Bloody Hell: The Novel

by Jean Michael

Catching up with Facebook news and gossip, a young man learns of reports of criminal acts of priests at the parrish in his old Queens neighborhood. The breaking of glass and raucous laughter he heard one night in passing between the church and rectory, twenty years ago, signaled nights of debauchery involving priests and adolescent boys. Hooking up with an old friend stirs searing memories of abuse, physical and psychological. He finds that his mother who has had a stroke, is now in a pastoral relationship with a young priest at the church in question. When he asks if she has seen the reports, she responds in the negative but mentions decades old rumors about ahandsome,
blond priest involving sleepovers at the rectory, and his purchase of a house for the purpose of rehabilitating either alcoholic or pedophillic priests in the neighborhood. When the son asks what happened to this priest, the mother says he’s still here.

Hooking up with old friends soon plunges the man into a nightmare of pervasive and pain. suicide of another friend from childhood begins to make sense.

Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2022