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The construction project seemed destined to go off without a hitch, that is, until human remains were discovered. Dan Randolph is the pastor of a suburban Louisville Presbyterian church, and the headache posed by the finding of a dead body is not something he needs. The detective informs Dan that the body's interment dates back to the 1980s, which causes Dan to ponder the victim's identity.
In 1985, Mark McKenzie was a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality; Mark worried about coming out to his parents, as they were religious and he didn't believe they would accept him. This wasn't the only secret he was keeping, as he had been the target of abuse by a well-respected member of the community. He tried to alert an authority figure to the ongoing abuse, but to no avail. Thirty-nine years later, the identity of the body threatens to reveal dark secrets of Parkvale Presbyterian Church.
A pastor becomes an amateur sleuth in this excellent mystery novel with themes of love and acceptance, while reflecting on the lasting damage caused by sexual abuse. Dan has been the minister at Parkvale for several years, yet some members of the assembly haven't fully embraced him because of his sexual orientation. This becomes a source of tension in the story that is strikingly vivid, and this prejudice is wielded against Dan in his attempts to learn the truth about the victim buried under the church. While tolerance becomes an overarching theme of the story, the subject of abuse becomes a central secondary theme in the narrative, as the abuse of Mark and others was enabled by the silence of others. The author makes a salient point about how those who refuse to go to the authorities when abuse is alleged are complicit. Ultimately, this is a great book with a relevant social commentary.