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Ralph M. McInerny
Books in Order: 74 titles
The book list is sorted in publication date order - newest first. You can sort the list by clicking on the Sort button. To see a simple list or a cover view list, click on the icons below.
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The Compassion of Father Dowling
In a sleepy Midwestern town on the banks of the Fox River lives one of the greatest fictional detectives ever created. Father Dowling, the benevolent, brilliant priest of the St. Hilary church, leads and cares for his congregation and also finds the ...
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Good Knights
These stories represent an intermediate stage in the evolution of the Knight brothers in Ralph McJnerny's fiction. In The Noonday Devil, Phil, in his capacity as private detective, was fairly close to the action, but by no means the major character. ...
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Sham Rock
A decades-old missing-persons mystery lures corpulent Notre Dame professor Roger Knight and his semiretired P.I. brother, Philip, into a sensitive investigation involving alumni. In 1989 David, Timothy and Patrick were close buddies and rivals for a ...
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Relic of Time
Five centuries ago, a Mexican peasant was visited by the Virgin Mary. His cloak was marked with the image of the Holy Mother surrounded by roses. It remains a priceless relic in Mexican religious culture. And it has been stolen. Retired CIA agent Vi...
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Stained Glass
Art is long... And life is short. Word has come to Father Dowling that his beloved St. Hilary's is about to be closed. While the popular parish priest manages to take the curveballs of life -- and death -- in stride, his flock is in an uproar. Espec...
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The Third Revelation
An astounding miracle. Two vicious murders. A secret that could change the world. The Rosary Chronicles begin. Retired CIA operative Vincent Traeger spent years working undercover in Rome. But when the Vatican's Secretary of State is brut...
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The Wisdom of Father Dowling
Here, collected for the first time, are fifteen of the best Father Dowling mystery short stories. Each cunning case is carefully examined by the good father, accompanied by the cast of characters that fans around the world have grown to know and love...
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The Green Revolution
Any year when the Fighting Irish don't go undefeated is a disappointment, but to turn in a losing football season is unheard of. This year the faithful are refusing to admit defeat even as the losses start to pile up. With the students in a funk and ...
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Ash Wednesday
Father Dowling has been serving as parish priest and resident sleuth at St. Hilary's for a while now, but he's no lifer, and there's plenty that he doesn't know about the old guard. So when a stranger comes to Fox River who isn't a stranger to anyone...
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Irish Alibi
With the Fighting Irish set to square off against Georgia Tech, Roger Knight, the rotund professor of Catholic studies, and his brother Philip, a semi-retired P.I., know that Notre Dame fans will be out in force. The faithful swear that on game day t...
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The Widow's Mate
When Melissa Flanagan asks Father Dowling to pray for her dead husband's eternal soul, St. Hilary's popular parish priest is concerned with matters of a more corporeal nature-- homicide. Wallace Flanagan had vanished a decade earlier with an inherita...
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The Letter Killeth
Once the college football season draws to a close for the Fighting Irish, there is little reason to ride out the winter in South Bend, Indiana. Those who can leave do, but P.I. Philip Knight stays on at Notre Dame when the university asks him to disc...
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The Prudence of Flesh
Gregory Barret, a classmate of Father Dowling, left the priesthood twenty-five years ago. Now, after all these years, a woman brings a multi-million dollar suit against him alleging he sexually exploited her as a child. Barret is considering a counte...
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Irish Gilt
When South Bend, Indiana, Detective Phil Knight meets Boris Henry, an enthusiast of the historic Father John Zahm, a Notre Dame priest who was once involved in theoretical disputes during the 19th century, he wants to introduce Boris to his brother, ...
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Blood Ties
Henry Dolan's granddaughter, Martha Lynch, adopted 23 years earlier, wants to find her birth parents. Her adopted parents are frantic over the idea of losing her, so Henry seeks out Father Dowling for help. Meanwhile, Martha's birth father, Nathanie...
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Green Thumb
One early morning during spring break, Detectives Phil Knight and Jimmie Stewart are enjoying a golf game at the University of Notre Dame when they find a man apparently suffering a heart attack on the green. They summon help and the man is rushed to...
