Leonard Wibberley (1915-1983) was born in Ireland but lived in the United States from his late 20s on. He was a versatile and prolific writer, turning out short fiction, novels, history, and biography for adults and children under multiple pseudonyms. Wikipedia estimates his output at more than 100 books. I knew of him through his children’s books and through his well-known satire The Mouse that Roared (Little, Brown, 1955) about an imaginary European country called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. I was surprised to learn recently that using the name Leonard Holton he wrote a mystery series about a Los Angeles priest named Father Joseph Bredder. These books were the basis for the 1971 television crime drama Sarge starring George Kennedy.
Bredder made his debut in The Saint Maker (Dodd, Mead, 1959), when he entered the Church of the Holy Innocents at Third and Main Streets in Los Angeles after a trip to visit his sister in the San Fernando Valley on a miserably hot day. He was carrying a large melon as a gift to the nuns in the convent associated with the church and he set the bag with the melon down in the back of the church. When he remembered it a half hour or so later, he asked the rectory housekeeper to retrieve it and deliver it to the convent.
The shock when the bag was opened and the head of a woman was discovered instead of the melon was considerable. Father Bredder naturally turned the matter over to the police. Lieutenant Joe Minardi of Homicide searched for the identity of the victim while Father Bredder searched for the killer whose soul is in grave peril.
A satisfactorily complicated story but it is not a fair play plot. The clues were simply not there. Other than that, an engaging read with amusing threads. Some of the church school students decided that Father Bredder was in danger and started following him, under the delusion that they could protect him if needed. And then some of the priest’s friends were worried about his safety as well and came up with various schemes to spirit him out of town.
I liked it and will read any of the other books in the series if they come my way. Bredder is far from the typical priest and he is a likable character. However I didn’t understand why the police lieutenant and the priest had to have the same first name. And there was a much stronger dose of Catholic dogma worked into the dialog than I expected. For fans of procedurals and clerical mysteries.