A Chapel of Thieves — Bruce Clements

In this captivating sequel to I Tell a Lie Every So Often, a National Book Award finalist, it is 1849 and Henry Desant is on a mission from frontier St. Louis to revolutionary Paris to rescue his brother, Clayton, from a gang of thieves.

Clayton had been told in a dream to go to Paris and preach to the sinners there. In a letter home, he boasts of his success in attracting a congregation of fifteen men to his new church. These “TRUE BELIEVERS,” he says, were led to him by a man named Deacon George, who every night “sends my flock out into the streets of this Dark City, and gets people to give them silk, silver, ivory, and small pieces of furniture.” Henry, a romantic with open eyes, can see that Clayton is being hoodwinked into letting his church be used as a front. But as he sets off on his trip down the Mississippi and across the ocean to convince Clayton that he is in trouble, Henry has no inkling of the events in store that will open his eyes even wider to the dangers and possibilities of life.