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Requiem for a Realtor
Father Dowling, respected by all, is well-known for being willing to lend a helping hand whenever he can. So it's no surprise when Stanley Collins shows up at the St. Hilary rectory to confide in Father Dowling about the troubled marriage of one of t...
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Irish Coffee
When Fred Neville of the Notre Dame athletic department winds up dead under mysterious circumstances, amateur sleuth and academic Roger Knight, and his brother, Phil, a P.I., investigate the apparent murder. The trouble: no suspects. No suspects, tha...
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Last Things
Father Dowling is used to unsolicited knocks on the rectory door, having done more than his share of counseling and assisting in delicate situations during his long career. So when Eleanor Wygant comes to visit Father Dowling he receives her gracious...
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The Ablative Case
Anthony Award-winning author
It seemed like such a simple task. Dwayne Navrone wants his wife out of the way so he can marry his voluptuous mistress. He finds two men to stage a kidnapping and murder, which will leave Dwayne free to restart his li...
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Celt and Pepper
Martin Kilmartin is a popular young Notre Dame professor and a promising poet, and as far as everyone on campus knows, he's off to visit his ancestral Ireland over winter break. It's a shocking moment when Professor Kilmartin is discovered dead in hi...
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Murder Most Catholic: Divine Tales of Profane Crimes
The murder mysteries that make up this unusual anthology all have one thing in common: the hero or heroine who solves the crime is a Catholic cleric. From Chesterton's classic priest-turned-detective Father Brown to Peter Tremayne's historical Celtic...
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Prodigal Father
Father Roger Dowling is a busy man. He's got the ambitious and all-encompassing task of running St. Hilary's Parish, dealing with his busybody housekeeper, Mrs. Murkin, and counseling his flock with his characteristic blend of faith and compassion. H...
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Emerald Aisle
Heavyweight Notre Dame professor Roger Knight and his P.I. brother Philip investigate a baffling puzzle when some extremely rare literary documents go missing in the fifth installment of this smart academic mystery series. Complicating matters fo...
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Triple Pursuit
In the latest installment of Ralph McInerny's beloved series, Father Dowling is caught in the middle of a dispute between former radio celebrity Jack Gallagher and Austin Rooney over one woman's affections. Meanwhile, Jack is the prime suspect in ...
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Still Life
This new series by the author of the popular Father Dowling series introduces Egidio Manfredi, a detective in charge of special projects who is nearing retirement, and Noonan, his much younger partner. Based in Fort Elbow, OH, the two are called upon...
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Murder Most Divine: Ecclesiastical Tales of Unholy Crimes
Among the Ten Commandments, Thou Shalt Not Kill is self-evidently one of the most basic and fundamental of them all. Even so, there are those who would break that commandment with impunity, as there also are those who enthusiastically break them all....
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The Book of Kills
Another cleverly constructed and witty installment from one of the genre's masters, The Book of Kills is a delightfully sinister stroll through the hallowed halls of academia. Prior to the kidnapping of several school administrators and the desecr...
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Heirs and Parents
Heirs and Parents is the sixth title in Ralph McInerny's delightful series of mystery novels featuring smalltown midwestern lawyer Andrew Broom and his irascible local rival Frank McGough.
Set in the town of Wyler, Indiana, Heirs and Parents ... -
Irish Tenure
On a snowy morning that transforms Notre Dame's campus into a white cathedral, the body of philosophy professor Amanda Pick is found in a freezing lake. For private detective Philip Knight and his genius professor brother, Roger, suspects are as nume...
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Lack of the Irish
When sports and religion collide, it results in an ungodly murder...
As the Notre Dame campus gears up for one of the most religiously-charged sporting events in history-the big game between Catholic Notre Dame and Protestant pastor Edwina Mar... -
The Red Hat
"A murder; an accusation of sexual misconduct in the future cardinal's past; a seminary rivalry; vaulting ambition; a power play in international finance; a virtual schism in the American hierarchy; another Avignon pope; two or three really nice peop...
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On This Rockne
On the football-obsessed campus of Notre Dame, Marcus Bramble, a wealthy alum with an unhealthy passion for the sport, says he'll contribute $10 million if it's put toward a memorial to Knute Rockne, the university's legendary football coach. When Ma...
