Grace Akers is hung from a beam over the altar of the Harford Independent Bible Church, and shortly thereafter, on the first day of deer season, her husband is shot dead on the property of the Smiley family. Kate and Ben Pierce, the new owners of a country home in Harford, become involved in the case through Jenny Smiley, the remarkable daughter of Pastor Paul Smiley, after Jenny is attacked in a highly novel way. The only obvious common denominator in the murders is the church. But how could the church possibly be involved?

"How?" is the question that tantalizes Brad Jackson, Pennsylvania...

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission decides to study the feasibility of building a dam on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River near Hallstead. Lizbeth Scott, Chief Geologist who is sent to manage the studies, soon finds herself at the center of a political storm. Bob Botts, who engineered the storm, sees the economic development possibilities of such a project, and moves quickly to get the public to support it.

The project unites diverse economic groups behind the project and numerous environmental and conservation groups against it. It also attracts the attention of Johnny...

What appears to be an unfortunate chainsaw accident to a reclusive neighbor at Ben and Kate's vacation home in Susquehanna County pulls Ben and Sergeant Brad Jackson into a whirlpool of activities involving an unscrupulous logger, a young Muslim scientist/inventor who is also a neighbor but largely unknown in the Harford community and, ultimately, three deaths.

The incidents affecting both neighbors enable Ben and Kate to expand their Susquehanna County landholdings while initiating them into the basics of the Muslim faith and the 'mysteries" of forest stewardship. The story ends with Kate...

Chip Brown, a retired diplomat, is living in the family manse in Montrose, Pennsylvania when he receives a note threatening death by fire unless he returns "the Yasna," a liturgical work written and used by the followers of Zoroaster long before the time of Christ. At the suggestion of retired Philadelphia homicide detective Kate Pierce, Chip digs into the history of his diplomatic career that was terminated abruptly when his wife, Henna, was uncovered as a Soviet spy. Follow Chip from quiet Montrose to Moscow as, in a race against time, he learns about Zoroastrianism, tries to find out why...