A Great Deliverance

Guilt is one of the main motivators for many of the characters’ actions in the novel, and it manifests in a number of ways. Whether directed toward another person or toward the character themselves, actions motivated by guilt are nearly always harmful and create more problems than they solve, leading to a destructive cycle. 

William’s murder is the catalyst for the plot, and the destructive nature of his actions are gradually revealed as the facts unfold. William was a pedophile who preyed on his daughters. In the community, however, he was known as an upstanding man. A devout Catholic, he understood the cycle of sin and guilt. He felt guilty for his sins and even confessed them to Father Hart, but he could not stop. The corrosive guilt he felt manifested as increased religiosity and increased violence against his victims. The novel’s title, A Great Deliverance, refers to the Lord’s Prayer, in which Catholics ask God to deliver them from evil. This implies that William’s deliverance came not at God’s hands, but at Roberta’s, ending his cycle of guilt and abuse.

As Havers and Lynley investigate the case and, through the course of their investigation, they are forced to confront their own guilty pasts.