Author David Carlson has released the ninth book in his Christopher Worthy-Father Fortis mystery series, “Lambs to the Slaughter.”
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The past always catches up.
That’s the lesson the characters in “Lambs to the Slaughter” struggle with throughout the novel. The ninth novel in Carlson’s Father Fortis and Christopher Worthy mystery series takes readers back to the first book, looping around with new aspects of an old mystery.
Carlson is a professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at Franklin College. He has been crafting mysteries around Worthy, a highly decorated detective who is tortured by his inability to solve the one mystery that means the most to him, and Fortis, a Greek Orthodox monk, since he wrote their debut in 1995.
Though that first book wasn’t published until 2016, Carlson has continued to put the pair at the center of unique and mind-bending mysteries.
The most recent is one of the most unique. Here’s what Carlson had to say about it:
What was the idea behind this book?
A: I think the title gives a hint — lambs to the slaughter. It’s really kind of a different experience for my main detective, Christopher Worthy. Through the series, he’s been pretty smart. He can solve things, but the first one in the series was written in the wake of a case that he had solved, that had brought him a lot of attention in the media, but he goes home that night, and his wife asks for a divorce. A little while later, his daughter runs away for three months, and so that’s sort of in the background for the whole series.
How did Worthy’s initial issues connect to this novel?
A: So (Worthy) is nine years down the road. He’s gotten remarried. He’s in Rome, living with his new wife. That first case that brought him such attention, but also was so painful, is under appeal, and the person that he sent away, he’s a very smart guy who spent his whole decade in prison going over his case and found a weakness in the toxicology screening. The dating on that has been crossed out and changed, and the correction was never explained in the murder file, as you expect, and unfortunately, the pathologist who did the screening has died in the in the meantime. So Worthy is being dragged back to the most painful time in his life. He’s being called back in to defend his whole reputation. He’s dragged back into this time, and as the title sort of suggests he can’t really save himself here. He’s at the mercy of others helping him.
How does it lead to Father Fortis?
A: The second piece of this story is where he is involved in. He sees a young woman at the monastery on this morning walk who’s looking very distraught. She eventually makes contact with him, and he’s brought into a case where this young woman’s younger sister is in prison on a murder charge for having killed a drug lord. She was she was so out of it, drug wise, that she doesn’t remember anything, but her prints are on the gun. She has gun residue on her on her sleeve. There’s an eyewitness that says she did it, and she’s sort of given up. So Father Fortis is just uncomfortable with the case. She’s a second figure in the story who’s really at the mercy of others to help her.
What brings the two sides together?
A: That’s really the theme of this mystery, that idea of lambs to the slaughter. This woman could be innocent and Worthy could be innocent of any wrongdoing in the past, but they are at the mercy of other people to help them. … So it’s that kind of story which you see both these characters doing what they can, but really you’re looking at supporting characters who care about them and begin to try to determine what really went on in these two cases. It’s kind of a double mystery in that way.
What was it like for you revisiting this character at that time in his life, while you revisiting that time you wrote the initial novel?
A: I started this series, because there was some difficult issues in my extended family of origin, and I had some people were really struggling with things. I had counseling background, but I just was unable to help. So the impetus was to create a character, in this case, Christopher Worthy, who also is sort of stuck, unable to solve something, why his wife asked for a divorce and why his daughter ran away. So that’s why I began the series, just to create a character who would sort of embody my own I wish that I could help but I couldn’t. So I think you’re right. I returned. I returned to that myself.
What has it been like crafting the world of these mysteries?
A: It’s meant a lot to me to to have a sort of another world that I can go into. I respect these two characters as people who, on the one hand, have to be somewhat consistent with who they’ve been in the past, but the other hand, like any friendship, you have to let them grow, let them develop. I just know my characters. I know the crime. I trust them to get me to the end.
AT A GLANCE
“Lambs to the Slaughter”
Author: David Carlson
Synopsis: The ninth book in the Christopher Worthy-Father Fortis mystery series, bring past events back into focus for main characters.
Where to purchase: davidccarlson.net
