D. M. Greenwood

Conrad Duff, warden of Gracemount Theological College, had a talent for generating tensions. Which, as visiting deacon Theodora Braithwaite notes, to judge from the anxieties exhibited by the college staff, has survived his demise. A demise by heart attack that was regretted by few and devoutly wished for by many, including Duff's estranged wife Richeldis and his son, who loathed his father with a vengeance. Then Theodora receives a bizarre summons: Duff's death was not all it seemed. If Theodora desires access to the papers of the college's Victorian founder Newcome to complete the long-cherished research that has brought her to Gracemount, she must oblige the redoubtable Richeldis by turning up the truth about her husband's death. Appalled, Theodora has little choice but to try to comply...

Aggressive, unreliable and frequently intoxicated, Father Hereward Marr's only virtue is his talent for deathbed conversions. So when he is found dead in a pit he himself dug in an attempt to repair the church central heating, few are sorry. But as it becomes clear that his death was not accidental, ecclesiastical alarm bells start ringing and Deaconess Theodora Braithwaite is asked by the Bishop to lend a hand. She has little choice but to oblige and, as she herself acknowledges, she does have a connection with the case. For Amy Marr, the dead man's wife whom Theodora met in her London group for battered clergy wives, is missing: either another murder victim or suspect number one....

"Communities require victims," said Theodora, "and sometimes the priest, being visible and often innocent, fulfills this function." Julia was baffled. "Why?" "To render that community holy, to act as a scapegoat, a focus for the hatreds it cannot otherwise deal with. We all need something we can legitimately hate." England's Medewich Cathedral employs many an industrious clergyman, including, it seems, someone who participates in mass and murder. It falls to cool and clever Deaconess Theodora Braithwaite to hunt down the loose Canon in the Archdiocese. The cathedral itself is run by the iron hand of Canon Wheeler. When the Canon is upset, everyone expects heads to roll -- but not literally. Thus, when young Julia Smith arrives at the diocese to interview for a secretarial position, she is prepared for the unexpected, but quite unprepared for the severed head she discovers in the chapel. The victim: a controversial pastor from a neighboring parish. Not an auspicious beginning to one's first job, but Julia -- like Theodora -- is intrigued by the odd menagerie that is the Canon's staff, and by the passionate undercurrents that run beneath his tyranny. Something is rotten in the Church of England, and Julia and Theodora would do well to beware the machinations of men of the cloth.

"We need new blood here, Miss Braithwaite. We decay, we grow rancid. New blood, I say," Canon Millhaven went on. "But whether as transfusion or sacrifice, I do not pretend to know." Reverend Theodora Braithwaite arrives at the rural cathedral of Bow St. Aelfric to find it a maelstrom of petty clerical politics. The parish has a history of nasty clashes between the townspeople and the clergy, and with an unpleasant new dean assuming control of the cathedral, the age-old feud is poised to re-ignite. The spark comes in the form of a statue -- an ancient pagan idol unearthed on church property. With a face on both the front and the back of his head, Janus is the Roman god of gateways of beginnings and ends. His sudden appearance marks the reawakening of the town's interest in paganism, and proves the end of Dean Vincent Stream, who is murdered at the idol's feet. It falls to Theodora to discover who would offer such a sacrifice, and the canny sleuth is more inclined to look for enemies of the unpopular dean than for pagan worshippers gone awry. Unfortunately, the dean's enemies are many, and Theodora finds herself confronted with a Canon of questionable sanity, squatters with revenge on their minds, and an anonymous journalist whose poison pen draws blood with every word. With the future of both town and church depending on her success, the Reverend races to find out whose grudge has led to such violence -- before it erupts again.