The Father Luke Wolfe Trilogy

""Hey Father, what’s going on? Are you getting mixed up in another murder?”"

- Tony Santos, Zero Tolerance

The Father Luke Wolfe Trilogy (or The Wolfe Pack) is a series of novels with Christian aesops, written by Jesuit priest John Becker, S.J. Father Becker was an English teacher at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona. His novels star Father Luke Wolfe, an English teacher at Kino College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona.

However, don’t mistake this as a case of Real Life Writes the Plot! These are no Slice of Life stories, but murder mysteries. Someone, probably related to one of Father Wolfe’s students somehow, ends up dead, and the old priest is inevitably entangled in its resolution. The motives behind the violence also relate somehow to a Christian belief, so the characters and the audience can learn a little something on the way. The plot is also revealed to parallel that of a reading assignment Father Wolfe’s students are studying.

Oh, and there are some puns thrown in here and there.

Father Becker’s first novel, Father, Forgive Them (2002), is concerned with abortion. A charismatic abortionist, Doctor Curtland, winds up dead, and the seeming murderer is his own son, Larry. However, despite Larry having fired at his father multiple times, no bullets are recovered; in fact, Dr. Curtland has no signs of trauma anywhere, yet he’s still dead. Father Wolfe must clear his student’s name by discovering the true cause of death—and despite his friendly manner, Dr. Curtland had managed to make a lot of enemies.

The sequel, Cold Comfort (2005), is about infidelity. When Kino’s Jesuits find Gina Wainwright’s pregnant corpse locked up their freezer, Father Wolfe must figure out how she got there, and who had killed the well-loved trophy wife of Senator Gene Wainwright. Did someone want her out of the picture to get to Gene? Or had Gina been a little too well-loved, by someone other than her husband?

Zero Tolerance (2009), published posthumously, is a response to the sex scandals that have recently plagued the Catholic Church. In response to Bishop Klein’s successful campaign against the Family Freedom abortuary, young men begin to blame priests of having molested them when they were children. Due to the Vatican’s zero tolerance policy, which removes priests from active duty upon suspicion of sexual abuse, the Arizona diocese is quickly losing its practicing clerics. The only chance to crack open the plot is when one of the phony accusers is murdered right outside Kino’s campus…

Compare the Father Blackie Ryan series by Andrew M. Greeley.


