Full of Eyes

FULL OF EYES is a historical mystery novel that tears away the veil of secrecy surrounding secessionists among antebellum Catholics in the South, including the real-life and notorious third bishop of Charleston, Patrick N. Lynch, slaveowner, polymath, famed orator and writer, leading clerical secessionist, and an anti-abolitionist so fervent and eloquent that Horace Greley labeled him The Rebel Bishop in the pages of the N. Y. Herald. Lynch's own diocese kept him under wraps for 150 years. When a wealthy volunteer sacristan is murdered in the Charleston cathedral in April 1861, Lynch acts as a kind of Nero Wolfe--interpreting clues unearthed by his aide, Tom Dockery, a priest and former NYPD officer. As Dockery works to unravel a challenging mystery, with the Lowcountry about to devolve into civil war, he explores his own attitude toward slavery. Before he can decide even what his true feeling are about the brewing War of Northern Aggression, however, he and his bishop must stop a very determined killer ...