Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 16: Father Robert Koesler

Bob Koesler is a priest at St. Joseph's in Detroit, and he gets into sleuthing when he helps solve the serial killing of priests and nuns, where the killer leaves each victim with a plain black rosary in their hands. From there, Koesler gets involved in solving crimes that primarily involve clergy or the church, often with the help (wanted or not) of other parish members.

There are over 20 books in this series, and it looks like Koesler ages in something like real time, as he's retired from being an active priest in the last few books. It also looks like the later books tackle some of the issues facing the contemporary Catholic church (maybe earlier books do, too, but in the synopses I read it didn't seem so).

The author, William X. Kienzle, was a laicized Catholic priest who reportedly left the priesthood due to the church's opposition to letting divorced people remarry. His post-clerical work focused on writing and editing, though he did make a foray into movies by adapting his first book, The Rosary Murders, into a film that starred Donald Sutherland as Koesler. Kienzle shared screenwriting credit with fellow Detroiter Elmore Leonard.