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Law and Ardor
When the corpse of Edgar Bissonet -- a prosperous and influential businessman, but not the best golfer -- turns up at the seventh hole of the Wyler Country Club, lawyer Andrew Broom's hopes for a leisurely summer of golf and gossip quickly disappear....
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A Cardinal Offense
When a friend gives him tickets to the Notre Dame-USC football game and a Vatican cardinal asks to meet him there for a conference, Father Dowling travels to Indiana, where the visiting cardinal is kidnapped during the game....
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Seed of Doubt
When Maggie Sinclair, a wealthy member of Father Dowling's parish, suddenly dies, Dowling suspects foul play, and the amateur sleuth investigates the secrets surrounding the squabbling Sinclair clan and their valuable art collection....
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Desert Sinner
Desert Sinner is the fifteenth mystery to feature Roger Dowling, the shrewd and compassionate priest of Fox River, Illinois. Ralph McInerny's novels are known for their subtle humor, humanity, grasp of religious issues, and Dowling's instinctively ac...
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Judas Priest
Christopher Bourke is an ex-priest and a former colleague of Roger Dowling. With his wife, Janet Gray - a lapsed nun herself - he co-hosts a cable television show espousing carnal pleasures rather than spiritual aspirations. But when their daughter S...
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The Search Committee
Matthew Rogerson happily passes his time at the Fort Elbow campus of the University of Ohio with thoughts of retirement. His pleasant dreams are interrupted when he finds himself involved in an academic crisis. The school chancellor, arrested for dru...
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Savings and Loam
MURDER DRAWS ANDREW BROOM INTO ITS FOLD The victim, a client of Broom's, is gunned down in his backyard. But somebody sees the murder. An aging hippie and his nubile young companion seize this gold-en opportunity for blackmail. Ironically, it's An...
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Four on the Floor
Father Dowling is called to investigate when an old man is kidnapped from the church's social center. It turns out that the victim is an ex-con who was imprisoned for embezzling from the bank where he worked as an accountant, and that his kidnappers-...
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Frigor Mortis
From an actuarial point of view, death will come eventually. Stella Arthur can't wait for eventually. She doesn't love George Arthur. She never has. She'd married him for his money and now she wants to kill him for it. Actually, it's Roy Hunt, the to...
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Body and Soil
Till death do us part... After nearly thirty years of unhappily ever after, Wyler, Indiana's most affluent and argumentative couple decided to call it quits. At least Pauline Stanfield did. Hal Stanfield knew a divorce would unearth secrets - both th...
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Abracadaver
NOW YOU SEE HER... NOW YOU DON'T A magic show at St. Hilary's one snowy night proves entertaining for the stragglers who braved the weather. Aggie Miller allows her ring to be used in a disappearing act and Father Dowling chances to notice the ins...
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Cause and Effect
IT'S FUNNY WHAT A MAN DOES WHEN HE'S TOLD HE'S DYING... Andrew Broom has everything: a thriving law practice in Wyler, Indiana, a beautiful and sophisticated wife and more money than he thought he had a right to. He's also in the middle of one of ...
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The Noonday Devil
Among the American bishops vying for the position of the assassinated Cardinal Archbishop of New York is a Russian spy whose true identity is obscured by his long-standing reputation in the ecclesiastic superstructure...
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Connolly's Life
When Jim Clark attends the funeral of an old friend, dissident theologian Michael Connolly, he is concerned by reports of sightings of the dead priest, rumors that have ironic and potentially disturbing ramifications...
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The Second Vespers
Father Dowling sorts through a colorful assortment of scholars, librarians, and writers, all rival claimants to a noted author's unpublished manuscripts and letters, to solve several mysterious accidents--or crimes....
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Lying Three
International politics and terrorism invade a small Chicago suburb when a bungled assassination attempt on a visiting Israeli consul is followed by the murder of Aaron Leib, Fox River's most ardent Zionist...
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Bishop As Pawn
The thoughtful, patient, and wise Father Dowling and Captain Keegan, his friend and associate, play their dangerous parts in a perilous game involving kidnapping for extortion, blackmailing for terror, and murder for revenge...
