Death Comes for the Archbishop...

This book traces the friendship and adventures of Bishop Jean Latour and vicar Father Joseph Vaillant as they organize the new Roman Catholic diocese of New Mexico. Latour is patrician, intellectual, and introverted; Vaillant, practical, outgoing, and sanguine. The clerics, friends since their childhood in France, triumph over corrupt Spanish priests, natural adversity, and the indifference of the Hopi and the Navajo to establish their church and build a cathedral in the wilderness.

The book celebrates the American work ethic, exemplified by the lives of the two priests. They both love good food, and Bishop Latour loves books and fine possessions, but both practice self-sacrifice and hard work in order to establish their community. Other respected characters in the book demonstrate this virtue.

The novel also praises the binding friendship of the two priests, despite their differences. Nowhere is the bond between them more clear or moving than when Father Vaillant prepares to go to his new home in Colorado, recognizing the fact that they may never see each other again.