2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

The subject matter of this story was certainly disturbing. Your thoughts?

If Father Keller was the killer, and it seems that he was, how did the system miss that he had real psychological problems from his childhood in the discernment period before men take the priesthood? Even in 2006, I would have expected him to realize his childhood issues were debilitating. On the other hand, being a woman, perhaps I've been conditioned to think about things like this more than he was.

Of course, the fact that these boys were not sexually molested would not have led to suspicions about a priest. His motives of transferring his childhood lack of a positive father figure to single-mother boys is truly disturbing because it did not seem to be detectable, until Maggie appeared with her profiling skills.

Maggie pulled it all together and once they verified they had a serial killer on the loose, she should have had a team dispatched to help, especially when they discovered the crimes in Maine. Once it was multi-state, it becomes under the control of the FBI. BIG plot hole here.

I don't find it so strange that Father Keller's psychological makeup wasn't examined to closely in the seminary. These are the same institutions that allowed pedophile priests to pray on children for decades. Nothing surprises me anymore.

I'm no expert on the rites of the seminary though I'm married to a Catholic. As you say, Lauren, we have contemporary evidence that there was no screening for these type proclivities or they were ignored.

As I reflect more on this book, it was truly chilling to see the Jekyl and Hyde personality of the priest who seemed so effective in youth work that he ought to have been fulfilled by taking a "fatherly" role toward these boys, rather than donning a savior complex for the boys that manifested itself in murder.

I would wonder if I, as a mother of a young boy in one of his congregations, wouldn't have sensed his underlying rage somehow. Of course, I'm giving myself much more credit than might happen in real life circumstances. Again, truly chilling criminal mind here. How did the lust for killing rise up? The killing itself had to gratify some unspeakable need.

I think he truly had two natures. Children often seem to have a sixth sense about evil and none of them felt uncomfortable with Keller until he went through a transformation. I'm not sure what his triggers were to stimulate that murder lust.

I have a hard time reading about bad things happening to children. This was a difficult subject and I did a lot of skimming.
At prologue, I was like, "uhoh."

I'm not sure if this is the last question so I just want to say that I have been wanting to read Alex Kava for a long time and thought this was the perfect opportunity to start. I will continue with the series, which I'm told does get better with different subject matters.

One more, MsG! See Question Q. Also, if you click on the folder list and then click the "topic" column, it will arrange the questions in alpha order for you. I switched from using #'s because it would put 11 before 2:)

MsG wrote: "I have a hard time reading about bad things happening to children. This was a difficult subject and I did a lot of skimming.
At prologue, I was like, "uhoh.""

I do, too!!! I had to put the book away at times because I just couldn't handle it. I was grateful the book didn't go into too much graphic detail.

Jonetta wrote: "One more, MsG! See Question Q. Also, if you click on the folder list and then click the "topic" column, it will arrange the questions in alpha order for you. I switched from using #'s because it wo..."

Thanks!

For me it wouldn't have been so disturbing if they hadn't described what was done to the boys. It was hard to process someone doing that to a kid. Know that a priest was doing to children that trusted him made it worse.

Don't you wonder if the author was tracking some of the disturbing stories beginning to emerge at that time about priests molesting children.

You'd think she would have done some research, but none of the boys were molested.

I'm thinking, and hoping, that this kind of non-pedophile murder of kids by a priest would be almost non-existent in the real world.

As we learned, perhaps two decades ago [at least], some church leaders hid the horrific abuses of children and lost the trust of members and non-members alike.

As I wrote this, I just realized that survivors of any abuse as a child should also be viewed as a form of PTSD. A "duh" moment for me....

Lauren wrote: "I don't find it so strange that Father Keller's psychological makeup wasn't examined to closely in the seminary. These are the same institutions that allowed pedophile priests to pray on children f..."

Lauren my thoughts exactly! I thought this way throughout the book.