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Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter #3
The Only Good Priest
Father Sebastian, the only good priest everybody knows, is dead. Pastor of a parish outside Chicago, Father Sebastian was also involved in the gay community through his work with Faith, the gay Catholic organization the diocese is trying to drive out of the church.High school teacher Tom mason, who has gained some local notoriety from his involvement in a couple of murder cases, is asked by friends to look into the priest's death; was it murder? Along with his lover Scott Carpenter, a professional baseball player, Tom plunges into ecclesiastical intrigues, the hidden underground of gay Chicago and the tragedies caused by a hypocritical church.
193 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Mark Richard Zubro
47 books50 followersAuthor also writes as: Mark Zubro.
Mark Richard Zubro is an American mystery novelist. He lives in Mokena, Illinois and taught 8th grade English at Summit Hill Jr. High in nearby Frankfort Square, Illinois.
Zubro writes bestselling mysteries set in Chicago and the surrounding Cook County area, which are widely praised as fast-paced, with interesting plots and well-rounded, likeable characters. His novels feature gay themes, and Zubro is himself gay.
His longest running series features high school teacher Tom Mason, and Tom's boyfriend, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter. The other series Zubro is known for is the Paul Turner mysteries, which are about a Chicago police detective. The books are a part of the Stonewall Inn Mystery series, published by St. Martin's Press. Zubro won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's Mystery for his book A Simple Suburban Murder.
Series:
* Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter
* Paul Turner
I am the author of twenty-four mystery novels and five short stories. My book A Simple Suburban Murder won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery. I also wrote a thriller, Foolproof, with two other mystery writers, Jeanne Dams and Barb D'Amato. I taught eighth graders English and reading for thirty-four years and was president of the teachers' union in my district from 1985 until 2006. I retired from teaching in 2006 and now spend my time reading, writing, napping, and eating chocolate. My newest book, Another Dead Republican, is my thirteenth book in the Tom and Scott series which features as main characters, a gay school teacher and his lover, a professional baseball player. One of the keys in my mysteries is you do not want to be a person who is racist, sexist, homophobic, or a school administrator. If you are any of those, it is likely you are the corpse, or, at the least, it can be fairly well guaranteed that bad things will happen to you by the end. And if in my books you happen to be a Republican and/or against workers' rights, it would be far better if you did not make a habit of broadcasting this. If you did, you're quite likely to be a suspect, or worse.
Mark Richard Zubro is an American mystery novelist. He lives in Mokena, Illinois and taught 8th grade English at Summit Hill Jr. High in nearby Frankfort Square, Illinois.
Zubro writes bestselling mysteries set in Chicago and the surrounding Cook County area, which are widely praised as fast-paced, with interesting plots and well-rounded, likeable characters. His novels feature gay themes, and Zubro is himself gay.
His longest running series features high school teacher Tom Mason, and Tom's boyfriend, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter. The other series Zubro is known for is the Paul Turner mysteries, which are about a Chicago police detective. The books are a part of the Stonewall Inn Mystery series, published by St. Martin's Press. Zubro won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's Mystery for his book A Simple Suburban Murder.
Series:
* Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter
* Paul Turner
I am the author of twenty-four mystery novels and five short stories. My book A Simple Suburban Murder won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery. I also wrote a thriller, Foolproof, with two other mystery writers, Jeanne Dams and Barb D'Amato. I taught eighth graders English and reading for thirty-four years and was president of the teachers' union in my district from 1985 until 2006. I retired from teaching in 2006 and now spend my time reading, writing, napping, and eating chocolate. My newest book, Another Dead Republican, is my thirteenth book in the Tom and Scott series which features as main characters, a gay school teacher and his lover, a professional baseball player. One of the keys in my mysteries is you do not want to be a person who is racist, sexist, homophobic, or a school administrator. If you are any of those, it is likely you are the corpse, or, at the least, it can be fairly well guaranteed that bad things will happen to you by the end. And if in my books you happen to be a Republican and/or against workers' rights, it would be far better if you did not make a habit of broadcasting this. If you did, you're quite likely to be a suspect, or worse.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 22, 2024
Mystery storyline was pretty g it ood (gay priest is possibly murdered) but the narrator is kind of obnoxious in this story. Third in a series and I don’t remember him being so bad in previous books.
July 21, 2010
Anything Mark Zubro writes is a good beach book/
February 5, 2012
Good gay mystery about Tom and Scott getting involved in the investigation of the suspicious death of a priest who ministered to the gay community. This one was kind of all over the place...
