Homer Kelly Books in Order

Ernest Goss claims to possess scandalous love letters involving Concord's celebrated transcendentalists, then dies from a musket shot. Emerson scholar and detective Homer Kelly must investigate a killing that brings literary history into the present.

Poet Kitty Clark visits Nantucket to watch a solar eclipse, only to find her former lover's wife dead at her feet. Arrested for murder, she turns to Homer Kelly, who suspects the evidence conceals another story.

An explosion at Harvard's Memorial Hall leaves a headless body believed to be a beloved conductor. Professor and former detective Homer Kelly questions the apparent accident as tensions over the university's expansion provide troubling motives.

Edward Heron's death appears to result from asthma and insect stings, but young John Hand suspects a neighbor knows more. He asks his uncle, Homer Kelly, to investigate the people who could benefit from the tragedy.

As Amherst prepares to commemorate Emily Dickinson, a university dormitory burns and two students die. Homer Kelly suspects arson, and further violence draws him into the town's literary celebration and the rivalries surrounding its scholars.

The congregation at Old West Church is shrinking because parishioners keep dying. Former detective Homer Kelly investigates which deaths are natural and which may conceal murder, finding troubling mysteries within a small New England community.

Strange pranks threaten Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, whose founding terms forbid changes to its collection. Hired to investigate, Homer Kelly initially doubts their seriousness until escalating events expose dangerous interests among the museum's circle.

Teaching at an American school in Florence, Homer Kelly confronts murders and a missing student. A literary scavenger hunt based on Dante appears connected to crimes around the city, complicating preparations for a papal visit.

Residents near Walden Pond begin dying while Concord debates new commercial development. Homer Kelly suspects the deaths are connected and investigates a community divided over preserving its historic landscape or reshaping it for the future.

A Boston church replaces its organ after a suspicious fire kills the sexton. When an unattended infant appears on its steps, organist Alan Starr joins Homer Kelly in searching for the child's missing mother.

As Cambridge prepares its annual Christmas Revels, a fatal road incident troubles Mary Kelly. Homer investigates deaths surrounding the production while its director manages a demanding show and tensions mount among performers, families, and townspeople.

Homer Kelly's visiting fellowship at Oxford brings him into a series of suspicious deaths. Academic rivalries, a stolen dodo painting, and disputes linking Darwin to a fierce religious opponent complicate his investigation among the scholars.

Illustrator Annie Swann paints a fairy-tale mural in her new home, but an eerie face repeatedly appears. When a child is found dead beneath the wall, her uncle Homer Kelly investigates the tragedy and surrounding threats.

Homer Kelly attends a rare-books conference in Venice while Mary photographs the city. One of her pictures captures something dangerous, drawing the couple into a murder mystery tied to hidden treasures and wartime secrets.

As Monticello prepares for a presidential celebration, a killer targets young women nearby. Homer Kelly visits his former student, historian Fern Fisher, and investigates when another researcher becomes a suspect and Fern faces danger.

Leonard Sheldrake falls for a woman during an Escher exhibition, then loses contact with her. Recruiting Homer and Mary Kelly to help find her, he uncovers clues that lead through Cambridge toward increasingly dangerous mysteries.

Mary Kelly discovers her supposedly disgraced ancestor's name among Harvard's Civil War dead. She and Homer investigate Seth Morgan's alleged desertion, following family records and wartime clues to understand what happened during and after Gettysburg.

Pressed to follow his successful book with another, Homer Kelly researches Massachusetts churches and discovers one has vanished. His investigation with Mary uncovers a Reconstruction-era mystery involving rival clergymen, a wounded veteran, and a remarkable chestnut tree.