"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.

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

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.

When the teenaged grand-daughter of Brigid Farrell is given a school assignment to research her heritage, she digs for the truth and uncovers secrets and scandal.

The Bishop's Daughter is a refreshing, romantic love story that looks at love's unpredictability. It is a charming account of what may innocently begin in the head but soon lead to the heart. Unlike the hot, steamy bedroom scenes featuring the cheating spouse, (who never seems to get caught) these genuine lovers realize the essence of love...The essence of love is always purity; Purity in motives and actions. The Bishop's Daughter is a compilation of events and mishaps, certain to keep the imagination guessing and the appetite whet until the very end. Diane Anderson-Kelley is a seasoned, ordained Minister, transformational prophetic teacher, life coach and entrepreneur. Who has spent years equipping young and old for success in life and ministry. She is dedicated to empowering people to believe in themselves and to live out their dreams. Her genuinely, contagious enthusiasm will inspire and challenge you to seize the moment and embrace the next level and dimension. She is the founder of The Daughter's of Zion Ministries, Inc., an innovative personal and spiritual development, and success training alliance designed with women in mind. She is a dedicated marital strategist and consultant, who along with her husband are founders of the Marital Strategist Institute that hosts Power Marriage Conferences. They are a practical, revelatory, teaching outreach team dedicated to supporting and empowering marriages. She is also owner and designer of DKDesigns, an inspirational t-shirt and specialty design products company.

In what James A. Baker III has called the "worst job in Washington," the chief of staff orchestrates the president?s conduct of the U.S. government. He holds the unique responsibility to magnify the time, reach, and voice of the president of the United States. "You need a filter, a person that you have total confidence in who works so closely with you that in effect he is almost an alter ego," Gerald Ford has said. In this volume, resulting from the Washington Forum on the Role of the White House Chief of Staff held in 2000 in Washington, D.C., twelve of the fifteen men who have held the office of chief of staff discuss among themselves and with a select group of participants the challenges, achievements, and failures of their time in that role. Their purpose is to find lessons in governing that will help future chiefs of staff prepare to assume the office and organize the staffs they will lead. These pages of frank and uncensored discussion present in straightforward question-and-answer format the voices of the chiefs of staff themselves concerning the transition from campaign to governance, with its reorganization and refocusing of the president?s team, the reelection drive four years later, and eventually, the closing out of an administration. The group also addresses the place of the White House chief of staff within the larger governing community of the Executive Branch, Congress, interest groups, and the press. The American White House sits at the nerve center of world history, and at the core of this nerve center, a massive bureaucratic operation exists to process the flow of information and policy. The White House chief of staff manages that operation. So important has that office become, that to ignore its requirements risks presidential fate itself and indeed, the fate of the republic.

n THE BISHOP'S WIFE we see William Pitt the Younger through the eyes of Elizabeth, the wife of Bishop Pretyman, who was Pitt's tutor and one of his closest friends. We see how funny and friendly Pitt was in private. As Elizabeth's story unfolds we encounter a breath-taking gallery of eighteenth century leading lights, both social and political: William Wilberforce, Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, George Canning, George Castlereagh, Sir John Moore, and, not least, Lord Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. We see the King and Queen, the poet William Wordsworth and painter J. M. W Turner, all in a vivid social and political setting as England faces turbulent times, and as she defeats Napoleon to gain control of the seas and consolidate her empire.

The start of an exciting new series by the beloved New York Times bestseller.