A Killing for Christ

by Pete Hamill

"Hamill is better known as one of our greatest chroniclers of New York City. In this, his first novel, rereleased on its 50th anniversary, he goes all hard-boiled noir, telling the story of a disaffected American priest and a plot to kill the pope."
-- The New York Times Book Review, included in Honor Jones's "New & Noteworthy" column "I'm a big fan of Pete Hamill's, and can't think of a finer New York novel than Forever . Somehow I'd missed his first book, A Killing for Christ , and am grateful to Akashic for having brought out this fiftieth anniversary edition. It's a strong tale well told, with compelling and fully realized characters. Hamill has grown as a writer since 1968--it would be remarkable if he had not--but you can glimpse in this first novel the writer he would become."
-- Lawrence Block "This reissue marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of journalist Hamill's first novel...In a new introduction, Hamill comments on the book's influences and what he now considers its primary the loss of faith."
-- Publishers Weekly " A Killing for Christ is steeped in noir sensibility....This is a tense, page-turning thriller that is as pertinent today as it was when it was first published."
-- Shelf Awareness for Readers " A Killing for Christ has a secret agent out of John le Carré and a spoiled priest-her out of Graham Greene, and Pete Hamill created a novel of suspense that is all his own, and that is why he is a Brooklyn treasure."
-- Brooklyn Digest "As a portrait of time and place, A Killing for Christ is perfect... A Killing for Christ is a gem of a literary thriller, alive with the best noir qualities and not at all date. The Akashic 50th anniversary edition should bring a great novel to the attention of a new audience."
-- Nudge-Book Praise for the original 1968 "A Killing for Christ is a fast-paced, topical thriller...Hamill’s prose is stylishly punchy...I would guess that Hamill admires Hemingway, Jimmy Breslin, and Mickey Spillane--not always in that order."
-- New York Times "The Helen Macinnes touch...the Hitchcock air."
-- Philadelphia Inquirer "The style and substance of this first novel owes much to hardboiled, gutsy, private-eye fiction and to a general submersion into obscenity and violence."
-- Kirkus Reviews A secret agent out of John le Carré...a spoiled priest-hero out of Graham Greene...a high-voltage novel of suspense that is Pete Hamill’s own. The man in priest's garb gets out of the elevator at the top floor, leaving the gate ajar. He removes the rifle from under his habit and opens the breech. It's loaded. He closes it and steps to the edge of the roof. St. Peter's Square is spread out before him like a great, colorful lake. There are more people than he has ever seen before. Now the target arrives. The man on top of the building sights down the rifle at the small figure below. His finger is ready on the trigger, ready to gun down His Holiness, the Vicar of Christ...

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Crime

266 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1969

About the author

Pete Hamill was a novelist, essayist and journalist whose career has endured for more than forty years. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. in 1935, the oldest of seven children of immigrants from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Catholic schools as a child. He left school at 16 to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a sheetmetal worker, and then went on to the United States Navy. While serving in the Navy, he completed his high school education. Then, using the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill of Rights, he attended Mexico City College in 1956-1957, studying painting and writing, and later went to Pratt Institute. For several years, he worked as a graphic designer. Then in 1960, he went to work as a reporter for the New York Post. A long career in journalism followed. He has been a columnist for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and New York Newsday, the Village Voice, New York magazine and Esquire. He has served as editor-in-chief of both the Post and the Daily News. As a journalist, he covered wars in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Lebanon and Northern Ireland, and has lived for extended periods in Mexico City, Dublin, Barcelona, San Juan and Rome. From his base in New York he also covered murders, fires, World Series, championship fights and the great domestic disturbances of the 1960s, and wrote extensively on art, jazz, immigration and politics. He witnessed the events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath and wrote about them for the Daily News.

At the same time, Hamill wrote much fiction, including movie and TV scripts. He published nine novels and two collections of short stories. His 1997 novel, Snow in August, was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months. His memoir, A Drinking Life, was on the same New York Times list for 13 weeks. He has published two collections of his journalism (Irrational Ravings and Piecework), an extended essay on journalism called News Is a Verb, a book about the relationship of tools to art, a biographical essay called Why Sinatra Matters, dealing with the music of the late singer and the social forces that made his work unique. In 1999, Harry N. Abrams published his acclaimed book on the Mexican painter Diego Rivera. His novel, Forever, was published by Little, Brown in January 2003 and became a New York Times bestseller. His most recently published novel was North River (2007).

