Crusaders

I've just begun reading a new novel; Crusaders by Richard T. Kelly (Faber, 2008). I note it here as an interesting, if uncommon, example of a novel with a clergyman as a central character. One thinks immediately of the various priests and ex-priests in David Lodge, but the recent portrayals of Anglicans are I think few.

I shall reserve any comment on it until I've finished reading it. There are in the meantime some reviews available online: in the TLS, Times and Sunday Times, two of which cast doubt on the strength of the characterisation of the priest, John Gore; and a very negative Adam Mars-Jones in the Guardian.