What Does Abuse Do To A Child's Mind? (Predators & Prayers - Philip Caro)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Predators & Prayers - Philip Caro
Date:	01/10/06 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A brilliantly exciting read, likeable characters

Disadvantages: The subject matter will leave you with a nasty taste in your mouth, the final few pages

The recent instances of sexual abuse by Catholic priests has been thrust into the limelight in Philip Carlo’s Predators & Prayers, whether the Vatican likes it or not. Notorious at protecting their own, I can imagine a few raised eyebrows among the Catholic community if they happen to read this tale of a man whose life was blighted by abuse he suffered in a church orphanage.

Predators & Prayers is a fiction novel, but it’s very relevant to today’s real life views regarding paedophiles within the church ranks.

Frank Coogan is a killer of priests. He meticulously plans their murders and leaves the bodies arranged in macabre positions, first in New York and then Italy. His first couple of murders are described in detail within the first few pages of the book and I felt revulsion that a man could kill ‘innocent’ Catholic priests in such a violent and despicable manner. This revulsion soon changed to a feeling of disbelief when it became clear that Frank had been severely sexually and physically abused by the priests charged with looking after him during his years in the orphanage.

This murderous revenge was brought on by his memories of the abuse, and also the fact that the church as a whole were more likely to offer sexual abuse victims vast sums of money rather than hold up their hands and admit to the problem of child abusers who have gone into the priesthood. Frank himself is distraught about his past, despite being a fantastically beautiful man he has never been able to forge a carnal relationship with either sex because the years of abuse has robbed him of any sexual identity. So he sets about on a series of murders designed to bring him close to the pope, who he also intends to kill in full public view of his adoring flock.

Captain Tony Flynn and District Attorney Carole Cunningham are responsible for bringing this murderer to justice, although Frank leads them a merry dance through the US and Italy seeming to be within striking distance at all times but always that one small step ahead.

This novel amazed me. Philip Carlo is obviously extremely passionate about this subject and this comes across well in his writing, his observations on the Catholic Church as a whole and the abuse scandals seem honest and written from his heart rather than his head. I was torn between loathing Frank Coogan purely because of the evil acts he inflicted on the priests and feeling immensely sorry for him as I pictured the small boy cowering in his room as a man of the cloth subjected him to prolonged sexual abuse. Is it possible to feel empathy for a serial killer, regardless of his motive? I believe so. Although the murderer seemed to be in full control of his mental state, it became obvious as I read further into the book that the treatment he received as a child shaped his actions as an adult.

Every person in the book had something to add to the storyline, with each character being meticulously shaped to fit with the perceptions of people both inside and outside of the Catholic Church. There are no stereotypes used - Carlo isn’t stating in this book that all priests are abusers, nor is he implying that every child brought up in an orphanage during the 1960’s and 1970’s was abused. As an author he’s done a public service in my opinion as I’ve long been aware of the dangers of paedophile priests but this novel has reinforced my views that while parts of the church want to stamp out this disgusting behaviour, a certain section merely wants the accusations swept under the carpet.

This wasn’t an easy book to read. While Carlo doesn’t describe elements of child abuse in sordid detail, I found it difficult to concentrate on other aspects of the storyline because every maternal bone in my body was screaming at the implications of what had happened to the boy Frank Coogan to create such a monster. The subject matter is hard hitting and one of the very few remaining taboos in modern society – that a religious man would even contemplate sodomising a small boy. Sorry to be so blunt but this is the basic backbone of this novel and I feel I’d be doing the author a massive injustice to gloss over the fact that while Frank is a fictional character, much of his story really has happened to children throughout the Western world and beyond.

The only criticism I have about Predators & Prayers is the fact that the final ten pages or so seemed very rushed and disjointed. The rest of the book runs at a very fast pace with clever chapter work which means the story is being told through the eyes and emotions of several different characters. But when you get to the end of the book it’s like Carlo has realised he has several loose ends to tie up and his deadline is tomorrow! The last few chapters of the book are just one page long and rather than actually tying up the loose ends it just makes the novel seem messy – I’d have much preferred the book to lose those final ten pages and leave the future of the various characters to my imagination.

All in all I really enjoyed Predators & Prayers. It was an interesting insight into the mind of a serial killer, and also opened my eyes to the despicable acts of some of the men who claim to have our children’s best interests at heart. But have they?

You can buy a copy from Amazon for £3.67 which is brilliant value considering you're buying a stonkingly exciting 370 novel which will keep you reading until the early hours.

Publisher: Leisure Books
ISBN: 0843955767

Summary: A novel of many emotions.