When Erin, Ohio native Jamie Ellicott returns home as best-selling author James Ivanhoe after a 13-year absence, it's like the return of the Prodigal Son. His ill and aging father welcomes him with open arms. Ivanhoe's two brothers, however, are less forgiving. The whole town gets drawn into the family drama when Ivanhoe seeks to march in the annual St. Patrick's Day parade under the banner of an anti-technology group called the Ned Ludd Society. That's a thumb in the collective eye of his siblings, who own a company that makes microcircuits. As a member of the parade committee, St. Benignus...

There's no holiday from homicide for amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe and his long-suffering brother-in-law, Jeff Cody. Murderers' Row, their second casebook of shorter stories, collects three adventures connected with what should have been happy occasions.