In Boston, a young woman finds herself pregnant--even though she is still a virgin. In Ireland, another young woman discovers she is in the same impossible condition. And in cities all around the world, medical authorities are overwhelmed by epidemics, droughts, famines, floods, and worse. It all feels like a sign that something awful is coming. Anne Fitzgerald, a former nun turned private investigator, is hired by the Archdiocese of Boston to...

In a sleepy Midwestern town on the banks of the Fox River lives one of the greatest fictional detectives ever created. The benevolent, brilliant Father Dowling of St Hilary's Church has led and cared for his congregation while unraveling the knottiest of mysteries in more than twenty-five novels. Collected here are fifteen of the best Father Dowling short stories, in which the good father takes on cases no less complicated for their brevity. With...

With too many churches and not enough people to fill them, the Archdiocese has to make some cuts, and many of them, including the proposed closing of St. Hilary's are dangeriously close to the bone. Father dowling rushes to drum up support from church officials and parishioners, including the Deveres, who don't want to see the stained glass windows they donated go anywhere other than the church they were meant for, but they can hardly be of help when...

"Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a prominent Catholic, writer, social activist, and co-founder of a movement dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. Her life has been revealed through her own writings as well as the work of historians, theologians, and academics. What has been missing until now is a more personal account from the point of view of someone who knew her well. Dorothy Day: The World Will Be Saved by Beauty is a frank and reflective,...

A young altar boy questions his impoverished family's hard-line Catholic beliefs in the face of his father's weapons-plant job, his mother's diagnosis with cancer, and a peer's struggles against the pressures of growing up too fast.