Extreme Unction: A Lupa Schwartz Mystery

By J. David Core

When an autopsy finds traces of the banned insecticide Chlordane in the anointing oil on the corpse of a local big-wig, Pittsburgh police bring Lupa Schwartz, an outspoken non-believer, into an investigation focused on a well-liked local clergyman. Worried that the police are planning to use him as a political fall-guy, Schwartz coerces Cattleya Hoskin, a magazine reporter with a connection to his family's past, to chronicle his process and squelch any misgiving that his atheist world-view influenced the outcome. Suspicion in the case is focused on Fr. Coneely, an outspoken euthanasia advocate who had earlier made the mistake of telling the family of the now-dead man that, hypothetically, he could safely apply poison-laden oil to their suffering father during last rites, and nobody need be the wiser. Was Mr. Hanson the willing victim of a mercy killing, or was a lapsing insurance policy the real motive for one of Hanson's five children to taint the oil?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514284103
• ISBN13: 9781514284100
• Release Date: May 2013
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"