Books: The Vicar Falls

FEAR NO EVIL (372 pp.)—Hugh Massingham—Random House ($3).

The Rev. Mr. Dewson wore his righteousness like a medal. Furthermore, he bristled with an athletic vigor that expressed itself in cold baths, ten-mile walks and an awesome lack of self-doubt. Since he had not the slightest interest in religious contemplation, he could devote himself to being an intellectual busybody ("Politics, economics, psychology, Freud, Adler, even Marx—it is our bounden duty to keep up to date"). His estranged son Ronald called him "God's sergeant major."

As any reader will know at once, the Rev. Mr. Dewson was riding for a fall. Dewson began to get...