The Rosary Murders
The Rosary Murders

Author: William Kienzle

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2012-05-15

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1449424767

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"A sophisticated and baffling thriller . . . a real bone-freezer." —Publishers Weekly "Ingenious, witty, literate—at once irreverent and compassionate—an impressive tour indeed for a first-time novelist." —Los Angeles Times "Well-paced, tightly written, exciting as hell, and, quite possibly, the best mystery I've read in years." —Dallas Times-Herald The Rosary Murders was William X. Kienzle's first Father Koesler mystery, published in 1978. Twenty-three more books followed, creating a best-selling mystery series mostly set in Detroit and reflecting the personality of its hero, Father Robert Koesler, a diocesan priest with a penchant for sleuthing. The Rosary Murders was named one of the top twenty-five mysteries of the twentieth century in spring 2000 by the Chicago Sun-Times. It was also made into a movie, with Donald Sutherland in the role of Father Koesler. In The Rosary Murders, Detroit priests and nuns are being methodically murdered; all are found with a plain black rosary entwined between their fingers as a calling card. From Ash Wednesday, when the murderer first struck, the police seem helpless to solve the string of senseless murders. The weeks that follow become a nightmare for the crack homicide team headed by Lieutenant Walter Koznicki, until Father Koesler breaks the madmen's code. Here is a story with tension, excitement, intelligence, and a rare wit and humor. Kienzle painstakingly leads you through every step in an intensive police investigation of heinous series of murders. Police procedure and Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper reporting are as much a part of the action as the crimes themselves. With superb control of the novel's movement, Kienzle can tantalize at a tortoise's pace and torment with a breakneck hare's pace.

Mind Over Murder
Mind Over Murder

Author: William Kienzle

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2012-05-15

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 1449424899

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"Bill Kienzle's best yet." —Detroit Free Press "It is miraculous, but the third Father Koesler is even better than the first two. It is without reservation the best series ever about a priest detective." —Otto Penzler, owner, Mysterious Bookshop, New York City "Father Koesler is on the case, thank God." —Baltimore Sun Father Robert Koesler unravels his third mystery, this time zeroing in on one of six suspects, each with a motive for revenge, to solve the case of Detroit's missing monsignor. In Mind over Murder, writer William X. Kienzle challenges the reader to a game of reasoning. He sets the stage—Detroit's east side—and situation: Monsignor Thomas Thompson antagonizes a number of people and then mysteriously disappears. His Cadillac is found in a parking lot, with fingerprints wiped clean from the interior and an empty cartridge from a .32 caliber pistol and a bloody tissue left behind. Foul play is suspected by Detroit police and press. Father Koesler, central character in the Kienzle series, is called into the case by Walter Koznicki, inspector for the police department, to interpret the Catholic connection. Thompson's diary, found by Joe Cox, reporter for the Detroit Free Press, becomes a prime piece of evidence in the puzzle. The contents, exposing his innermost thoughts to investigators and the press, foreshadow ominous happenings. Whodunit? One by one, suspects are implicated by virtue of mention in Thompson's diary. Each has a grudge against him. Each knows the moment when he will be most vulnerable. And each has a perfect alibi—almost. Kienzle sets up a rational situation and, with motivation established for the suspects, all the reader has to do is add up the clues. But, as Inspector Koznicki comments, "With unpredictable human nature, every logical bit of evidence can point in one directions, only to prove a false lead."

The Christopher Killer
The Christopher Killer

Author: Alane Ferguson

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2008-02-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780142408117

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On the payroll as an assistant to her coroner father, seventeen-year-old Cameryn Mahoney uses her knowledge of forensic medicine to catch the killer of a friend while putting herself in terrible danger.

Isadore's Secret
Isadore's Secret

Author: Mardi Link

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 2010-04-23

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0472026569

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"In Isadore's Secret, Mardi Link shines a journalist's lamp on this dark, quiet corner of Michigan's history, assuring that the tragic story of Sister Janina is not forgotten. Link's telling is fascinating and thorough, making a story you will not soon forget." ---Steve Lehto, author of Death's Door A gripping account of the mysterious 1907 disappearance of a young nun in a northern Michigan town and the national controversy that followed when she turned up dead and buried in the basement of her own church. Swinging planks of lantern light shine through the musty air and onto the dirt floor of the church basement. The oddly glowing rectangles syncopate over the damp ground and illuminate even the darkest, stooped-down corners of the space beyond. The only sound is the ragged breathing of two men, a young parish priest and a much older laborer. Aboveground these men belong completely to this place, in both body and soul. A glimpse of their faces anywhere in the sanctuary, the rectory, the school, the barn, or the gardens would be a welcome sight. But here below, these men of Isadore are interlopers. Only trespassers would sneak silently into the church's sloped underbelly without witness to carry out such a sinful and secret errand as this one. Despite their tools, and their lantern, and their resolve, neither is equipped for the task at hand or for what is to come. Mardi Link, a former crime reporter, was named Antioch's Betty Crumrine Scholar for Creative Nonfiction in 2007. Her first book, When Evil Came to Good Hart, also published by the University of Michigan Press, spent four months on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List. This true story was the basis for the Broadway play The Runner Stumbles and the film of the same name. Front cover: Photograph of cemetery © John L. Russell, Great Lakes Images; image of face ©iStockphoto.com/duncan1890.

