Authors: Ray Mouton
This book is more than a novel. It’s a testament to one of the most harrowing problems of our time. It’s the story of one man’s crusade to bring justice to the victims of child abuse. And it’s a journey through the dark corridors of the oldest, richest, most powerful religious institution on earth: the Roman Catholic Church.
Louisiana, 1984: a promising young Catholic lawyer named Renon Chattelrault agrees to defend the first ever priest to be charged with the sexual abuse of children. He knows it will be controversial. Most men would stand aside. But Chattelrault is not most men.
With the evidence he has gathered during the defence of a man he abhors, he mounts a crusade to expose the vast conspiracy that goes to the very foundation of the Catholic Church. A conspiracy which has allowed those priests who have abused children to continue committing those crimes. For years, Chattelrault lives and breathes a fight for justice that will cost him everything he has.
This is an astonishing story about one of the great scandals of our time, and one man’s epic efforts to put things right.
“This novel succeeds in winning the reader’s trust by creating characters who accompany us on a journey into dark places, and as a thriller this novel effortlessly ranks on par with the best John Grisham has to offer. Only one book has been written by the ultimate insider, and this book is by Ray Mouton.”
DR EAMONN O’NEILL
“One of the most astonishing stories I’d ever heard… A story about violence, cynicism, and corruption that started in a tiny country church in Southern Louisiana and wound its way up through bishops and cardinals until it finally reached the top of the Catholic hierarchy, at the Vatican in Rome… Although fictional, [this] rings true in virtually every detail.”
HELEN MALMGREN,
CBS 60 MINUTES
“Mouton’s eyes still burn with a passionate anger as he talks about how he defended the first Roman Catholic priest to stand trial for child abuse. A historic case, it would open the floodgates for the scandals that have since ravaged the Catholic Church [and] would test Mouton’s belief in the justice system to the limit.”
THE SCOTSMAN MAGAZINE
“Mouton looms as an important early figure in the history of the pedophilia plague that’s ravaged the Catholic Church… [He] wrote a 1985 report that warned of what would befall the church if it did not heal itself… The men implored the church to make a new covenant with the faithful. Mouton and his two priests were pushing more sunlight than a church hierarchy steeped in shadows was ready to let in.”
THE WASHINGTON POST
First published in the UK in 2012 by Head of Zeus, Ltd.
Copyright © Ray Mouton, 2012
The moral right of Ray Mouton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB): 9781908800060
ISBN (TPB): 9781908800077
ISBN (E): 9781908800954
Printed in Germany.
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45–47 Clerkenwell Street
London EC1R 0HT