Perilous Pilgrimage — Robert Joseph

PERILOUS PILGRIMAGE -- Murder, mayhem and mysticism! Homicide and holiness are the basic ingredients when Raff and Fati together embark on a pilgrimage known as ‘El Camino', five hundred miles on foot across northern Spain to the tomb of Saint James, the Apostle in the cathedral at Santiago de Campostela. Father and daughter are accompanied by a diverse group of fellow pilgrims: a seductive beauty contest winner, her fabulously wealthy fiancé, his snobbish aunt, a valiant Mexican-American double-amputee veteran of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, a devout Catholic businessman from Hong Kong, China, a skeptical Australian herbal healer and practitioner of Wicca, a retired, callous Army colonel, a plastic surgeon of dubious ethics, a tattooed American young man on a motorcycle, an infertile Italian couple yearning for a child and a Spanish felon sentenced to walk the Camino as punishment for his crime. Very early in the long journey pilgrims begin dying mysteriously â€" poisoned by toxic mushrooms, attacked by a swarm of killer bees, a fall from a fourth story balcony in Pamplona during the Running-of-the-Bulls â€" which are ruled ‘accidental deaths' by the Spanish police, but Raff and Fati begin to suspect murder. Later, when additional and more vicious deaths begin to occur â€" a skinning, a beheading, an attempted immolation during a Wiccan ritual â€" it becomes increasingly obvious to Raff and Fati that there is a violent killer among them. But who? And, more importantly, what is the motive? That conundrum is left to Raff and Fati to solve leading to a surprise ending with a double twist.