Carroll & Graf, New York, 2000, 1^st pr thus.  ISBN 0-7867-0706-2.  MMPB, 278 pages.  Unread copy; impression on rear wrap with lightly tanning pages.  ‘O’Gorman’s dead.  And private eye Joe Quinn is not convinced it was an accident in this crafty tale that takes the down-and-out detective from The Tower, a back-country compound housing a bizarre religious cult, to the backwater towns of southern California.  Quinn may have thought a little religion wouldn’t kill him when he stumbled upon the band of cultists in their secret quarters, but something else might, all because the kindly eccentric Sister Blessing commissioned him to ferret out the whereabouts of the mysterious Patrick O’Gorman.’ (from rear wrap)