Mortal Grace – Edward Stewart

Description

New York in the 1990s is in decay and its youth have no hope, as they lose their minds and lives to drugs.  The powerful and wealthy pretend to charity but when one of their own is threatened they close ranks to justice.

When the mutilated body of a long dead teenage girl is discovered buried in a basket in Vanderbilt Gardens, Lieutenant Vince Cardozo of the New York Police Department is called in.  Strange and sinister clues begin to emerge which narrow Cardozo’s investigations on to one suspect – Father Joe Montgomery, a charismatic and influential priest with friends in very high places.

Out of the blue a convicted murderer confesses to the killing, and though Cardozo is unhappy with the apparent conclusion – the case is personal to him, as his own teenage niece is a still missing runaway – he reluctantly moves on to solve other crimes.  Months later, another – more recent – victim is discovered.  And the hunt is on again.