Fire in the Rectory : Hampshire House Publishing Co. : 9780989333399 : 0989333396 : 14 Mar 2019 : A fire destroys a church rectory in Brooklyn in 1915 and a valuable painting is lost, a Raphael, but was it arson to disguise the theft of the painting? A pacifist running for Congress in Brooklyn receives a death threat, but when he ignores it, his young son is kidnapped and threatened with a gruesome end unless the father drops out of the race. A violinist for the Metropolitan Opera is charged with the murder of another musician in the orchestra, but he vows he had nothing to do with it, that he is being railroaded because he is an Italian national. John Nolan, a private detective and a recent immigrant from Ireland, is drawn into all three cases, challenging his investigative skills and, ultimately, his intuition about people's innocence or guilt. Set during the years of World War I, when America was swelling with newly arrived residents, when bigotry, poverty, and corruption in govern