Book Title: The Sins of the Righteous
Author and Publisher: Colin Smith
Release Date: July 27, 2025
Genres: Contemporary LGBT fiction, Murder/mystery/suspense
Tropes: Forbidden love
Themes: Coming out, forgiveness, historical elements
Heat Rating: 1 out of 5 flames
Length: 17 675 words/71 pages
Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited
In this riveting mystery steeped in compassion and conviction, a former pastor—cast out by his church for being gay—finds himself drawn back into the community that rejected him when a beloved elderly congregant is found murdered. Bound by loyalty and grace, he refuses to turn away. As he hunts for the truth, his identity becomes both a source of scrutiny and strength.The Sins of the Righteous is more than a murder mystery—it’s a powerful reflection on redemption, injustice, and the courage it takes to embrace authenticity in the face of rejection. With surprising twists and an emotionally resonant journey, this story offers a gripping exploration of faith, identity, and the secrets that bind us. Ideal for readers who love character-driven suspense with spiritual depth and social nuance.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The call came at 11:17 PM, the same time Pastor Thomas Reed had received all emergency calls during his fifteen years of ministry. Something about that hour—late enough for trouble but before the true darkness of midnight—seemed to draw out crisis like a splinter.
"Pastor Tom? It's Betty Jenkins. Something's wrong with my television again."
Thomas closed his eyes and pressed the phone to his ear. Eight months after they'd forced him out, Betty and Margaret had gone to the District Superintendent with their "concerns," and she still called him for help. Still, he answered.
"Mrs. Jenkins, it's rather late." He glanced at the half-empty bourbon tumbler on his desk and at the open laptop with the paused video he'd been watching. Men who looked nothing like the congregation who had abandoned him, men who looked everything like the truth he'd hidden for decades.
"Please, Pastor. You know how I depend on my nighttime programs to sleep."
The resignation came like muscle memory. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Thomas closed the laptop, hiding away temptation as he had for so many years. He slipped on his jacket with patches at the elbows that made him look scholarly and trustworthy—the costume he'd worn for as long as he could remember.
As he drove through the quiet streets toward Betty's modest home, his mind drifted to the day everything changed. Not when they forced him out—that was merely the culmination. No, he thought of that winter night when he'd found young Jamie Tucker shivering in his underwear on the sidewalk, bruises forming on his thin arms, teeth chattering in the bitter cold. The night Thomas did the Christian thing, the human thing, he opened his door to someone in need.
The night that, ironically, had condemned him.
Thomas parked in Betty's driveway, noting that her porch light was out, unusual for a woman so afraid of the dark. As he approached the door, a movement in the shadows caught his eye—something familiar in the silhouette that disappeared around the side of the house.
"Betty?" he called, knocking firmly. "It's Pastor Tom."
Only silence answered.
Another oddity was that the door was unlocked. Betty Jenkins, who checked her locks three times before bed and called him monthly to change her security system batteries, had left her door open to the night.
"Mrs. Jenkins?"
The house was dark except for the flickering blue glow of the television. Thomas moved carefully through the familiar layout, toward the living room where Betty would be waiting in her floral armchair, remote in hand, complaints at the ready.
The remote was there, on the carpet. Betty was in her chair, but she wouldn't be complaining anymore.
Blood had pooled and darkened on her pale pink housecoat. Her eyes, which had narrowed in judgment so many times at church board meetings, stared blankly at the ceiling.
Thomas reached for her wrist automatically, pastoral instincts overriding shock. No pulse. Her skin was still warm.
His phone was in his hand, 9-1-1 already dialed, when he noticed the photograph on the side table. It had been turned to face the chair deliberately—Betty and Margaret standing proudly outside the District Superintendent's office the day of his hearing. Someone had drawn a red X across Margaret's face.
As the dispatcher answered, Thomas realized three things simultaneously: his fingerprints were throughout this house, the murderer couldn't have gone far, and the shadow he'd seen had reminded him of David—the man no one in his congregation had ever known existed.
"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"
Thomas stared at Betty's body, at the evidence of violence that part of him had imagined in his darkest moments of resentment. "I need to report a murder," he said, his voice steadier than it had any right to be.
The pastor who'd counseled countless grieving families now stood over a dead woman who'd helped destroy his life, in a house where he shouldn't have been, connected to secrets that could never come to light.
And somewhere in the darkness outside, someone who knew those secrets was watching.
About the Author
Colin Smith is a freelance writer and historian, and is known for his clear narrative, historical accuracy, and ability to tell a great story.
