The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain


Book Description

The bestselling priest & novelist Andrew M. Greeley continues the tales of the intrepid Bishop Blackie Ryan with this absorbing & suspenseful mystery, set in France, of a missing beloved television priest. Not just an ordinary priest but a priest/television superstar, idolized by the people of France, loved by everyone except, of course the French hierarchy, the church, state and the Paris television community. The Archbishop of Paris, familiar with Bishop Blackie Ryan's impressive sleuthing skills, asks Blackie's boss, the Archbishop of Chicago Sean Cardinal Cronin, for help in finding this missing priest. As usual, Cardinal Cronin resolves the matter with a brusque "See to it, Blackie." In Paris, Blackie meets a young and beautiful woman begging for money at the door of the church of St-Germain-des-Prés. When he hires her as a translator, she turns out to be an excellent Dr. Watson and a brilliant musician as well. She is at his side as Blackie learns that neither the Church nor the police are eager to have the saintly priest returned, and once the public discovers the disappearance of their beloved priest, the miracles start-and nothing scares the Church more than miracles. Undaunted, Blackie and his beautiful sidekick defy uncooperative Paris police, an unbending church, and reluctant witnesses to find the bizarre solution to one of the most fascinating puzzles he has ever encountered. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Falling into Grace: the Fiction of Andrew Greeley


Book Description

Falling into Grace is a study of Andrew Greeley's fiction and the message behind his words, revealing many timeless political and theological ideas. Professor R.W. Carstens shares the findings of his deep exploration into Greeley's novels as evidence of a set of ancient values and key political ideas that are needed today more than ever. As a great storyteller, Greeley's message is significant-that grace sustains us, unites us, comforts us, and sometimes overwhelms us, but it is also evidence of our freedom. Carstens' careful examination into the deeper meaning behind the stories demonstrates that Greeley's characters and the world in which they live portray life as acts of faith, hope, and love, and prove that God is alive and well in the hearts of many in the world. As Carstens discusses Greeley's imagination and his political and theological concepts, he develops his own theories about how these ideas can be applied in today's world by creating freedom, limiting authority, and building communities where people are united by common goals. In the end, Carstens' study demonstrates that Greeley's fiction shows us a way to go home -- -to the images that appeal to the best in us, and therefore tell us what might be.




Andrew M. Greeley


Book Description

Andrew M. Greeley's Blackie Ryan stories are reviewed and explicated in this study of the author's novels featuring the delightful and leprechaun like detective. The book surveys detective fiction in which the unique, irrestible, and sometimes irrepressible Blackie Ryan, who is sometimes, but not always, a persona for the author, appears. A composite portrait of Blackie is drawn for the reader. The themes—both sociological and religious—that occur in the fiction are highlighted and explored, as are the various literary devices that the author employs to create his stories. The book includes a "Foreword" written by Andrew M. Greeley, world renowned sociologist, priest, and Professor of Social Science at the university of Chicago.




The Bishop in the West Wing


Book Description

"See to it, Blackwood," says the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, and Blackie Ryan, the Cardinal's auxiliary bishop, doesn't exactly jump (he never jumps), rather he moseys down to Washington, D.C., where one of his friends, Jack Patrick McGurn, called "Machine Gun McGurn" by the media, has surprisingly just been elected president and needs his help. Blackie's first confrontation is with Washington bureaucracy; the powers that be don't want to give Blackie a pass to wander in and out of the Oval Office at will. The bureaucracy blinks first and Blackie gets his pass. Blackie, who can do anything, has been called on to deal with ghosts in the White House. Yes, poltergeists. But there are more problems in the White House than ghosts. A conspiracy abroad in the land results in two men trying to blow up the White House. Happily, Blackie has one of his intuitive moments and manages to get a picture of the terrorists, and he didn't forget to take the cap off his camera. He also got the license number of the getaway car. Blackie also has to deal with four enchantingly beautiful women who, without knowing it, may be responsible for the strange ghostlike behavior of an unhappy spirit. None of these things does Blackie find daunting. He stumbles about his business and waits for enlightenment to come. The Bishop in the West Wing is one of the finest of the Blackie Ryan stories .We meet again a great cast of characters: Sean Cronin, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, who is turning out to be one of the treasures of modern American detective fiction; Mike Casey, the cop turned painter, and Dr. Kate Murphy, Blackie's beautiful and terrifyingly smart sister. With this cast of characters the poor ghosts deserve our pity. Andrew Greeley was a guest at the White House three times during the most recent administration and his keen eye and powers of observation are put to remarkable use in this latest Blackie Ryan mystery/adventure. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The Bishop at the Lake


Book Description

Matters of succession lead to attempted murder in the latest of Greeley's popular mysteries. Archbishop Malachi Nolan has designs on the Diocese of Chicago despite the fact the Most Reverend Blackwood Ryan, himself recently appointed an archbishop, is currently in line for the post. Assigned to keep watch on his rival, Blackie travels to the Nolan family estate in Grand Banks, where he soon finds himself immersed in an entirely different dynastic struggle. Spike Nolan, founder of Aviation Electronics, isn't even dead yet, but his children, grandchildren, and their respective spouses are already feuding over who will inherit control of the multimillion-dollar company. The only family member who doesn't have a stake in the quarrel is the clerical Malachi . . . so why is he the one targeted by an unknown killer? To get to the bottom of the mystery, Blackie will have to sort through the tangled family dynamics of this highly dysfunctional clan, as well as figure how out his fellow archbishop was nearly stung to death by hornets inside a locked room! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The Bishop Goes to the University