In 2004, he published Downtown: My Manhattan, a non-fiction account of his love affair with New York, and received much critical acclaim. Hamill was the father of two daughters, and has a grandson. He was married to the Japanese journalist, Fukiko Aoki, and they divided their time between New York City and Cuernavaca, Mexico. He was a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.

Author photo by David Shankbone (September 2007) - permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

Reviews

[Chaya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to give this novel a chance, I really did. I made it 81 pages in before giving up. But I did have to give up. As of that page, very close to nothing happened to move the plot forward. This slow-moving novel is very character and atmosphere-driven. There are lot of scenes of characters staring and musing-- Franca stares at the ceiling smoking all day. When she doesn't, she's looking out the window at the ocean and contemplating the meaninglessness of God and her own life. Malloy is equally depressive, with serious PTSD issues from his time in Vietnam.

There's a tremendous sense of claustrophobia in this book, of being locked into small and restrictive spaces. Setting is paramount here. Elements like sticky heat, jaded American women on the cusp of old age, gross tourists, fat gourmands, masturbating hit men, used condoms on the beach -- these are the sensory images presented to the reader without letup. Everything is ugly, dismal, sweaty, dank, depressing, godless, hopeless: the sweaty American woman in the piazza, the garish American woman who bothers Franca, the pictures in Malloy's office.

Malloy is haunted by Vietnam, and that haunting mood carries through the book. This novel is a moody French expressionist film from the 70s put to paper.

[David Cavaco · Rating 3 out of 5]

50th Anniversary of Peter Hamill's debut 1968 novel about a disillusioned Vatican priest who thwarts an assassination plot against the Pope. The characters and the revolutionary atmosphere of 1968 are well developed but the finale climax of the plot feels rushed and incomplete. Still, not a bad read.

[Joanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry to say that this never spoke to me. It's read in a noir detective style that didn't seem to be a good fit with the text, which struck me as more meditative than your typical noir story.

I never connected with any of the characters in this book. The author's forward said that this is a book about faith and the loss of faith, but I didn't ever feel that I understood the characters or their motivations well enough to understand their faith or their struggles. I did like the descriptions of the dark side of Rome that came through.

Overall, the narrator seemed to struggle with this novel. Maybe it's just not a great book.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Setting down a fiddle and picking up a cello" is how acclaimed journalist and writer Pete Hamill (A Drinking Life) describes the difference between his early journalism and this first novel, A Killing for Christ, rereleased to mark the 50th year of its publication. Hamill adds a foreword to this edition, providing context for a remarkably mature debut novel.

The story takes place in Rome, from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. Malloy is an American, a Vietnam vet and a faithless priest. "Perhaps he had come to understand that sin was a celebration," he thinks. He clerks at the Vatican to remove himself from pastoral duties. At night he drives to an apartment by the sea, where his mistress, Franca, waits for him. Meanwhile, a group of cardinals who oppose the politics of the current pope are conspiring to assassinate him. They employ Harwell, a malevolent young man with a rifle, and Rail, a mysterious co-conspirator, to carry out the assassination in front of the huge Easter Sunday audience. When Franca becomes involved with the conspirators, and a man is killed, Malloy trades his fatalism for outrage to become the savior he does not believe in.

A Killing for Christ is steeped in noir sensibility: bleak, sexual and cynical. The disillusionment in each character calls into question the motives of every social entity including, most crucially, religion. This is a tense, page-turning thriller that is as pertinent today as it was when it was first published.

