Sabine Hyland's thoroughly researched and vivid account of a particularly abusive priest in colonial Peru places his case in the context of both the transatlantic Spanish empire and the indigenous Chanka community in Andahuaylas. The five chapters of part 1 focus on Juan Bautista de Albadán, who served as the priest in Pampachiri from 1601 to his death in 1611, and Hyland draws from two major sources. Upon the priest's death, the provincial governor created a thorough case file, inventorying Albadán's possessions, having copies made of letters he received from relatives and interviewing witnesses; these files and the inheritance lawsuits they triggered have been preserved in the Archive of the Indies in Spain. Hyland insightfully cross-references these archival sources with the illustrated manuscript created by the native Andean author Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala during the same period. Guaman Poma addressed his lengthy account of the history and condition of Peru to King Phillip III in the hopes that he would remedy the litany of abuses contained therein. As a resident of the neighboring province, Guaman Poma was familiar with the Chankas and specifically accused Albadán of sexually abusing indigenous women, sadistically torturing those who complained, and carrying out other “games” too terrible to be described. In copies of letters from an uncle and brother, responding to Albadán's confessional accounts, Hyland corroborates Guaman Poma's allegations.

Having opened with Albadán's crimes, in the subsequent chapter Hyland reconstructs his life prior to becoming the parish priest. He was from a prominent family in Seville, who apparently sent him to the Indies in his youth in order to avoid scandal from bad behavior alluded to in the letters. As an adult, Albadán longed to return to Spain but his uncle, a Mercedarian friar, informed him that he would not be welcome. One of his brothers followed his path to Peru and became a scribe in Potosí; as he heard rumors of the priest's illicit behavior, he unsuccessfully pleaded to be allowed to join him in Pampachiri. In a particularly interesting chapter, Hyland analyzes Albadán's large library, unusual for a rural priest, comparing the titles to other known collections in Peru at that time. In an emblem book, she finds marginal illustrations of nude women who seem to have been the models for the unusual decoration of the Pampachiri church. She also imagines how Albadán may have used scenes of Roman decadence in Juvenal as inspiration for his own acts, instead of taking them as moralizing lessons. Another chapter imaginatively recreates Albadán's lavish lifestyle, based upon the inventories of silver and larders filled with wine and foods of European origin, alongside Guaman Poma's illustrations of the dinner parties of powerful and corrupt colonial officials. In addition, Albadán had a large collection of bezoar stones, recovered from the stomachs of llamas, which contemporaries believed could provide protection from poisoning. In the final chapter of part 1, Hyland speculates that Albadán's final illness could indeed have been the result of poison, administered by his unpaid, indigenous servants, given the failure by authorities to hold him accountable for his abuses.

Part 2 pivots on the downfall of the indigenous leader who reported Albadán's crimes to explore the history of the leading native lineages of Andahuaylas from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Shortly after denouncing Albadán, León Apu Guasco was found guilty of hiding native people within his jurisdiction during a census he had requested in order to reduce the number sent into forced labor drafts. Although there is no direct evidence of Albadán's role, once Guasco was removed from his position, a rival indigenous leader, who was allied with the priest, rose to power. Drawing from additional archival documents, particularly lawsuits over succession to the region's highest position of indigenous authority, Hyland traces a strategy of intermarriage with local families of Spanish descent in order to create mutually beneficial networks of power and patronage. Although part 2 has only two chapters, Hyland asserts that the analysis is important in order to decolonize the history, pointing out that, “Ultimately, the story of Albadán, the mad priest of Pampachiri, is a tale about the Chanka people in the Spanish colonial world—their sufferings, struggles, and triumphs” (154).

Hyland's microhistory of a priest in an indigenous community is accessible for a broad readership; she draws upon her own research and ample historiography to provide context on native Andean and Spanish colonial society. Readers of this journal will find a full and troubling exploration of the life and times of a parish priest but should not expect an analysis of evangelization or native religion as in some of Hyland's other works. Albadán was little concerned with his spiritual duties; when a Spanish official came through his parish, he discovered that the priest was not even recording baptisms and marriages. He did, however, require his indigenous parishioners to purchase Bulls of the Holy Crusade, and Hyland shows that he made a tidy profit. Hyland interprets Albadán's behavior as psychopathic and provides contrasting examples of priests who advocated on behalf of their indigenous flock. But she also argues that he was able “to manipulate colonial institutions and attitudes in order to escape official retribution for his crimes” (149). The provincial governor's attempts to redistribute some of Albadán's estate to the local communities suggests that he knew about his abuses, but Hyland surmises that his large debts to the priest kept him from acting earlier. In addition, Hyland points out that the parish was particularly isolated, far from any monastic orders or Inquisition officials and part of a large diocese that lacked a bishop for three of the years that Albadán served as priest. Nevertheless, rumors of his behavior reached not just Potosí and Cuzco, but also Seville. When Hyland contrasts Albadán's impunity with the fate of another friar accused of sexual abuse, who was transferred from Potosí to Panama, it is difficult not to think of more recent responses by the Catholic Church to accusations against priests.