BookSeriesInOrder.com





Book Notification

Kate Charles Books In Order

Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Publication Order of Callie Anson Books

Publication Order of Book Of Psalms Mysteries Books

A Drink of Deadly Wine (1991)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Snares of Death (1992)Description / Buy at Amazon
Appointed to Die (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Dead Man Out of Mind (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon
Evil Angels Among Them (1995)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Unruly Passions (1998)Description / Buy at Amazon
Strange Children (1999)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cruel Habitations (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Imagine (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Question of Identity (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Through a Glass, Darkly and Other Stories (1970)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Caroline Canfield Mysteries Books

with Rhys Bowen, Various, Joyce Christmas, Rochelle Krich, G. Miki Hayden, Terence Faherty, Margaret Frazer, Dianne Day, Serita Stevens, Jacqueline Fiedler, Tom Kreitzberg
Tiger's Palette (By: Jacqueline Fiedler) (1998)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sketches with Wolves (By: Jacqueline Fiedler) (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Anthologies

Born in Cincinnati as Carol Fosher, Kate Charles and her family moved to Bloomington, Illinois while she was at the age of 10. She later on graduated at Bloomington High School before enrolling with Illinois State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Library Science. She soon after joined Indiana University and earned her MA.

Kate is married to Rory Chase, with whom they currently live with in Ludlow, Shropshire, UK. Among her numerous achievements, Kate is well known for being the former chair of Barbara Pym Society and Crime Writers Association.

Most of her books focus on the issues affecting the Church of England and the world-wide Anglican Communion. She’s best known for her ‘Book of Psalms’ series, which spins around David Middleton-Brown and his on-and-off lover, Lucy Kingsley. This series is believed to have inspired some of the most successful standalone novels such as Strange Children, Cruel Habitations, and Unruly Passions.

In her ‘about us’ page, Kate singles out Agatha Christie and Nancy Drew as the two authors who inspired her to start writing. She decided to focus her writing on the issues affecting the Church of England, based on the ideals of the church institution and the foibles of the people who constituted the institution itself.

Her first book was ‘A Drink of Deadly Wine,’ written in 1991. The book revolves around David Middleton Brown and a group of other characters, mostly his friends. Initially, Kate intended to make the book a one-off released, but later on decided to make it a series under the title ‘The Book of Psalms.’

Each book in the series explores the issues affecting the Church of England. Speaking of which, the Drink of Deadly Wine talks about ‘outing,’ a term Kate came up with long before it even hit the media.

The second book in the series is ‘The Snares Of Death,’ which is centered on the issues surrounding the High or low church divide, as well as issues associated with fundamentalism and extremism.

The third book, “Appointed to Die,” details the problems associated with a cathedral together with its battling personnel. The ordination of women is discussed in the fourth book, ‘A Dead Man out of Mind.’ Lastly we have the Evil angel exploring the ramifications of the financial crisis in the church.

A Drink of Deadly Wine–The first book in the series

The first book of the series opens up with Gabriel Neville, who appears to have everything working out for him. He has a beautiful wife and two twin children who adore him, and on top of that, he’s well respected in his community for his intellectual prowess.

Gabriels works with St. Annes, a prestigious church in Kensington Gardens, London. He’s on the verge of being promoted to the post of an archdeacon when the worst happens, and which threatens to bring his much admired world down.

Turns out, Gabriel had a dark past that he’s all along been keeping secret, only for him to receive an anonymous letter from a person threatening to blow the lid off and expose everything to his congregation and family. Should the person go forth with this threat, then Gabriel’s marriage and his career would all be destroyed.

But how could this person possibly know about a past he believed nobody knew about?

Gabriel has to turn to his only confidant, David Middle-Brown, an old friend with secrets of his own, and with whom they shared an intimate bond in the past. David later on makes arrangement to shift his abode to London, where he stays with his old friend Daphine Elford, a Sacristan at St. Anne’s.

Gabriel asks David to help him try and find out who’s behind the letter. David manages to uncover a lot of hidden truth over cups of tea, part of which include the semblance of passion activated by Emily’s chum Lucy. But his investigation end up heading south. Far worse is that the threat Gabriel received now seems to also threaten the life of a local youth.

The most interesting part of the novel is the way the author develops her characters. The crimes are engrossing, but it’s the characters that will make you keep reading. Spicing up the storyline is the quasi-relationship between Lucy and David, as the author handles it with finesse, while stripping off Gabriel’s innocence with each revelation that crops up.

The Snares of Death

Everyone knows Bob Dexter, the renowned Evangelical clergyman, for his charismatic personality. The problem is that those close to him view him as the wrong-man-of-the-cloth for the job. His unshakable faith in his righteousness and the habit of rubbing people the wrong way makes those close to him hate him to the point of wishing death upon him.

So it’s no surprise when someone threatens to kill him. He’s later on transferred to a small parish in Norfolk, where he begins remolding the traditional Anglo-Catholic church to his own image—selling off church statues and pews and dismantling the shrines in what appears to be an effort to try and modernize the alter. This doesn’t sit well with the parishioners he’s assigned, and it’s just a matter of time before someone gets to him to end his life. The big question to ask is “who will be first to do it?”

The matter is made even worse when he arouses the anger of the local animal rights activists, banging heads with some of his evangelical colleagues.

His family, including his wife Elayne and daughter Becca, are harboring secrets as well that he’ll never come to suspect until that fateful day when he’s murdered.

This murder has an overwhelming number of suspects, even though the case ends with a young man getting arrested as the prime suspect.

Convinced that the young man is innocent, David Middleton-Brown teams up with Lucy Kingsley to get to the bottom of it. They have to dig out hidden agendas and find a way to reveal the concealed sins of the clergy and congregation alike. However, their search seem to bear no solid fruits, until that eventful day, during the annual national Pilgrimage to Walsingham, when the Anglo-Catholic pomp gets heated with evangelical protests and feelings start flying high.

That’s when David realizes the danger knocking at the door, but it’s too late? If he doesn’t do something, then it’s just a matter of time before a second murder occurs.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Kate Charles

Leave a Reply