Death in the Shadows

McCusker, Paul. Death in the Shadows. Oxford: Lion Fiction, 2016.

Father Gilbert is attending a church conference. He becomes involved in an investigation led by his friend and former law enforcement colleague Detective Inspector Gwynn. A prostitute was murdered, and one of the suspects is a fellow clergyman. The area is saturated with "spas" offering under the table services. I was uncomfortable reading this book. Lion Fiction has published some of the better written Christian fiction. However, I do not think many Christian readers will be comfortable reading about sexual slavery. I think even fewer of them want a sleuthing priest to make a call requesting services even if he is only investigating and does not engage the young woman for her services. The book is well-written, but it is far outside my comfort zone. I considered abandoning it. This review is based on an advance readers copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.

Remarriage after Divorce Was Not an Option

I've been studying many of Mississippi's laws that affect our research as genealogists. Sargent's Code, the earliest collection of laws dating back to 1799 in the Territorial Period of the state's history is not freely available online. However, an 1807 version of The Statues of the Mississippi Territory is available at Google Books.

In today's culture and society, remarriage after a divorce is pretty commonplace, but in the early days of Mississippi's existence, it was not permitted. Chapter 13, section 4 of this code reads:

And be it further enacted, That divorces from the bond of matrimony shall also be decreed, where either of the parties had another wife or husband, living at the time of such second or other marriages : and that all marriages, where either of the parties shall have a former wife or husband living, at the time of such marriage, shall be invalid from the beginning, and absolutely void.