From publisher blurb: “All rise for the honorable Red Pope. May he bless us with his presence. His grace fills us and keeps us whole. Blessing unto him. And his blessings unto us.” The Sexton is a perfunctory figure in the oubliette of Absalom. He neither understands the nature of the ‘prison,’ nor does he seem to comprehend the gravity of his fate. He merely continues on in the role of ‘church official’ as if the constant threat of the Black Monk weren’t right outside the door every minute of the day. Nor the misery of eternity.