February 22, 2023
(3.5*) When the only good priest anyone in Tom Mason's circle has ever known is found dead, and the police are unwilling to investigate further, he and Scott are asked to help find the truth. As always, the relationship between Tom and Scott is one of the book's strengths, as is Tom's love and warmth for his family, plus whoever needs his help at the moment. I found myself struggling with the nastiness piled on the lesbians, which unoriginally focused on their ugliness, fatness, and general lack of appeal to men. I hate to break it to you, buddy, but I believe as a general rule lesbians don't care if men find them unattractive. I'm frightened that one of these days Tom's idiocy when it comes to danger is going to wind up with Scott getting hurt, although I'm so intrigued by the new character and it seems he has his own series?! yes plz.
December 6, 2017
I enjoy the early stories this being one
First two centered around school and less sophisticated, don't get me wrong they had twists just like this one. Maybe it was the suspects that were more engaging.
Although I didn't care much for the terrorist aspect, they seemed to have little redeeming qualities .
He tried but they seemed two generic.
The ending. As always was a surprise.
First two centered around school and less sophisticated, don't get me wrong they had twists just like this one. Maybe it was the suspects that were more engaging.
Although I didn't care much for the terrorist aspect, they seemed to have little redeeming qualities .
He tried but they seemed two generic.
The ending. As always was a surprise.
May 31, 2020
Not as good for me as the earlier books.
Tom seemed quite unhinged in this one - TSTL kicking in big time.
Scott was more the voice of reason in most cases.
I did think the handling of a kidnap of a 12yo was not done v realistically by anyone.
And I didn’t feel the murder element was as strong either.
The weather as a character I liked, adding menace at times.
Have the next book already, so hoping to get back to some more ordinary sleuthing.
Tom seemed quite unhinged in this one - TSTL kicking in big time.
Scott was more the voice of reason in most cases.
I did think the handling of a kidnap of a 12yo was not done v realistically by anyone.
And I didn’t feel the murder element was as strong either.
The weather as a character I liked, adding menace at times.
Have the next book already, so hoping to get back to some more ordinary sleuthing.
May 21, 2020
I much prefer the Paul Turner series methinks. DNF @ 72%
March 26, 2024
Good but not the best. A little boring in spots. I do like the main characters. Hopefully the next book will be better and get things more on track.
October 28, 2015
Tom and Scott are once again on the hunt for a murderer and this one has everything but the kitchen sink tossed in.
Scott came out to his family in the last book. He parent are due to arrive from Alabama in few days to meet Tom.
Tom's teachers' union is on strike and, and he has to walk the picket line.
An HIV positive priest who held weekly services for the LGBT community dies. Tom & Scott investigate.
The church and the police both insist it wasn't a murder, cover up the crime and threatened Tom and Scott.
Toss in a radical lesbian hate group, a rent boy, a kidnapping, and a few broken ribs and you have a typical Tom & Scott murder mystery.
Tom and Scott are a couple of crime solving busybodies who happen to be gay and in love. The spotlight is on finding the killer and not on their relationship.
Scott came out to his family in the last book. He parent are due to arrive from Alabama in few days to meet Tom.
Tom's teachers' union is on strike and, and he has to walk the picket line.
An HIV positive priest who held weekly services for the LGBT community dies. Tom & Scott investigate.
The church and the police both insist it wasn't a murder, cover up the crime and threatened Tom and Scott.
Toss in a radical lesbian hate group, a rent boy, a kidnapping, and a few broken ribs and you have a typical Tom & Scott murder mystery.
Tom and Scott are a couple of crime solving busybodies who happen to be gay and in love. The spotlight is on finding the killer and not on their relationship.
May 2, 2021
The judgmental attitude of the main character put me off. This is the third book in a series about a gay couple. So, as the book unfolded and it was apparent that the bad guys were lesbians that were written as misfits driven by their hatred of men, it upset me. It just came across as gay men ridiculing gay women, villainizing them. And, of course, the constant judging of others by the main character did not help matters. I can't help but wonder if Mark Richard Zubro is as prejudiced in his thinking as Tom was in this novel. And, the dynamic duo crusading to correct wrongs in the world gets tiresome very fast.
June 5, 2016
This third book of the series was just OK - definitely not as good as the first two. Too much running around and difficult to keep track of. The best bit was the introduction of Scott's family who had up till now rejected him for his being gay but apparently seem to have come to a reluctant acceptance - maybe we will see more of this relationship in subsequent books.
3 stars
3 stars
November 9, 2012
I really enjoyed this book.
January 7, 2016
There was a lot of running around and characters but it wasn't as enjoyable as the other two books.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews