The Churchgoer

A Novel

By: Patrick Coleman

Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla

A haunting debut literary noir about a former pastor’s search to find a missing woman in the toxic, contradictory underbelly of southern California.

“He was finished with church, with God, with all of it. But to find the girl, he has to go back.”

In Mark Haines’s former life, he was an evangelical youth pastor, a role model, and a family man—until he abandoned his wife, his daughter, and his beliefs. Now he’s marking time between sunny days surfing and dark nights working security at an industrial complex. His isolation is broken when Cindy, a charming twenty-two-year old drifter he sees hitchhiking on the Pacific Coast Highway, hustles him for a breakfast and a place to crash—two cynical kindred spirits.

Then his co-worker is murdered in a robbery gone wrong and Cindy disappears on the same night. Haines knows he should let it go and return to his safe life of solitude. Instead, he’s driven to find out where Cindy went, under stranger and stranger circumstances. Soon Mark is chasing leads, each one taking him back into a world where his old life came crashing down—into the seedier side of southern California’s drug trade and ultimately into the secrets of an Evangelical megachurch where his past and his future are about to converge. What begins as an investigation becomes a haunting mystery and a psychological journey both for Mark, and for the elusive young stranger he won’t let get away.

Set in the early 2000s, The Churchgoer is a gripping noir, a quiet subversion of the genre, and a powerful meditation on belief, morality, and the nature of evil in contemporary life.

Splendid!

The only disappointment was when the book ended, and I realized I didn’t have another chapter to look forward to. Amazing book!

Not one of my favorites

A little too much for me. Hard to figure out the story line, just could not get into it.

Very Solid

The plot of this book is pretty nuts and bolts. Reformed preacher, now security guard, meets a young woman and gets caught in a tangled web. There are twists and turns. The many anti-religious rants by the main character reminded me of Rust Cohle from True Detective. So I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Nic Pizzolatto would be adapting this as a limited series with Matthew McConaughey as the lead. Here’s to hoping the show is as good as the book!

3 hours of story, 4 hours of anti religion rants

As far as noir stories go, this doesn't do anything new. And the tv show it was going to spawn is canceled now, so there really aren't any winners when it comes to this book.