Marshalling the vast powers of narrative and historical re-creation that he brought to his international bestseller <b>Schindler's List</b><i>,</i> Thomas Keneally has created a moving and provocative novel about a headstrong young Catholic priest in World War II Australia. As Sydney braces itself for a Japanese invasion, Father Frank Darragh finds his pastoral duties becoming increasingly challenging. How should he counsel an AWOL black American soldier who may face death for his involvement with a white woman? And what should he say to another woman—the distressingly beguiling Kate Heggarty—who impresses him with her virtue even as she edges toward sin? <br><br>When Kate is found murdered, Darragh falls under suspicion. And even if the police clear him, his superiors—and his own conscience—may not. <b>Office of Innocence</b> is a book that's impossible to put down, dense with moral complexity and alive with period detail.