different than anything else I’ve ever read. I also loved the Mrs. Norris series and The Judas Cat, all of which have a less-dark vibe. And I loved God Speed the Night, too.

So when I had a chance to read Davis’ A Gentle Murderer, first published in 1951, I jumped at the chance! As with the later Colombo mystery TV show, the novel follows the same recipe: Readers will know the perpetrator’s name in Chapter 3. The fun is in the dueling investigations of the bloody murder by a conflicted priest and a police sergeant with an instinct for motives. Father Duffy, assistant pastor of St. Timothy’s in New York City’s show more Hell’s Kitchen (long before it gentrified into Clinton), hears the murderer’s confession on the very night of the murder; tied by the seal of the confessional, how can the young priest made sure that justice is done? At the same time, Sergeant Ben Goldsmith, an expert on human nature, has a feeling that the perpetrator is a nebbishy poet-scribbler pal of the victim, a red-headed beauty who worked as an expensive call girl. How to track that elusive “gentle murderer”? Readers will be glued to the novel to find out how the pair of sleuths fare!

Thank heaven that Poisoned Pen Press rereleased yet another of Davis’ gems! I only wish that Davis had chosen to build a series around the meticulous Father Duffy or the amusing Sergeant Goldsmith!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review. show less

A Gentle Murderer by Dorothy Salisbury Davis was first published in 1951. It is a psychological study of a murderer, which starts in a New York Catholic church when a tormented man confesses to the young Father Duffy that he has murdered a woman with a hammer. Duffy cannot tell the police about the crime and doesn't know the murderer's name or where to find him, so his only recourse is to identify the murderer and persuade him to turn himself in. His starting point is the information revealed by the murderer's disjointed confessional ramblings.

Sergeant Goldsmith is carrying out a parallel search, starting with the acquaintances of the murder victim. We, the readers, know who the murderer is, are privy to his thoughts, and realise that a show more young woman and her mother are in danger. Will Duffy and Goldsmith be in time to prevent another murder?

The publishers have supplied numerous footnotes, starting with the very first line of the book, "Bless me father for I have sinned...." There is no need for a footnote to explain this, and the overuse of footnotes is a distraction throughout the book. They explain things most readers would already know, could pick up from the context, or don't need to know. Few are useful. There is a reading group guide at the end of the book, and I found some of the questions problematical because what you think will depend on your own religious beliefs, which might not be what you want in a book group discussion.

Overall, this is a suspense-filled, well-written, psychological crime novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC. show less

The UK television personality Graham Norton has just published a mystery novel and in an interview he mentioned Dorothy Salisbury Davis as an author he admires. I ordered this book from the library and a first edition showed up. It's been reprinted by other companies over the years but for some reason our library system hasn't discarded this yet. It's in pretty bad shape.

Anyway, the reason to read this book is that while it was timely in 1951 when it was published, in 2025 it is not modern in any sense and thus provides an extreme contrast to what is being churned out today. There isn't even any mystery; we know everything from the beginning. What we read is a process through which two investigators, known to each other but acting alone show more and with entirely different goals, track through the history of the gentle man who is a killer. I can't imagine that many readers will be interested, yet it is in the accurate and detailed descriptions of the characters that we see a world that is no longer ours. show less

A Gentle Murderer begins with formulaic words of a confession, “Bless me Father, for I have sinned.” and did he. Father Duffy has heard it several times that night, but as his shift of listening to confessions nears the end, he hears the most extraordinary confession, a confession to murder. The confessing man is tortured by what he has done, but Father Duffy cannot get him to go to the police.

Ecclesiastical detectives have been around a long time, but Father Duffy is no all-knowing Father Brown. Father Duffy is more all-questioning, His questions lead him to a possible suspect and he tries to find him by going to his home town and to the pre-seminary boarding school he attended. He finds the psychological origins of the crime, show more leading with compassion and a growing certainty that the man will kill again, that he is driving my psychological monsters.

Meanwhile, the police are investigating and it begins to seem as though the police and Father Duffy are in a race to find the killer. Though can it be a race when they are not aware of the race they are in?

This is a good mystery. It’s fair. We learn what they investigators learn when they learn it. Father Duffy was a bit of a cipher though. I often wondered what he thought he was doing and going to do when and if he found the murderer. He could not force him to go to the police. He can’t tell anyone, though in a way, I wondered if he were treading past the line. Still, I wanted them to find him before he killed one or both of the women in the boarding house where he resided. There was real tension and jeopardy that was satisfying.

I received an e-galley of A Gentle Murderer from the publisher through NetGalley

A Gentle Murderer at Poisoned Pen Press | Sourcebooks
Dorothy Salisbury Davis

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/a-gentle-murderer-by-doro... show less

crime fiction, law enforcement, Library of Congress Crime Classics, Catholic clergy, murder, procedural, murder investigation, mid 20th century, reissue, psychological, NYC****

The publisher's blurb gets the reader into the mood of the story. It is a crime study of a time past, but there are some things about it which could easily be contemporary. It is also a character study of the characters involved. I got a lot out of the foreword, introduction, and references to other books by this and other notable authors of the time.
I requested and received an EARC from Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley. Thank you!