Without a Prayer

About the Book

Someone stole two million dollars in Mob money from a South Shore, Michigan bank back in 1934—and the payment has come due. It’s 1990 in this picturesque small town when some of its most respectable senior citizens fall victims to murder. Visiting investigative reporter Jerry Hirsch, with the help—and occasional hindrance—of his wife’s family and friends finds himself trying to unravel the mystery behind the senseless killing of his father-in-law. It’s a torturous path for Hirsch, and along the way we’re introduced to a host of vivid characters. There’s Father Vinnie O’Rourke, 95 years old, still performing his parish duties, and Dalton Trumbull, almost as old, the longtime best friend of Weston Powell, the killer’s first victim. We also meet Mitch, the shadowy handyman who lives by overcharging his aged “customers” for home and yard maintenance, and the unforgettable Majorie Powell, whose flights into denial make solving the murders inestimably harder. There’s Mangrum Farnum, 101 years old, who tells anyone within earshot of his career in silent films. "Without a Prayer" is about deceit, revenge and murder. It’s about sibling rivalry between Weston Powell’s three ambitious, successful daughters. It’s about the Kennedy assassination and the role the Mafia may have played in that. It covers survival during the darkest days of the Great Depression, and the interplay and compromise that go on between secret societies in a contemporary Midwestern small town. It is about young love and the promise of better to come from a new generation. "Without a Prayer" is at its core an American saga, a social statement of tremendous universal impact.

About the Author

Dennis Havens, former Las Vegas musician, began writing mystery/suspense novels on breaks between shows. With over a dozen completed works, he is busy on a new book, set in the turbulent, high-stakes world of virtuoso conductors and New York symphonic music in the decade following World War II. Havens now makes his home in Oklahoma City.