Subjective point of view

I don't know the specific passage you're referring to, Dirk, but it's AS IF Father Romano watched Connor close his eyes and turn his head AS IF the boy were sensing something Father Romano could not.

I was being a bit facetious there because I don't think you have anything to worry about here. In the scene, Romano's "assumption" is made perfectly clear by the words AS IF. No need to fret about your prose execution, in my opinion.

If you know what I mean, that is. AS IF

People state their observations as fact all the time. I don't understand why its an issue when characters do- or narrators do. I agree with you, Dirk. I've read plenty of publishes works that refrain from strict POV rules, and don't use "as if" or "appeared" etc. Using those words, to me, pull me out of the story. There is no reason a character can't state their observations as facts. They are facts to them, right?

My personal opinion is that it all depends on how deep or shallow (how subjective or objective) the POV is.

A narration from a "shallow" or very objective POV may be limited to stating facts. Like, "As Mary entered the house, John noticed her keys tinkling and grimaced. She stared him, as if she could read his mind, and asked, "What's wrong with you?" This is purely objective but still from John's POV. The tinkling is mentioned only because JOHN, the POV character, noticed it, otherwise it wouldn't have been observed. It's also indicated that he grimaced, meaning he somehow disliked it, but without explaining exactly why. When she stares at him, she does it "as if" because the POV character can't actually know what she's doing or taking place in Mary's brain. He can only speculate. In this case, rewriting the line as "She stared at him, reading his mind ..." would be a clear POV shift.

A narration from a "deep" or very subjective point of view comes from the depths of the POV character's mind and much resembles a first-person POV narration, even though in third person. "As she entered the house, the ominous tinkling of the keys set off every alarm in John's mind. The same tinkling he had heard as a kid before his mother's murder. Mary was the right age. Had she done it? Her movements that night had never been fully explained. John grimaced, he couldn't help it. She stared at him, reading his mind. She knew he knew. "What's wrong with you?" she asked in that velvety, menacing tone.

The above narration comes completely from the character's POV. The tinkling is only ominous because he perceives it a so—in the first, objective narration, it's only a sound. The important part is when she stares at him and "reads" his mind. No reader—maybe only a few POV-Nazis—will perceive it a POV shift but clearly as John's guess. Whether or not accurate is another kettle of fish, but it's his guess, not  POV shift. If this little paragraph were a full story, the extra context would provide the answer. If he has been digging into his mother's murder, and Mary, the actual murderer, learns about John's digging, this could have been a moment of truth for both of them because both could have remembered that her keys tinkled when she entered John's house gun in hand. John's grimace, his expression, could have allowed Mary to guess that he has finally put together the whole puzzle and has discovered her. On the other end, her own expression, the staring, accurately allows John to guess that she knows that he knows. This happens in real life all time given the proper context and background without the need to read other people's minds or get into their bodies for a short while.

So, conclusion: whether it's an POV shift or not, whether you need to use "as if", depends on how deep, how subjective, your narration from a particular POV is. Should it be subjective, or "deep", enough, then you can avoid the "as if"s because it won't be a POV shift, but part of the subjective narration. If your narration is more objective, describing the reality through the POV character's eyes, but not involving the POV character's opinion, thoughts, and feelings, then you need to use "as if" to make it clear you're not shifting the POV, but still judging the event with objective eyes.

My humble opinion.

Kiss,
Gacela

Law & Order always throws out false leads. Ditto for Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. In your examples with Mary, the reader is owed an explanation at some point as to why the detective thought she was guilty. If Mary is completely innocent, I might word it differently, so the reader knows there is some doubt. I did that with the interrogation of Father Coppola. They discussed several times in the early chapters about needing more evidence. Even after they arrest him and he drops dead from a heart attack, Inspector Campagna is wondering if they just killed an innocent man.

My argument has more to do with the little assumptions one can sensibly make based on the POV character's knowledge. Romano knows Connor has special powers, and he's at the exorcism because he may have some insight into why they can't cast out the demons of the possessed woman. When he closes his eyes and turns his head from side to side, it's prefectly reasonable for Romano to assume Connor is sensing something related to the exorcism in progress. There's no reason for the as if. If Romano's assumption is wrong, it will have to be explained and maybe even foreshadowed.

By including as if and similar words whenever there is a reasonable assumption being made, it flags every one of them with an implied: Watch out! This may be wrong! As CJ noted, an author's attempt to make the MC completely objective when the story doesn't require it pulls me out of the story. The deeper the POV of the MC, the more those moments stand out when they shouldn't.

or- Romano wondered what he was sensing.

You're welcome.

Kiss,
Gacela

Also, there's no POV slip if the POV character is making an observation. Regardless of how speculative the POV character's observation may be.

Jesus. I hope I'm being helpful. Probably not. Sorry.

My turn.  Here we go--

Imagine you're the sheriff. Look at Mary. Can you tell by looking at her that she's guilty of a crime? NO.

Now imagine you're writing a story from the sheriff's point of view. Taking his POV, you have to go on what he knows. Since he doesn't know if she's guilty, you can't write that Mary did something guiltily, because the sheriff doesn't know that for a fact. Yes, I know history is full of examples of lawmen who behaved as if they knew someone was guilty, so they arrested (shot, hanged) them. If your sheriff says or thinks Mary's guilty, he's one of those bad guys.

Or could be the sheriff is one of those emotional guys who shoots first and says sorry later. That's for you, the author, to decide.

In the next chapter, you can take Mary's POV and write that she does something guiltily, and even what she's done and why she acts and feels guilty, because now you're in her head. Could be something totally unrelated to the crime. Maybe she's having an affair, or she hit somebody with her car and drove away, etc., etc.. (Watch Dead to Me on Netflix.)

So, even if you're not writing in first person, you've taken sides, and you can't know what the other team is thinking.

Unless you want to write Sci Fi and your character reads minds. Then go right ahead.

JP