Agony in the Garden

John van der Zee
February 2003     ISBN: 1560254718

Written by California native John van der Zee, Agony in the Garden tells the amazing and appalling story of high-level moral and financial scandel within the Catholic Church of Santa Rosa and the struggle of outraged victims, nuns, laity and priests to find justice. Told with discernment available only through reflection over time and in-depth reportage, Agony in the Garden offers a cry from the troubled heart of the contemporary American Catholic Church and the promise of what needs to be done to heal it.

"Unflinching reporting, written with wit and sadness. In John van der Zee's hands hard news becomes a religious act."

--Earl Shorris

"An ugly true tale of pastoral wrongdoing by lapsed Catholic and accomplished reporter van der Zee (The Gate, 1987, etc.). In the diocese of Santa Rosa, California, until very recently, the corruption began at the top, with a sexually predatory bishop who responded to charges that one of his priests had been embezzling funds by embarking on a years-long affair with that subordinate, diverting yet more dollars from the church into the priest�s bank account to secure his silence Sure to excite controversy, a strong indictment that turns over large stones and finds hellish serpents underneath."

---Kirkus Reviews

"The most fascinating aspect of this expose revolves around the financial chicanery of Monsignor Keys.... van der Zee tells his story via the analytical techniques of a crack investigative reporter, filling in enough character material to make this true crime story a compelling read. The lurid, labyrinthe story line gives the book a level of suspense beyond that of many contemporary thriller."

--Publishers Weekly

John van der Zee is a California-based novelist and nonfiction writer whose The Gate: The True Story of the Design and Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge was on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list for more than twenty weeks. His other books include the acclaimed Bound Over: Indentured Servitude and American Conscience; The Greatest Men's Party on Earth: Inside the Bohemian Grove and the novels Stateline, Blood Brotherhood and The Plum Explosion.