Book Review: Family Sins

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Family Sins     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
David Compton
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Onyx, August 2004, $6.00, 352 pp.

As a police officer Michael Driscoll saw man’s inhumanity to man and left the profession to join the priesthood. He is familiar with organized crime because his relatives, the Driscolls in the United States and the O’Driscolls in Cork County Ireland are powerful mob families. Father Michael’s only regret is that he loved the church more than he loved Lydia Jellioe. She stayed in Ireland and had a child with Michael’s brother Brendan. Lydia calls her former lover,Fathere Michael because she’s afraid for her life and scared for her son who is missing.

Michael rushes to Ireland where neighbors inform him of Lydia’s death. He identifies the body and is treated like a suspect in the murder. When Daniel’s body is found in a dumpster, Michael vows to bring down the killer of the only woman he ever loved and the son he discovers he sired. Meanwhile the families on both sides of the Atlantic are putting aside their differences to fix the numbers in Powerball to win a pot that will keep everyone in luxury. The scheme causes the deaths of many Driscolls and O’Driscolls while Michael seeks justice and is willing to die trying to bring down the killers.

Although Father Driscoll is a good priest, he has the blood of killers running through his veins and knows how to settle scores against those who killed his kin. This is a very dark gritty and gory work that shows how two related crime families work against each other when they are supposed to be working together to make the big score. David Compton has written a exciting crime thriller where the hero walks on both sides of the law. The compelling crime thriller is a powerful reading experience.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner