Published in 2025, Bad Bishop is the first novel in the Society of Villains series by L. J. Shen. A prominent author in the dark-romance subgenre, Shen is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today best-selling author known for creating morally complex antiheroes. Shen is the author of several other popular dark-romance series, including Sinners of Saint and All Saints High.

Bad Bishop is set in New York’s criminal underworld and follows the arranged marriage between Tiernan Callaghan, a ruthless Irish crime boss, and Lila Ferrante, the sheltered daughter of a rival Italian Camorra family. Their union is a violent, strategic pact meant to conceal the secret of Lila’s pregnancy following a brutal rape. The novel explores themes including Redemption for the Irredeemable, The Reclamation of Agency Amid Oppression, Love Manifesting as Protection, and Breaking Inherited Cycles of Violence and Trauma. Bad Bishop operates within the conventions of dark-mafia romance, featuring a relationship founded on coercion, high-stakes violence, and a morally ambiguous protagonist. The plot is driven by rivalries between fictionalized versions of real-world crime syndicates, including the Italian Camorra, the Russian Bratva, and the Irish Mafia.

This guide refers to the 2025 Bloom Books edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, graphic violence, sexual violence, rape, child sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, ableism, gender discrimination, suicidal ideation, pregnancy termination, addiction, substance use, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Tiernan Callaghan is a 28-year-old Irish mobster who was born into a prominent crime family. Tiernan and his twin sister, Tierney Callaghan, were born when their mother was killed by Igor Rasputin, the head of the Bratva (Russian mob). The twins were immediately taken to Russia, where they spent the first 14 years of their life enduring hellish conditions and being tortured and abused by Igor. During this time, they became close with Igor’s eldest son, Alexei “Alex” Rasputin. Tiernan and Tierney eventually escaped and reunited with their father, Tyrone, and older brother, Fintan Callaghan. They both became active in their family’s organized crime activities despite being deeply traumatized by the events of their childhood.

Lila Ferrante is the youngest child of Vello and Chiara Ferrante; her father is the head of a prominent Sicilian American crime family active in New York. Lila has three older brothers, Luca, Achilles, and Enzo Ferrante, who are all active participants in a violent mafia lifestyle. Lila is presumed to have an intellectual disability and be unable to communicate, but she’s actually deaf. Chiara passes off her daughter as having a disability since she hopes this misconception will protect Lila from being forced into a marriage with a cruel or violent man.

When Lila is 18, her brother Luca is married in a lavish wedding on the family estate. During the festivities, Lila slips away to a secluded beach, where a man attacks her from behind, beats her, drugs her, and rapes her. Afterward, Lila is unable to recall the face of the man who attacked her. When Lila and her family realize that she’s pregnant, Vello decides that she must be married off immediately to legitimize the pregnancy and conceal her rape, for fear that it will make the Ferrante family look weak and vulnerable. The family settles on Tiernan, reasoning that he’s reckless enough to accept the marriage and that an alliance with the Irish Mob will serve their strategic interests.

Tiernan agrees to the marriage in exchange for the Ferrantes’ support against the Rasputins: He has recently killed Igor Rasputin and knows that Alex, the new leader, will seek to retaliate. He also agrees to find and kill Lila’s rapist. Lila is horrified by the forced marriage and frightened of Tiernan, although she’s also secretly attracted to him. After a hasty marriage, she moves into his apartment in the Bronx. Tiernan quickly suspects that Lila’s supposed disability may be a ruse, and he becomes determined to find out what she’s hiding. He taunts and spars with her while begrudgingly becoming admiring of her skills and intelligence.

Tierney gives Lila internet access, through which she discovers assistive technologies for deaf people that Chiara deliberately withheld. Tiernan escalates his provocations until Lila gives in and speaks aloud for the first time. He reveals that he has deduced she’s deaf and that he speaks American Sign Language (ASL), which he and Tierney learned from an American prisoner in the Siberian camp. The two can now communicate freely. Tiernan offers her an abortion; Lila refuses, insisting that she wants the child.

Tiernan confronts the Ferrante family, revealing Chiara’s deception to them. Lila’s relationship with her mother becomes strained as she processes the anger of being lied to for so long. Tiernan and Lila become closer and begin a mutually satisfying sexual relationship. Tiernan also investigates the attack on Lila, trying to find out who is guilty. Eventually, Tiernan travels to Las Vegas, Nevada, for his strike against the Bratva, accompanied by two of Lila’s brothers. Tiernan captures Alex, who reveals that he intentionally allowed the former to kill Igor. Alex believed that Tiernan deserved vengeance and also wanted his father out of the picture so that he could assume control of Bratva operations. Surprised by this information and by Alex’s decision not to harm him, Tiernan brokers a deal between the Bratva, the Italian Camorra, and the Irish Mob.

These negotiations are interrupted when Tiernan learns that Lila has been seriously injured in a car accident in New York. He rushes back to be with her. The shock of nearly losing her prompts him to reveal that he loves her and declare that he will love the baby as his own. As Lila recovers, it becomes clear that the car wreck was an intentional attack, aimed at killing her, the unborn baby, or both. Lila explains that she has also received a threatening, anonymous note. The attack and the note are most likely from her attacker, but at this point, all the suspects have been eliminated because they have proven alibis for the time of the attack at the wedding.

Lila receives another note demanding a secret meeting. She tells Tiernan, who goes in her place. However, Lila secretly follows him and intervenes, killing a man who’s taking aim at Tiernan. Lila and Tiernan identify the man as a member of her family’s staff; it seems strange that this is the man who raped her, and Tiernan believes that he was paid by the true attacker to take the fall. Nonetheless, he lets Lila and the Ferrante family believe that her rapist has been killed.

Tiernan and Lila begin a happy life together, moving into a new home. When Lila gives birth to a son, Gennaro, the baby is born with striking red hair, a Callaghan family trait. Tiernan immediately realizes that the rapist is Fintan, his own older brother. He confronts Fintan, who pleads for mercy, but Tiernan tortures and kills him. He then works with Alex, arranging for the body to be disposed of, with the Bratva publicly claiming responsibility for the murder.

After giving birth, Lila receives a cochlear implant, attends community college, and pursues her passions for art and music. She and Tiernan are blissfully happy. It’s revealed that, late in her pregnancy, Lila’s memory of the attack returned, but she chose not to tell Tiernan that his brother was responsible. She let him arrive at the truth independently, confident he would do so; she admits that if Tiernan hadn’t killed Fintan, she would have done it herself.