"See to it, Blackwood," says the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, and Blackie Ryan, the Cardinal's auxiliary bishop, doesn't exactly jump (he never jumps), rather he moseys down to Washington, D.C., where one of his friends, Jack Patrick McGurn, called "Machine Gun McGurn" by the media, has surprisingly just been elected president and needs his help. Blackie's first confrontation is with Washington bureaucracy; the powers that be don't want to give Blackie a pass to wander in and out of the Oval Office at will. The bureaucracy blinks first and Blackie gets his pass. Blackie, who can do anything, has been called on to deal with ghosts in the White House. Yes, poltergeists. But there are more problems in the White House than ghosts. A conspiracy abroad in the land results in two men trying to blow up the White House. Happily, Blackie has one of his intuitive moments and manages to get a picture of the terrorists, and he didn't forget to take the cap off his camera. He also got the license number of the getaway car. Blackie also has to deal with four enchantingly beautiful women who, without knowing it, may be responsible for the strange ghostlike behavior of an unhappy spirit. None of these things does Blackie find daunting. He stumbles about his business and waits for enlightenment to come. The Bishop in the West Wing is one of the finest of the Blackie Ryan stories .We meet again a great cast of characters: Sean Cronin, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, who is turning out to be one of the treasures of modern American detective fiction; Mike Casey, the cop turned painter, and Dr. Kate Murphy, Blackie's beautiful and terrifyingly smart sister. With this cast of characters the poor ghosts deserve our pity. Andrew Greeley was a guest at the White House three times during the most recent administration and his keen eye and powers of observation are put to remarkable use in this latest Blackie Ryan mystery/adventure. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Bishop in the West Wing is one of the finest of the Blackie Ryan stores. We meet again a great cast of characters: Sean Cronin, the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, who is turning out to be one of the treasures of modern American detective fiction; Mike Casey, the cop thurned painter, and Dr. Kate Murphy, Blackie's beautiful and terrifyingly smart sister. With this cast of characters the poor ghosts deserve our pity. Andrew Greeley was a guest at the White Hosue three times during the most recent administration and his keen eye and powers of observation are put to remarkable use in this latest Blackie Ryan mystery.

The Archbishop in Andalusia opens an exciting new chapter in the illustrious career of one of Andrew Greeley's most beloved characters. Taking leave of his usual Chicago haunts, Archbishop John Blackwood Ryan travels to the south of Spain in this latest mystery by bestselling author Andrew M. Greeley. Ostensibly "Blackie" is in the historic city of Seville to attend a conference on American philosophy, but a far more critical assignment also requires his attention. The local cardinal has summoned the wily archbishop to Spain in hopes that Blackie can avert a murder before it happens. The threat of violence hangs ominously over the regal palace of a family of wealthy Spanish aristocrats. Dona Teresa, a pious widow whose exotic beauty unsettles even Blackie, finds herself beset by avaricious relatives determined to control her life and fortune. A tangled web of obligations, traditions, and frustrated sexual desires binds the family together even as they bitterly contend against one another. With three generations of passionate nobility sharing the same roof, it seems only a matter of time before pride, greed, and lust leads to bloodshed. But while the archbishop attempts to forestall a modern-day Spanish tragedy, dramatic events back in Chicago conspire to change his life forever. . . . At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A priest has gone missing in Paris, and Bishop Blackie Ryan is sent to the rescue.

This is the third volume of Anthony Emery's magisterial survey, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500, first published in 2006. Across the three volumes Emery has examined afresh and re-assessed over 750 houses, the first comprehensive review of the subject for 150 years. Covered are the full range of leading homes, from royal and episcopal palaces to manor houses, as well as community buildings such as academic colleges, monastic granges and secular colleges of canons. This volume surveys Southern England and is divided into three regions, each of which includes a separate historical and architectural introduction as well as thematic essays prompted by key buildings. The text is complemented throughout by a wide range of plans and diagrams and a wealth of photographs showing the present condition of almost every house discussed. This is an essential source for anyone interested in the history, architecture and culture of medieval England and Wales.

The aim of the volume is to bring together the latest research on the importance of bishops’ palaces for social and political history, landscape history, architectural history and archaeology. It is structured in three sections: design and function, landscape and urban context, and architectural form and includes contributions from the late Antique period through to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, considering bishops’ residences in England, Scotland, Wales, the Byzantine Empire, France, and Italy.

Andrew M. Greeley's Blackie Ryan stories are reviewed and explicated in this study of the author's novels featuring the delightful and leprechaun like detective. The book surveys detective fiction in which the unique, irrestible, and sometimes irrepressible Blackie Ryan, who is sometimes, but not always, a persona for the author, appears. A composite portrait of Blackie is drawn for the reader. The themes—both sociological and religious—that occur in the fiction are highlighted and explored, as are the various literary devices that the author employs to create his stories. The book includes a "Foreword" written by Andrew M. Greeley, world renowned sociologist, priest, and Professor of Social Science at the university of Chicago.

This lavishly illustrated book looks at the art and architecture of episcopal palaces as expressions of power and ideology. Tracing the history of the bishop's residence in the urban centers of northern Italy over the Middle Ages, Maureen C. Miller asks why this once rudimentary and highly fortified structure called a domus became a complex and elegant "palace" (palatium) by the late twelfth century. Miller argues that the change reflects both the emergence of a distinct clerical culture and the attempts of bishops to maintain authority in public life. She relates both to the Gregorian reform movement, which set new standards for clerical deportment and at the same time undercut episcopal claims to secular power. As bishops lost temporal authority in their cities to emerging communal governments, they compensated architecturally and competed with the communes for visual and spatial dominance in the urban center. This rivalry left indelible marks on the layout and character of Italian cities.Moreover, Miller contends, this struggle for power had highly significant, but mixed, results for western Christianity. On the one hand, as bishops lost direct governing authority in their cities, they devised ways to retain status, influence, and power through cultural practices. This response to loss was highly creative. On the other hand, their loss of secular control led bishops to emphasize their spiritual powers and to use them to obtain temporal ends. The coercive use of spiritual authority contributed to the emergence of a "persecuting society" in the central Middle Ages.