John Howell

St. Jude's Gospel: a Novel John Howell

In St. Jude's Gospel, SK Marinangel is a Fortune 500 CEO but wants to be a mother. She goes to an executive search firm for help finding a husband. Bill Motley, is a surgically sterile, forty-something burn-out. Reprising his role in Goddess Patrol, Bill ran a spoof presidential campaign for a late-night TV show. The campaign was everybody's joke, but Bill's true aspiration. He got depressed every four years because he wasn't running. A chance meeting between SK and Bill creates a compelling story of underdogs, infertility, wasted lives, impossible cases, mayhem, miracle, unlikely romance and faith's emergence from cynical, bitter disbelief. Of Naked in Church, one reviewer wrote, "Howell writes with a nice turn of phrase lets us know that (we) can still find voices of grace at (the) center (of tragedy), not to mention the light that is always trying to form around the edges."