Prayer by Philip Kerr
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Blurb: Special Agent Gil Martins investigates domestic terrorism for the Houston FBI. He is a religious man who is close to losing his faith; the very nature of his job has led him to question the existence of a God who could allow the things that Gil sees every day. But Gil’s wife Ruth doesn’t see things the same way and his crisis of faith provokes a fracture in their marriage. Gil’s world is breaking apart. At the same time, Gil starts to investigate a series of unexplained deaths that bring this crisis of faith into uncomfortable focus.
When Esther, a disturbed woman, informs Gil that these men have been killed by prayer, Gil questions her sanity. But as the evidence mounts up that there might be something in what she says, his new-found atheism is severely challenged, more so as he finds his own life is next on the line. (Quercus, 2013)
Kate Saunders, The Times
“The story unfolds at a white-knuckle pace, with a sense of the unknown that is genuinely disturbing.”
John O’Connell, The Guardian
“As fans of his Berlin-set Bernie Gunther novels will know, Kerr is a details man. His deep-level research brings Houston and its environs to dusty, sun-bleached life. Martins’ narration, too, is deftly handled – Prayer demands to be read more than once. A shame, then, that the Amityville-style theatrics which, um, bedevil the last act should resemble bad CGI – too weightless and literal to be as scary as Kerr needs them to be.”
John Dugdale, The Sunday Times
“Prayer is two books for the price of one, an orthodox thriller (albeit with Dan Brownish touches) and a Stephen King-style paranormal horror; but the suddenness of the change in mood and genre after the move south makes it a novel with a split personality, lacking Kerr’s usual craftsmanship and confidence.”
Alison Flood, The Guardian
“The story is too slow-moving; a sermon lasts for almost four pages. And then there’s that sex scene, in which Martins describes himself, unerotically, as “one who had almost forgotten what it was like to cleave unto a woman”. Pants become “delicate shackles”, there is talk of “the most intimate flesh”, and an “impudent tongue”, and – bearing in mind that all this sex is taking place as the characters face an impossible horror – speculation that “a shrink might have suggested I was trying to hide myself inside her in some Oedipal way”. Bring on the shortlists for the Bad Sex award: this must be a leading contender.”
Jessica Mann, Literary Review
“ The ostentatious religiosity described is so alien to most people in Britain (and certainly to me) that reading Kerr’s pessimistic melodrama produced in me not so much interest as a kind of disgust.”
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