-reviewed for Shelf Awareness 4/10/18

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A KILLING FOR CHRIST written by Pete Hamill.
This is the 50th anniversary edition of Mr. Hamill’s 1968 debut novel, with a new author introduction.
Thank you to Akashic Books for my advance reading copy.
“In early 1968, at the time of ferment over the Vietnam War and the direction of the Catholic Church, a number of disaffected people collide in Rome, including American voluptuary James Rail; Richard Harwell, a rabidly anti-Semitic Jew; and Father Robert Malloy, an Irish priest, and his Italian lover, Franca. Malloy, who travels in high social circles, gets wind of a plot to assassinate the pope. As Easter and the assassination date approach, Malloy begins to understand what is happening, but will he try to prevent it?”
(Publishers Weekly, 2018)
“In a new introduction, Hamill comments on the book’s influences and what he now considers its primary theme: the loss of faith.” (Publishers Weekly, 2018)
The title consists of an Author’s Introduction 2018 and 4 Parts - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday.
While I was impressed with the book, it was the Introduction that I was most interested in. Mr. Hamill writes about the beginnings of the novel - It was to be a thriller. It would take place in Rome. He needed many details, the “sort of details that persuade readers to suspend disbelief. That is, to believe a work of fiction.” “I loved Rome, its sensuality, the sense it exuded of knowing every variety of sin - and forgiveness, too. In Rome, time itself was visible, not an abstraction.”
Mr. Hamill believes that A KILLING FOR CHRIST was “overwhelmingly about the loss of faith. Religious faith, eroded by doubt and disillusion and history.”
A great book - extremely detailed, fast-paced, thrilling to read, a phenomenal sense of place. It brought on a lot of introspection (Hmmmm, what was I doing and thinking in 1968?) and in the present. I know that then (and now) I, like Malloy, am “devastated and plagued by the horrors and fruitlessness of war.”
*****

[Peg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher, Akashic Books, via LibraryThing, for an early review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the 50th Anniversary Edition of Mr. Hamill's debut novel and has a new author introduction. Since I had never read anything by him, I was anxious to see what kind of a writer he is. The publicity stated this was a fast-paced thriller but I can't agree. I thought it moved slowly and was not suspenseful. There were no likable characters, the settings were mediocre and the content was dated because it was first published in 1968.

In his introduction, Hamill's says he now considers the primary theme of this novel to be loss of faith. It's about a Catholic priest named Malloy, working in the Vatican and suffering from PTSD from serving in Vietnam. He suffers from flashbacks while just putting in his time working and living/sleeping with a young Italian woman who has problems of her own. He discovers a plot to assassinate the Pope on Easter Sunday. The characters involved in the assassination plot are boring and disgusting as they try to get their act together to accomplish their task. It seemed as though every paragraph reminded us of how hot, sticky, and sweaty the weather in Rome was during the days leading up to Easter Sunday.

I doubt that I will read any of Mr. Hamill's other novels but I am sure that, over the years, his writing and story lines have improved.

[Gordon Paisley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was Hamill’s first novel, originally published in 1968 and now being re-released for its 50th anniversary. I guess publishers don’t get this kind of opportunity very often—to release a 50th-anniversary edition while the author is still alive—because there doesn’t seem to be any better reason to republish this painfully-dated novel.

In places, Hamill’s prose reads like he just escaped from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and raced to write down some thoughts and phrases before he forgot them. The descriptions feel like he is exercising a newly-discovered muscle on elements that don’t gain from a poetic description. In fact, the language just jars against the raw, unpolished, stream of consciousness thoughts that we get from several of the characters.

The story is ostensibly about a plan to assassinate the Pope on Easter Sunday. In actuality, it is Hamill’s unsubstantiated rant against the Catholic Church. The main character, a cynical American priest working in the Vatican (cleverly named Malloy) is disillusioned about just about everything, with only some vague references to the then-raging Vietnam war and his experience there as a chaplain to explain his beliefs and actions. Malloy is already a lost cause when we meet him, and he doesn’t seem to mind—he doesn’t really wrestle with anything in life, he merely endures it.
The characters are flat, the storyline is now lost in a sea of assassination stories—this is not The Day of the Jackal—by a long shot, and the descriptive details seem misplaced and pointless. Comparisons to John le Carre are a stretch at best and an insult to le Carre at worst.

If you hate the Catholic Church or want to, then you’ll probably enjoy this book. For the rest of us or those who want a thoughtful exploration of how one can lose their faith—Hamill’s ostensible theme for the book—we’ll have to look elsewhere for an intelligent or even entertaining read.

[Anne, Unfinished Woman · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this is a fast-paced thriller, it is mainly a study of character, especially that of a fallen priest who no longer believes, the terrified mind of a glutton and the twisted mind of a mentally disturbed killer. The language falls into near obscenity and was a stretch for my usually open mind, and I had a hard time getting through it even though I wanted to know what happens. The minds of the individual characters are explored as they move toward the heinous act for which they have been recruited. Religious beliefs are at the center of their thoughts, a driving factor, and strong, perverse sexual and torture references abound in their thinking and justifications. These are people with no redeeming qualities, for the most part. They justify their behavior in fanatical or hopeless ways. Catholic Church corruption is rampant, and we are a long way from the current behavior of pedophilia in this story. I would say it is a reinforcement of many of my views of Catholicism, but it is always difficult to view an institution such as this with such depravity, intolerance or need for power. As an example of hard-boiled PI writing it may have merit, but I failed to experience the sense of a satisfying read. Summed up: Cardinal Maladotti "mad on sin and God", the "perfidy of the Jews".

