In the Irish town of Schancarrig, the young carve their initials--and those of their loves-into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on behind Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.

Moving to a small country cabin, a once world-famous photographer bonds with a local man and begins to see the world around her in new, deeper dimensions while evaluating second chances at love, career, and self-understanding.

"Bruno's biggest worry at the annual fete in St. Denis is surviving as a last-minute replacement navigator in a car rally race. A young Englishman tells Bruno an intriguing story about a Bugatti Type 57C, lost somewhere in France during World War II. Among the most beautiful cars ever made, it is worth millions and drives its pursuers mad with greed. When two deaths occur during the festivities, Bruno suspects that the events in St. Denis are linked...

In the close-knit Northern Irish village of Ballybucklebo, it's said that a new baby brings its own welcome. Young doctor Barry Laverty and his wife Sue are anxiously awaiting their first child, but as the community itself prepares to welcome a new decade, the closing months of 1969 bring more than a televised moon landing to Barry, his friends, his neighbors, and his patients, including a number of sticky questions. A fledgling doctor joins the practice...

While Moose County is in an uproar over a string of lucrative inheritances, Polly departs for Paris, Koko the irrepressible Siamese meets a piano tuner, Qwill writes a play, and a mysterious bee sting-related death occurs.

James Qwilleran is enjoying a vacation at the Nutcracker Inn, but the tranquillity is soon interrupted when one of the other guests is found dead, and feline detectives Koko and Yum Yum do their best to help Qwill solve the case.

Koko's strange new hobby of dropping himself from balconies has landed him in the oddest of places--a young visitor's head whose wealthy relatives soon fall deathly ill, making Qwill have his work cut out for him.

The people of Moose County prepare to celebrate the gala groundbreaking of a bookstore to replace one that burned down. But on the very same day, the body of a man shot execution style is discovered in a nearby wooded area. Now columnist James Qwill