Story of Guatemalan bishop’s murder is a true tale of intrigue – book review of “The Art of Political Murder”

“Two days after the report’s publication, the prelate was bludgeoned to death in his church garage, an act of political murder that horrified the Americas. It also riveted Goldman, a novelist who was baptized in San Sebastian Cathedral, where the bishop’s blood was tracked heedlessly in the crush of officials who contaminated the crime scene.

Goldman persuaded The New Yorker to let him cover this killing, which swallowed eight years and led to his first nonfiction book. “The Art of Political Murder” compels us partly because it swings a door open onto the working guts of state-sanctioned violence.

Forget the faux intrigue of “The Da Vinci Code.” Here is a real tale of church machinations and government corruption. If, like me, you have not given the Tennessee-size nation an hour of your attention, “The Art of Political Murder” is reason to start.”

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