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

A real stinker. The plot sounded intriguing. It was supposed to be about an assassination attempt on the Pope. Except that the plot only occupied a miniscule part of the book. The rest was mainly an excuse for the author to use derogatory terms for every ethnic group on earth and to incorporate sex into every paragraph. No characters had socially redeeming qualities. You’d think Italy was a totally depraved country, with all its citizens sweaty, or violent, or over-sexed. The writing style varied from short, choppy sentences (like Hemingway) to lengthy paragraph-long sentences that used as many adjectives as possible to describe how seedy everything was. One paragraph was four and a half pages. He seemed desperate to sound arty. An example: “Gone, taking the warmth, wet mouth, laced limbs, hair, impenetrable silence, the ice within, and the roar of the sea. And leaving him in the sea-dark room with the implements of her perverse benedictions and the drying taste of her wafered flesh and the memory of her face gone made and her sudden, furious, wild, and ungiving lust.”

I only finished reading it because a) it was only 271 page to begin with; b) I was too lazy to get up from the recliner to get a different book; and c) you could speed-read it without worrying about missing anything because there was so little plot substance to begin with.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to thank the Goodreads giveaway program and Akashic Books for the opportunity to read this novel.

With a Killing for Christ, we have a Priest who has lost faith in his religion and himself. We also have a crazed assassin, as well as a few other characters coming in and out of the story, which revolves around a conspiracy to assassinate the Pope.
I will come right out and say that the novel does not age well. It was first published in 1968, and at the time, it might have been the thriller to read but now not so much. Think of it this way, The Day of the Jackal came out just a few years later and turned this genre on its head.
Some of the writing in the novel is very good, and at other times, it is rather jumbled. The suspenseful part of the novel does not happen until the last 30 odd pages.
I am going to have to find and read something else by the author to see how he evolved, but this book really did not do it for me.

[Daniel Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Hamil’s first novel. I have read his other books before. You can see his emerging style on the book such as his amazing back story that he provides for his characters. In his later books he does this exquisitely as he weaves them into the story. In this book it is uneven but still compelling. The story is amazingly prescient as he deals with the role of religion and its effects on society. My opinion is it is more about that then being a thriller. If you have not read Hamil idon’t start with this book. Read Snow in August or a Drinking Man’s Life.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a year ago I read a tender and unusual book, North River, by Pete Hamill, and wanted to read more. BOY this was NOT like that. This was his first novel, published in the late 1960s, after years as a journalist. It's a hard-boiled page turner with evil on every page, and a conspiracy to kill the Pope.

Would have made a good movie. I was casting it in my head while I read it. Goodreads ate my review just now, but I can't write it all over again...

[Eileen Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pete Hamill is one of my favorite authors. In memory of his passing I read this, his first novel, and was not disappointed. Hints of his talent in storytelling are evident throughout the work. As in the novels to follow, we meet memorable characters. His is a great loss for the literary world.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe this was Mr. Hamill's first novel and I must say it was harsh and riveting. A plot to assassinate the Pope on Easter is the premise. The characters are all troubled souls, Fr. Molloy and his lady, Franca, friend Frank, and a whole cast of others involved in this suspense.

[Dan Leblanc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This thriller is the author's guide about the values of the Catholic faith and the political views within the Vatican.

[Katharine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even now I can barely remember a single thing that happened. So slow and lacking in engagement for me.

[Craigtator · Rating 2 out of 5]

A languid, dissolute Day of the Jackal

[Jerry Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hemingwayesque
Is that good or bad?
Well how do you like Hemingway?

I loved it.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing.

[Thomas Driver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore Pete Hamill, but this initial effort has obvious flaws in it's narrative.

[Mary jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[h kiai · Rating 3 out of 5]

a slow pace story about the plot to kill the pope. beautiful writing. poetry.

[Jason McCracken]

15%. Couldn't get into it at all. The plot goes nowhere and it's horribly overwritten but one day I may come back and give it a second chance.