Detective Cameron Ballack of
the St. Charles County police department in Missouri is assigned Special Investigative
Division that serves the metropolitan St. Louis area. The division investigates
major crimes, especially murders connected to religious organizations.
He was appointed to this team
because of his crime-solving work at a Greek Orthodox seminary (detailed in Litany
of Secrets). His first major case with the special unit, recounted in The
Broken Cross, involved the Roman Catholic Church. Ballack is something
unusual among policemen – he’s wheelchair-bound because of congenital health
issues. He’s also an agnostic, which makes for interesting conversation with
his minister father and Christian mother and sister, not to mention his
teammates in the division.
First it was the Orthodox,
and then the Catholics. Now it’s the Protestants’ turn, in A
Shattered Peace by Luke H. Davis.
Ballack and his team are
called to Dayspring Community Church, a large Protestant evangelical church in
a well-heeled suburb of west St. Louis County. A counselor, the assistant
director at the counseling center associated with the church, has been found
dead in her office. It doesn’t take the medical examiner long to learn she’s
been murdered, with crushed ribs and fatal internal injuries from being punched
in her back.
Suspects abound. The
counselor was at odds with both the center director and the senior pastor at
the church, who were maneuvering to remove her. Some of her fellow counselors
can’t provide solid alibis for the time of the murder. And then the detectives
have to consider her clients and former clients, some of whom might have their
own reasons for disliking the counselor.
The detectives’ personal issues
keep intruding into the case. Ballack’s girlfriend seems to be pushing away
from him. His partner, Tori Vaughn, has a family crisis. Another team member
will recognize someone whom she thinks murdered her father. Ballack’s sister
has been dating one of the counselors at the center. The personal issues swirl
around the team, and Ballack has to work hard to keep the team, and himself, on
track.
And then there’s a second
murder.
 |
| Luke H. Davis |
Davis teaches at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, and is chair of the Bible Department there. He’s also
taught at schools in Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia. He describes himself as
“Presbyterian body, Lutheran heart, Anglican blood, Orthodox spirit,” all of
which have served him well in writing the Cameron Ballack mysteries. He
has published two previous Ballack mysteries, Litany of Secrets (2013) and The
Broken Cross (2015), and the first book of a new series, Joel:
The Merivalkan Chronicles Book 1
(2017).
As in his
earlier mysteries, A Shattered Peace is
more than a simple mystery story or police procedural. The reader gains
insights into how a large Protestant church (one with a dominating senior
pastor) actually functions. And the characters regularly discuss theological
and faith issues, and how faith applies to life. Ballack, as an agnostic,
provides a counterpoint to the more faith-enthusiastic characters.
And it
wouldn’t be a Ballack mystery without a rather thrilling conclusion – and A Shattered Peace clearly has that. In
all of these mysteries, Davis maintains a high level of pace, narrative
development, and reader interest. This third installment in the Detective Cameron
Ballack series is the best yet.
Related:
Top photograph by Nik MacMillan via
Unsplash. Used with
permission.
Wow, Glynn, this sounds like a gripping story!
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