Rumor of a list of Catholic Churches in the Chicago area that are scheduled to be closed due to reduced attendance and Archdiocese budget cuts has reached Father Dowling’s community. The seniors in the St. Hilary Parish react with anger and organize to fight the possible closure of their beloved Church.
In addition to the seniors the wealthy Devere family do not want to see the church torn down and the valuable stained glass windows they donated to the church sent to another church. Many of the family’s members have been buried in this church as well.
But before the Deveres can put up much of a fight some of their current members are murdered. The first body is that of a young woman, unrelated to the family. On investigation we discover that she was hung in the garage of an artist friend of Susan Devere. Next, an old man who planned an elaborate book of pictures of the famous stained glass windows created by a famous local artist was killed. He was being funded from the Devere millions and had apparently managed to take quite a lot of money for little results.
Then the owner of the publishing company that was to publish the picture book was found slumped over her desk having been strangled to death.
The police manage to track down a man they think was the killer. No less than six people swear they saw him. Then they find that the man is a twin of another man who recently was released from prison. Then they find that the twins are sons of the famous artist who created the stained glass window.
It’s all pretty complicated but Father Dowling manages to work it out in the end. And, by the way, St. Hilary is spared from the chopping block.
“Stained Glass” gets a 6 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