The Greatest Evil
The Greatest Evil

Author: William X. Kienzle

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780345426383

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LAST RITES AND LETHAL WRONGS Father Koesler is pondering his imminent retirement. But even as he looks toward an uncertain future, circumstances force him to investigate a crime from the past, a murder that only now has come to light. The revelation is revealed after his successor, Father Zachary Tully, clashes with Bishop Vincent Delvecchio. A longtime colleague of the powerful bishop's, Koesler searches his memory for insight into his superior's demanding nature . . . only to discover long-buried secrets involving a devout family haunted by tragedy--and shocking truths about sin, salvation, and the greatest evil. . . .

Judged by Love
Judged by Love

Author: Javan Kienzle

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2004-04

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 9780740741913

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In this era of war, mendacity, clerical and political scandal, and personal disillusion, I hoped that the example of Bill's love of the Church, his love of the priesthood, his love of people...and his love of the woman he married could show that life can be lived honestly, uprightly, fulfillingly...and with kindness and humor." -Author Javan Kienzle Author William X. Kienzle touched readers, both on and off the page. His 24 Father Robert Koesler mysteries attracted an ever-growing following of faithful and new fans alike, while his status as a highly intelligent and thoughtful ex-priest sparked curiosity and interest in his unique perspective. When Bill died suddenly in December 2001 his readers were crushed, as were so many who knew him personally and professionally. After much reflection on his life, Bill's widow, Javan, chose to write his biography. Judged by Love is a loving but candid portrait of a deeply religious and spiritual person, one who dedicated his life to God by becoming a priest, then found himself separated from the priesthood he loved because of disagreements with its policies. While this is the individual story of Bill Kienzle from his youthful days in the seminary onward, it also serves as a reflection on the current examination of faith that much of the Catholic clergy and laity have experienced over the last 50 years. Complete with Bill and Javan's singular love story, Judged by Love is a moving tale of a remarkable man. Readers interested in religion and spiritual topics, as well as the faithful fans who purchased more than two million copies of Bill's hardcover and paperback mysteries, will be heartened and gratified by the chance to read about this extraordinary human being.

The Sleeping Witness
The Sleeping Witness

Author: Fiorella De Maria

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2017-02-10

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 1621640760

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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 blundering but brilliant Benedictine priest who believes in his innocence and feels compelled to search for the truth. In a country struggling to come to terms with the devastation of the Second World War, even a secluded English village has its share of secrets and broken lives. It is not long before Fr. Gabriel and his companions find themselves embarking on a dangerous journey into the victims' troubled war histories and a chapter of Europe's bloodiest conflict that is almost too terrible to be acknowledged.

The Gathering
The Gathering

Author: William Kienzle

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0740786474

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The Gathering was the twenty-fourth in Kienzle's series of mysteries, featuring Father Robert Koesler as a Roman Catholic priest whose intuitiveness and caring nature have led him to an unusual calling: solving mysteries, mostly of the murderous kind. In this entry, revisit Koesler's adolescent and teen years, to a time when young Catholic men and women were encouraged, even expected, to become priests and nuns, whether or not their vocation was real. We meet his group of six young aspiring religious (four men and two women) who underwent the rigors of the seminary and the convent together. We learn of their individual struggles with their faith, their mentors, and their commitments to difficult choices. And we painfully discover how one member of this group is inflicted with undeserved guilt by an unspeakably cruel superior and how this dooms his life. Now in their seventies, the group gathers together, a reunion of sorts, that is cut short when one of their number is found dead. Suspicions arise, and once again Father Koesler's acumen is called on to solve the puzzle.

Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral

Author: T. S. Eliot

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2014-02-25

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 0547542607

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T. S. Eliot's most famous drama, a retelling of the murder of the archbishop of Canterbury Murder in the Cathedral, written for the Canterbury Festival in 1935, was one of T. S. Eliot’s first dramatic achievements, and it remains one of the great plays of the century. It takes as its subject matter the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, depicting the events that led to his assassination, in his own cathedral church, by the knights of Henry II in 1170. Like Greek drama, the play’s theme and form are rooted in religion, ritual purgation and renewal, and it was this return to the earliest sources of drama that brought poetry triumphantly back to the English stage at the time. "The theatre is enriched by this poetic play of grave beauty and momentous decision." —The New York Times

Silent Night
Silent Night

Author: C.J. Kyle

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-10-28

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0062079689

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Christmas, Tennessee, is a town where no one locks their doors and the worst crime is a stolen bicycle. Until the night blood is found . . . but there's no body. Police Chief Tucker Ambrose hopes it's just a prank, but his years as a cop in Chicago tell him different. Then a body is discovered in the middle of the woods, staged with a bible, a crucifix, and a rosary . . . and Tucker knows something dark and sinister has arrived in his town. Miranda Harley knows exactly what's going on. In fact, she's been tracking this serial killer, hoping to gather enough evidence to convict him. Trouble is, no one will believe her, not even the sexy police chief whose heated gazes promise nights of sin. But when Miranda falls into the crosshairs of a psychopath, Tucker must put aside his doubts and race to stop the killer from striking again.