Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Death at St. Anselm’s | 1984 | Isabelle Holland | Buy |
| 2 | Flight of the Archangel | 1985 | Isabelle Holland | Buy |
| 3 | A Lover Scorned | 1986 | Isabelle Holland | Buy |
| 4 | A Fatal Advent | 1989 | Isabelle Holland | Buy |
| 5 | The Long Search | 1990 | Isabelle Holland | Buy |
Claire Aldington is a rector’s wife at St. Anselm’s, an Episcopal church in Manhattan, and Isabelle Holland used this setting to build a cozy mystery series grounded in church politics, New York City neighborhoods, and the complicated lives of parishioners. A Death at St. Anselm’s (1984) kicked off the series when a body turns up in the church.
Holland wrote five Claire Aldington novels between 1984 and 1990. The mysteries are traditional in structure, with Claire piecing together clues through conversation and observation rather than forensic science or police procedure. The church setting gives each book a built-in community of suspects, and Holland clearly enjoyed writing about the tensions between faith, propriety, and human weakness.