 * Alliteration: Father Sloan starts to speak like this at the end of Father, Forgive Them.
 * A Father To His Students: Principal/Father Sloan.
 * Alliterative Name: Samantha Smedana, Cynthia Smedana, Lyda Lott, Anthony Antler, Matt Moody, Homer Hoops, Peter Perlite, Chris Cringle.
 * Ambition Is Evil: Senator Wainwright.
 * Annoying Laugh: Dr. Brandt and Allie Carpenter.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: “What’s with all these abortion doctors? Don’t they stop at murder? Are they all lechers, too?”
 * Author Existence Failure: Averted for Zero Tolerance by some fellow Jesuits getting it published after Father Becker’s death.
 * A Worldwide Punomenon: Given Father Becker’s favorite kind of joke, this comes as no surprise.
 * Big Bad: No matter what crime is going on, the abortuary is involved somehow. They take a much more active role as villains in Zero Tolerance.
 * Big Beautiful Woman: Lyda Lott.
 * Break the Cutie: This apparently happened to Rosa Morales when she found out
 * Chekhov's Gun: The in Father, Forgive Them. The  in Cold Comfort. The Crowning Moment of Chekhov, however, is in Zero Tolerance, when Chet
 * Code Emergency
 * Continuity Nod: The three novels take place over a couple of months, so the characters of previous storylines continue to appear or be mentioned.
 * Cool Old Guy: Most of the old priests, and also Bishop Klein after he
 * Deadly Doctor:
 * Death Equals Redemption:
 * Department of Redundancy Department: Amy Halloran: “Father, there are no bullet holes in the body. In the body of Larry’s father. Doctor Curtland’s body. No place. Not in his toes or his chest or his left ear. No place.”
 * Diary
 * Disproportionate Retribution: When the bank robber realizes he’s taken Father Wolfe hostage, he gloats that he’ll get revenge for the F’s Father had given him as a student.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything??: Early mentions are made in Father, Forgive Them to the story of David and Bathsheba and, especially, to Hamlet. By the end, we realize just how similar.
 * It happens again with in Cold Comfort.
 * And again with in Zero Tolerance.
 * Dr. Jerk: Dr. Brandt, but not Dr. Curtland.
 * Easy Evangelism: Subverted. Father Wolfe spends almost all of Father, Forgive Them trying, and failing, to make Larry unnastan why murder and Christianity are incompatible..
 * Engineered Public Confession: Father Friedl’s plan to stop, utilizing a Hidden Wire.
 * Eureka Moment: Interestingly, it’s not directly related to solving the murder.
 * Everyone Is a Suspect: In Father, Forgive Them.
 * Flash Back
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Terry and Barry.
 * Get Thee to a Nunnery: When the triplets overhear talking about removing his horns, they don’t unnastan what he was talking about. But Father Wolfe does.
 * Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Both subverted and played straight.
 * Good Shepherd: Father Wolfe.
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Rather than using a word like “shit,” Father Wolfe asks his students to say “detritus,” “excrement,” “fecal matter,” “guano,” “refuse,” or “feces.”
 * Green-Eyed Monster: A major theme of Cold Comfort.
 * Hannibal Lecture: A weird, friendly example. When Father Wolfe is talking to Larry in prison, Larry uses his teacher’s own words to condone his attempted murder. Father Wolfe can’t think of an effective response.
 * Heroic BSOD: Larry, when his father shows him an educational abortion video.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: How Janey Peer died.
 * Hollywood Heart Attack: Subverted. When Father Friedl’s heart attack begins, he sits down with his hand on his chest and a pale face. He then asks Father Wolfe to call for paramedics. Father Becker was writing from firsthand experience here.
 * Hostage Situation
 * If I Can't Have You: Allie Carpenter says the Stock Phrase just before.
 * I Know Tae Kwon Do: Teri Johnson.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: Jimmy Stone, apparently thanks to his Down’s Syndrome.
 * Improvised Weapon: Joey Fetter’s baseball.
 * Incredibly Obvious Tail
 * Info Dump: For some reason, almost all the Red Herrings feel the need to explain their potential motives and opportunities for committing the crime when Father Wolfe first meets them.
 * Intrepid Reporter: Cyber Nettick and Lyda Lott.
 * It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: During Father Wolfe’s Nightmare Sequence.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Janet Peer happily accepted that Luke Wolfe was entering the Jesuit seminary, even though they would be separated, because he had found his place with God.
 * Lampshading: A student comments that G. K. Chesterton wrote mainstream murder mysteries to expose his readers to Catholic teachings, which is exactly what Father Becker is doing with this trilogy.
 * Literal-Minded: Father Sloan, in a very mild case.
 * Malaproper: Colonel Stone.
 * Meaningful Name: Dr. Bier never performs an abortion . The girl at the abortion protest Father Wolfe saved from the concierge is named Natalie—as in natal, related to birth.
 * Meido: At Senator Wainwright’s mansion.
 * Men Don't Cry: Subverted by male characters of various ages.
 * Nightmare Sequence
