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ISBN 0-75968-154-6

ABOUT THE BOOK!

News reports of Brazilian death squads prompted the question: What if villainous businessmen execute a plan to recruit preadolescent boys from among Brazil's homeless children, smuggle them into the United States, and sell them to rich pedophiles? THE PEDOPHILE MURDERS is an adult, 87,500-word, contemporary, crime/mystery/love story that provides a fictional answer to this question.                      

Pat Shannon, a New Orleans attorney-investigator, accepts two new clients, a priest and a nun, who have no knowledge of each other and who need the lawyer's assistance for different reasons. Father John Mulligan requests Pat to assist in finding a missing brother, a mentally ill man who also suffers from the disease of pedophilia. Sister Mary Margaret asks Pat to help identify the body of a murdered child, whom the nun believes is her missing brother from Brazil. She also requests the lawyer's assistance in securing American citizenship after she demits from Holy Orders.

The lawyer uncovers the New Orleans, Colonna crime family smuggling Brazilian street children into the United States and selling them to pedophiles. Niccola Gabrini and Thomas Stuart run the pedophile operation in the States. In Brazil, Captain Jose Porfirio, a policeman, and Piranhas, a bronze-skinned orphan from the jungles, recruit and train the street children. One of the American pedophiles is sadistic and slaughters his victims, one of whom is the nun's brother. Pat's investigation propels him into the New Orleans underworld and places him in conflict with the crime family.

As the story unfolds, the lawyer and former nun fall in love. Their plans for marriage are interrupted by Gabrini's attempt to assassinate Pat on the steps of Saint Louis Cathedral. While Pat lingers between life and death, the nun thinks her decision to demit Holy Orders may have contributed to this disturbing turn of events. THE PEDOPHILE MURDERS IS NEWSWORTHY because the book focuses on the problem of Brazilian death squads, which has been in the public news rather often, and because someone needs to personalize this tragic view of the conflicts between good and evil behavior. Other than this high-sounding statement of worthiness, the story is entertaining and suspenseful. The book's romantic element shows how people can find some measure of happiness even in the midst of terrible circumstances. Like the saying: "It ain't over till it's over."