Prayer by Philip Kerr

Contrasting human brutality with our ability to rationalise and understand the complexities of a life lived weaving amongst religious belief, Philip Kerr’s Prayer is the story of a crisis of faith hampered by the serial killing of several highly influential atheists.

Relayed in the first person, Special Agent Gil Martins concertinas through various emotional states for the duration, mirroring his mental state in the wake of his marriage breaking down. However, his character lacks depth, feeling two-dimensinal throughout.

On the whole, Kerr only skims the surface of the big issues. Although the question of divine law versus human law has been thoroughly researched – and all but fully referenced – it lacks any sort of pathos, digressing more into the realms of esoteric gospel.

The contrastive nature of the book also falls short, becoming egalitarian and blunted, falling back on surface-scratching pop-psychology, that curbs any coherent line of discourse on the abandonment of faith. However, Prayer does have some redeeming qualities, mainly that it reads like a good 'monster of the week' episode from the second or third season of The X-Files, which is hard to argue with.