 * Off the Wagon: A variation with Senator Wainwright. As a potential governor/eventual presidential candidate, he avoids drinking for long periods of time. Until he does, and then he really does. And the next morning, he invariably can’t remember what happened to him the previous night. When his wife Gina reveals her pregnancy, Gene assumes she cheated on him, because he can’t remember having sex with her recently.
 * One Scene, Two Monologues: A variation in Zero Tolerance where Father Wolfe participates in separate conversations with multiple students at once. The students ignore each other, but their dialogue is written in consecutive paragraphs, making it sound like this trope.
 * Posthumous Character: The murder victims, but also Janey Peer and “Chollie.”
 * Posthumous Collaboration: Zero Tolerance got published thanks to Sister Donna Jeanne McGahey (and others), who had also helped Father Becker on the previous two as well.
 * Punny Name: Cyber Nettick, Randy Jokes, Lyda Lott, Burger Hamm, Hairy Rabbitt, Molly Fied (but that’s pronounced FEYE-yed), Hugh Nohs, Ben Dover, Dana Poynt, Harry Ahrmpitt, Amos Keetoh, Jimmy de Lokk, Cary Meebak, Titus Canbee, Adam Upp, Hans Sendfete, Al Kaline, Gus Zundhite, Otto Mattick, Joe Veeyul, Clay Feeht, Elmer Skloo, Gerry Attrick, Todd Lingh, Chester Rytesyze, Mike Rowfoan, Barry Pye.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Red Herring: ; this example is unusual in that.
 * Revolvers Are Just Better
 * Running Gag: Father Wolfe’s students chastising him for being sarcastic with them: “Sarcasm, no sarcasm, Father.” Also, students showing up to say hello or print something just as Father opens the classroom in the morning.
 * “Father, there’s a lady at the door.”
 * Serial Escalation: It starts to feel like this in Father, Forgive Them as the number of characters with potential motives continues to increase.
 * In Cold Comfort, Joey Fetter saves the day by pitching a baseball into an assailant’s face.
 * ”Three bodies in how many weeks? Four? Five?”
 * Serious Business: Joey’s signed baseball.
 * Shout-Out: Oh, so many, especially to William Shakespeare.
 * Shrinking Violet: Francesca Morales, an adult example.
 * Signature Style: Father Becker likes to include in his prose—or possibly they’re meant to be Father Wolfe’s thoughts—hyphenated interjections.
 * Single-Minded Twins: Terry and Barry. “It was impossible to tell them apart: they seemed to be one person. And they too seemed to be aware of their oneness.”
 * Smug Snake: Dr. Brandt.
 * Snooping Little Kid: Terry and Barry. And Todd.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Teri—with one r and an i.
 * Staged Shooting
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Terry and Barry.
 * Stun Guns: How Arthur was planning to.
 * Techno Wizard: Terry and Barry.
 * Theme Twin Naming: Terry and Barry and Mary.
 * The Mole: Todd does this to the perjurers,.
 * The Pollyanna: Rita Poulos.
 * The Voiceless: Lyda Lott’s camerawoman.
 * Twin Banter: Terry and Barry. Even over the phone.
 * Unfortunate Name: Harry Plotter, Chris Cringle, Clark Clarke, the Warner twins, Alfred Door (who sits next to the door), Katherine Serasera.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: After Senator Wainwright threatens a priest, gets knocked out by a pitched baseball, and carried away by paramedics, all recorded for the evening news, it’s time for.
 * Verbal Tic: Everyone except Father Wolfe says “unnastan” in lieu of “understand.”
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Arthur and Mrs. Curtland seem to have this relationship, making it one of the rare mother-son examples.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Larry Curtland. In fact, everyone who wanted Dr. Curtland dead had aspects of this.
 * Write Who You Know: Father Wolfe is basically Fr. Becker (note that they’re both named after Gospel writers), and pretty much every character who isn’t involved in the mystery plot is a student or another teacher he knew at Brophy. In fact, Kino itself is a stand-in for Brophy.
 * You ALL Share My Story: Most characters are Kino students, Kino alumni or parents of a Kino student.
 * You Make Me Sic: Father Wolfe writes letters to his dead friend “Chollie” containing intentional misspellings and slang phrases as a sort of practice for spotting them when grading essays.

Works and authors referenced by this trilogy include:

 * Aida
 * Alan Paton
 * Brideshead Revisited
 * Calvin and Hobbes
 * The Canterbury Tales
 * Catch-22
 * Chiquita's Cheese
 * Damn Yankees
 * Damon Runyon
 * Father Brown
 * Francis Thompson
 * Gunga Din
 * John Donne
 * Hamlet
 * Julius Caesar
 * Lepanto
 * Lord Byron's Don Juan
 * Lord Peter Wimsey
 * Nero Wolfe
 * On the Waterfront
 * Othello
 * Richard Brinsley Sheridan
 * My Last Duchess
 * Romeo and Juliet
 * Sherlock Holmes
 * Shoeless Joe
 * The ABC Murders
 * The Bible (duh)
 * The Bottle Imp
 * The Blue Cross
 * The Citadel
 * The Cremation of Sam McGee
 * The Diary of Samuel Pepys
 * Lord of the Flies
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray
 * The Power and the Glory
 * The Sword of Damocles
 * Thomas More
 * To Kill a Mockingbird
 * 12 Angry Men
 * William Tell

Reading these novels will leave you like a firefly in the rain: !