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Necessary Evil

Aaron Baker Cole
iUniverse, Inc. (2005)
ISBN 9780595358991
Reviewed by Mary Durfor for RebeccasReads (12/08)

From the haunting Acknowledgment and the heart-felt Author’s Note that begin this novel, the reader is immediately captivated by the writer and thrust into Billy Ray Hawkins’ young life.  Its Billy Ray’s painful but useful lack of certain moral fiber which allows him to carefully plan and execute the demise of his abusive stepfather.  Billy had had an early and very close relationship with his deceased father, who had provided hours of lessons regarding such things as how a pendulum really works, and by age fourteen Billy had become quite proficient in putting these lessons to practical (albeit lethal) use. With a complicated plan involving a swing on the giant live oak tree in the yard at their house on the bayou, and an alligator named Joshua, the stepfather was soon dispatched.

Billy’s long and complicated relationship with his “soul mate,” Jenna, begins when they are school chums.  Their true psychic connection leads him to always show up at the right moment and “save” her in adverse or painful situations.  Jenna can always sense when something is not quite right with Billy or his life. She becomes a medical student, and she endures visits by the dark, vaporous overwhelming presence of Billy, crowding her mind, leaving the feeling of invasion behind.

As a seminary student, Billy is haunted by the deviant sexual and especially pedophilic activities of an alarming number of priests, bishops, and even an arch-bishop, all of whom are handled in the same way by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church:  reorientation training, and payoffs to the innocent victims’ families, with reassignment to another parish, another school, a different state, always moving them, hiding their transgressions, never disclosing any of the pain and suffering caused by their actions. 

Billy’s close professional relationship with the Monsignor of the seminary, Monsignor Montalvo, began his long and torturous slide down the slippery slope of seeking revenge, meeting out punishment to the priests with prurient pasts and presents, always making sure he had a moment to let them realize why they had to die, and leaving a rosary to symbolize the Catholic Church’s mentality of Get Out Of Hell Free cards, the practice of confession, request for absolution, penance to be performed, and eventual complete forgiveness of the act, no matter how horrendous it was.  Billy descended into that place where he needed to cleanse his own mind of the detritus remaining after each termination episode, as he recognized the beginnings of the sensations of power and invulnerability.

The author has an expert knowledge of church workings, FBI proceedings and work practices, as well as those of local police forces in large cities around the country.  His crisp yet warm characterizations of the players lead the reader into the desired storyline instantly.  The introduction of Brother Miguel, a quiet, computer-savvy seminary student with some of the same fury at the deviant priest-handling history as Billy and Monsignor Montalvo, brings the reader even closer to the pain that is driving these good men to contemplate and execute terrible actions to attempt to right terrible wrongs.  Along with the author, Detective Janss, all of the members of Task Force 20, and the concerned priests, I too became a partner as I read this book in this attempt to rid the world of a system that fostered and indeed helped the pedophile priests expand and grow.  The lifelong purpose of the Monsignor, Billy, and Brother Miguel was to improve the priest-candidate vetting process, to no avail, at least throughout the reading of this excellent book.  I hope that the process has since improved, with psychological testing and evaluation, as well as extensive background searches, so that the priesthood might improve and all children everywhere can hope to be safe, at least while in God’s house, in the care of the priests who have vowed to serve. 

I recommend this book to anyone who loves crime novels, church intrigue, and who would like, at least for the time reading, to be a part of a crusade to rid the world of systems which allow and foster evil in any incarnation.

    

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