Mystery

The second book in the Father Baptist seriesA rolling blanket of thick, purple storm clouds -- which some call The Vampire's Shroud -- overshadows the mythical city of Los Angeles, California, yet not one drop of rain is anywhere to be seen. In the County Morgue lay the bodies of murdered young women, garlic and Crucifixes resting upon each bloodless form. Something is loose in the City of Angels, and the police are not only stumped .... but afraid. With such ominous events transpiring and ea...

The third book in the Father Baptist seriesLife is never dull in William Biersach's mythical city of Los Angeles. In The Search for Saint Valeria, the third entry in the series, cop-turned-priest Fr. John Baptist and his faithful sidekick, gardener and chronicler, Martin Feeney, are once again on the trail of the unusual and strange. Why is someone stealing discarded religious objects - relics, altars, chalices - from the city's antique shops? And why on earth would modern-day grave robbers w...

The fourth book in the Father Baptist seriesIt's happening again! Los Angeles, the City of Angels, is once more besieged by the bizarre and the strange! A fresh but unidentified corpse, dressed as a priest, turns up in a niche in a mausoleum, while a trusted assistant of the Cardinal is kidnapped, and two precious objects disappear with him. The police are baffled, and obviously, only one man can bring order to chaos and solve the affair: Fr. John Baptist. Together with his trusty gardener, M...

With his cherubic face and unworldly simplicity, his glasses and huge umbrella, Father Brown is one of the most unforgettable characters in literature. The Complete Father Brown Stories brings together all the stories featuring G. K. Chesterton's amateur sleuth--plus two additional cases, "The Donnington Affair" and "The Mask of Midas," that were discovered in Chesterton's papers after his death. An introduction by Chesterton scholar Michael D. Hurley sheds new light on the beloved detective ...

Book 1 of the Francesca Bibbo Series Francesca Bibbo is eager to jumpstart her social life, so she joins the choir at St. Rita's. There, she discovers that the director and the pastor are locking horns over a decrepit organ, while the sopranos are vying for solos. After a rehearsal party, things go very wrong, and when someone shows up dead, the police rule the death a suicide. But Francesca suspects foul play, so she begins prying into the dead man's past. Before long, she uncovers shocking ...

The Father Brown Reader is the perfect book for young readers with a love for classic detective mysteries. Adapted from the famous stories of G. K. Chesterton, it contains four captivating mysteries that follow Father Brown and his sidekick, Flambeau, as they investigate strange crimes in Victorian England. "The Blue Cross" tells the story of Father Brown and Flambeau attempting to solve a daring jewel theft on a train out of London. "The Strange Feet" follows the pair as they work to find ou...

Book 3 of the Francesca Bibbo Series A masquerade ball! That sounds like the perfect solution for the summer blahs at St. Rita's parish, where the sidewalks are sizzling and the money coffers are dwindling. Who could have predicted that utter chaos would be unleashed? At the event, a handsome seminarian attracts the eye of a voluptuous woman disguised as the angel of death, the unstoppable Francesca Bibbo meets a mysterious wizard - and someone pilfers the cash box. When a body is later disco...

In this unusual murder mystery, the tranquility of Saint Mary's Abbey is shattered by the discovery of a gruesome crime in a cottage on the abbey grounds. A foreign artist and war hero seeking refuge from the world has been murdered. Marie Paige, the frail, sickly wife of the village doctor, lies beside him beaten into a coma. The police arrest Marie's husband, convinced that they are looking at a crime of passion. But Dr. Paige finds himself with an unlikely champion: Fr. Gabriel, a blunderi...

In this third title in the Father Gabriel Mystery series, the detective priest is less than pleased to find himself the reluctant guest at a wealthy local family's Christmas party. Only the excellent - and probably black market - food softens the horror of meeting the odious Victor Gladstone, a veteran reporter, an ardent anti-clerical and the only witness to a wartime massacre no one wishes to hear about. When Victor is found dead on the Martin estate the next morning, the apparent victim of...

Father Gabriel spends a few days of relaxation at his old Cambridge College, the guest of friend Arthur Kingsley from his student days. Kingsley is now a respected scientist and a Fellow of St Stephen's College, but after an enjoyable evening dining at High Table, Gabriel receives the shattering news that Daphne Silverton, Kingsley's brilliant young protégée, has been found dead in her laboratory after what appears to have been a tragic accident. Daphne was universally loved, but Gabriel's in...

Enthusiasm, in the religious sense, is more akin to fanaticism than fervor. As Monsignor Ronald Knox describes, it is that recurring situation in Church history in which men and women, seek to be less and less "of the world" and more and more attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Their assumption is audacious yet simple: grace does not perfect nature; it destroys and replaces it. The inevitable result: separation, secession, schism. In twenty-three informative and entertaining chapter...

Spring has come to the abbey, and the community is busily preparing for the May Day weekend and the arrival of Boy Scouts who will hold their annual camp on the abbey grounds. When a Boy Scout named Antoine is sent home in disgrace, Fr Gabriel accompanies him to his house, which has become the scene of a violent crime. Antoine's father, Charles, has been found dead, apparently killed during a botched burglary. Suspecting there was more to the crime than what first meets the eye, Fr Gabriel jo...