Book Description

The irrepressible Bishop Blackwood Ryan returns as his Cardinal dispatches Blackie to The University on the South Side of Chicago to investigate a baffling locked-room mystery. Someone has assassinated a Russian Orthodox monk in his office at the Divinity School-despite the fact that the door of his office was bolted shut from the inside and no killer was found within. Who shot Brother Semyon Ivanivich Popov? There were only four professors in the building on the night of the shooting: a feminist theologian, a distinguished scripture scholar, an expert on the Talmud, and a young tenure-seeking professor whom Blackie compares to a silverback gorilla. It turns out that the mystery of the locked room is simple compared to the international intrigue that swiftly develops around the case. Intelligence agents from diverse nations seem to be involved, as well as both the Sicilian and Russian mobs. Blackie soon finds himself the target of threats and actual bullets as he seeks to unravel the deepening mystery surrounding the murdered monk-whose murky secrets may stretch all the way to the Vatican itself! Murder is more than academic in yet another delightful whodunit by one of America's most popular storytellers. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood


Book Description

"Blackwood, there's trouble in the old neighborhood! Murder in the sanctuary of the Church!" The church in question is St. Lucy's, a humble edifice at the heart of a venerable Chicago neighborhood now suffering the throes of gentrification. St. Lucy's has long stood as a bulwark against evil and change, which some in the community have often seen as much the same thing. Now three dead bodies have been left in the sanctuary, stripped, mutilated, and shot through the head, execution-style. A warning to those who would remake the neighborhood---or to St. Lucy's charismatic monsignor, who has made a few enemies of his own? Dispatched by his cardinal to investigate, Bishop "Blackie" Ryan fears that the atrocious murders are only the beginning of a campaign of terror directed at this particular church. But to solve the mystery, and to banish the evil gathering over the community, Blackie will need an unexpected assist from his own long-dead father, as well as the help of Declan O'Donnell, a savvy young cop with a touch of the second sight, and of Camilla Datilo, a radiant assistant state's attorney of Sicilian origins. The Bishop in the Old Neighborhood is another charming and compelling page-turner by bestselling author Andrew M. Greeley. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The Bishop and the Missing L Train


Book Description

Millions of Blackie Ryan fans will be thrilled with his return in this exciting novel of mystery and suspense. Bestselling novelist Andrew M. Greeley has captured the imagination of the mystery reading public with the improbable Bishop Blackie Ryan, who works for the aristocratic, haughty, sometimes arrogant but often slyly good humored Sean Cardinal Cronin, the Archbishop of Chicago. The Vatican has just assigned auxiliary Bishop Gus Quill to the Archdiocese of Chicago over the violent protests of Archbishop Sean Cronin, and the not so silent protests of Bishop Blackie. Bishop Quill is under the illusion, one might say delusion, that he has been sent from Rome to replace the good Cardinal when in fact Rome was dying to get rid of him because of his incompetence. Immediately on arriving in Chicago, he manages to disappear while riding the L Train and it is up to Blackie to find him. As the Cardinal says, "The Vatican does not like to lose bishops, even auxiliaries." And thus begins the search for the missing bishop who no one really wants to find. Of course, none of this is too much for the intrepid little Bishop Ryan. He faces these problems squarely and, with the kind of deductive mind reminiscent of G.K Chesterton's Father Brown, manages to find solutions to some of the most baffling mysteries he has ever encountered. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




The Archbishop in Andalusia


Book Description

The Archbishop in Andalusia opens an exciting new chapter in the illustrious career of one of Andrew Greeley's most beloved characters. Taking leave of his usual Chicago haunts, Archbishop John Blackwood Ryan travels to the south of Spain in this latest mystery by bestselling author Andrew M. Greeley. Ostensibly "Blackie" is in the historic city of Seville to attend a conference on American philosophy, but a far more critical assignment also requires his attention. The local cardinal has summoned the wily archbishop to Spain in hopes that Blackie can avert a murder before it happens. The threat of violence hangs ominously over the regal palace of a family of wealthy Spanish aristocrats. Dona Teresa, a pious widow whose exotic beauty unsettles even Blackie, finds herself beset by avaricious relatives determined to control her life and fortune. A tangled web of obligations, traditions, and frustrated sexual desires binds the family together even as they bitterly contend against one another. With three generations of passionate nobility sharing the same roof, it seems only a matter of time before pride, greed, and lust leads to bloodshed. But while the archbishop attempts to forestall a modern-day Spanish tragedy, dramatic events back in Chicago conspire to change his life forever. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




Lord of the Dance


Book Description

A classic tale by one of America's most beloved storytellers. High in the cold skies above China, Daniel Farrell flew alone, a spy pilot on secret surveillance. It was to be his last mission. . . . When the news of his loss was reported to his family, the rich and influential Farrells of Chicago, they mourned him and let the years bury what was too painful to face . . . until a granddaughter's innocent school assignment threatened to expose the family's hidden skeletons. The Farrells had worked their way up from poverty to become the owners of a Chicago construction empire. But behind the façade of piety and public service, the family hid a shocking private scandal. There was a reason they had never insisted on a full investigation of the disappearance of Danny Farrell. . . . With a master storyteller's skill, Andrew M. Greeley disentangles the web of deception to reveal the souls of men and women ravaged by love and hate and the struggle for success. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.