Illinois Authors

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1994.

In St. Hilary's rectory, Father Dowling meets with a husband seeking an annulment of his marriage. Then he meets with the wife who opposes it--they have been married 30 years. The husband is murdered and Father Dowling goes to work. By the author of Seed of Doubt.

St. Martin's Press, New York : ©1989.

Roger Dowling, the compassionate priest of Fox River, Illinois, investigates the complex web of connections behind a ring used in a parish magic show, inscribed with the initials of a missing woman.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1984.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2008.

Father Dowling becomes entangled in a decade-old crime when he meets Nathaniel Green, returning home after being convicted of killing his terminally ill wife, and suspects that Green may not have committed the crime to which he confessed.

Charter, New York : ©1978.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2005.

When an adopted young woman's search for her birth parents leads to murder, Father Dowling and attorney Amos Cadbury risk the heartbreak and peace of two families as they seek the killer of Martha Lynch's biological father.

Five Star, Waterville, Me. : 2001.

A collection of short stories featuring septuagenarian nun Sister Mary Teresa Dempsey of the Order of Mary and Martha, better known as "Emtee" or "Attila the Nun."

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1992.

"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 accurate sleuthing. In Desert Sinner, a former Las Vegas showgirl named Stacey Wilson is jailed for the murder of her husband, Marvin, a rich playboy whose marriage to the showgirl was a local scandal. Stacey staunchly claims innocence; despite a life sentence, she refuses to disclose her whereabouts on the murder day. While the police see the case as closed, Father Dowling, uncomfortable with the verdict, privately seeks the truth. Sin, innocence, and their linked consequences are played out by a varied cast of characters, in an absorbing plot that Father Dowling's readers will enjoy"--Dust jacket flap.

Worldwide, Toronto ; [1994]

Boxtree, 1992.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2000.

When the body of a murdered mobster is stolen from its grave, Father Roger Dowling tries to discover whether the body's disappearance is related to the mobster's mysterious death.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1997.

Sister Mary Teresa hunts a serial killer in Chicago. The novel is as much about murder, as about feminism, the use of computers in convents and the aging of the orders. By the author of Let Us Prey.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1977.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : ©2003.

Enlisted by the head of a local family to help her niece relinquish her ambitions for more earthly pursuits, Father Dowling becomes enmeshed in the family's edgy interrelations, which are marked by an unsolved murder.

Charter, New York : 1980, ©1979.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1981.

Vanguard Press, New York, N.Y. : ©1985.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1993.

A former student of Sister Mary Theresa has been murdered, and her estranged husband pleads guilty, to the surprise of their friends, but when a second related murder occurs, the Chicago nun sets out to trap the true killer.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2002.

During a spiritual retreat on the grounds of a declining religious order, Father Dowling finds himself investigating the murder of a man on the property and discovers that the case is complicated by a long-standing real-estate dispute.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2004.

Father Dowling confronts an ethical dilemma when one of his parishioners reveals information in confidence about a troubled marriage, and the parishioner's spouse later becomes the victim of a brutal hit-and-run "accident" that could be murder.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1985.

Father Dowling must see through the havoc of Latin American politics, liberation, theology, terrorism, and cocaine in the quiet little town of Fox River.

Charter, New York : 1981.

While Father Dowling investigates the death of a wealthy dowager, a second death occurs as the family squabbles over the contents of her will.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1986.

The sister investigates the murders of a sleazy author and a tv interviewer.

"When Donna Moran leaves Chicago, it's as the daughter of Iggie Moran, a businessman with a shady background and a reputed drug kingpin. When she returns, she is Sister Mary Magdalene of the reclusive Carmelite order, called to testify before a grand jury in a sensational murder trial that touches her father. Sister Mary Teresa Dempsey of the declining order of Martha and Mary offers to shelter the controversial nun. But the M & M's Frank Lloyd Wright--designed home on Walton Street becomes a madhouse, besieged by the media, police, and curious onlookers. When her guest disappears after an early-morning Mass, Emtee Dempsey and her sister nuns Kim and Joyce mount their own investigation--only to unravel a tangled family history that may expose a murderer."--Book jacket.

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1988, ©1987.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1983.

Clare O'Leary comes to see Father Dowling claiming that she has run away from her husband because he was planning to kill her.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2006.

Father Dowling comes to the aid of Gregory Barret, a former classmate who had left the priesthood twenty-five years earlier, when he is sued by a woman alleging that he had sexually exploited her as a child, a case that is complicated by the son she claims is his.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1977.

Father Roger Dowling, reluctant detective and weary parish priest, is back. His hopes for a quiet retreat in the country are shattered when one of his companions is murdered. Police Captain Keegan needs his help, so Father Dowling puts his keen mind to work. Will the priest identify the killer before he, himself, becomes a victim?

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1996.

In the 17th Father Dowling mystery, the plot deals with adoption and murder. At its center is a woman born out of wedlock. The mother gave her up for adoption and she may have been adopted by the father.

St. Martin's Press, New York : ©1988.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2007.

The discovery of the mangled body of Wallace Flanagan in one of his father's cement mixers sends Father Dowling on an investigation into the secret past of the victim, the heir to a lucrative concrete business, who supposedly had left town more than a decade earlier.

Five Star, Detroit, MI : 2009.

Presents fifteen short stories featuring amateur sleuth Father Dowling.

Vanguard Press, New York : ©1981.

Signet, New York, N.Y. : ©1992.

St. Martin's Minotaur, New York : 2001.

St. Hillary's Father Dowling investigates the death of a young woman killed in traffic. Meanwhile, the rivalry between elderly suitors threatens to disrupt the peaceful parish.