Acclaimed biographer John Loughery tells the story of John Hughes, son of Ireland, friend of William Seward and James Buchanan, founder of St. John’s College (now Fordham University), builder of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, pioneer of parochial-school education, and American diplomat. As archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York in the 1840 and 1850s and the most famous Roman Catholic in America, Hughes defended Catholic institutions in a time of nativist bigotry and church burnings and worked tirelessly to help Irish Catholic immigrants find acceptance in their new homeland. His galvanizing and protecting work and pugnacious style earned him the epithet Dagger John. When the interests of his church and ethnic community were at stake, Hughes acted with purpose and clarity. In Dagger John, Loughery reveals Hughes’s life as it unfolded amid turbulent times for the religious and ethnic minority he represented. Hughes the public figure comes to the fore, illuminated by Loughery’s retelling of his interactions with, and responses to, every major figure of his era, including his critics (Walt Whitman, James Gordon Bennett, and Horace Greeley) and his admirers (Henry Clay, Stephen Douglas, and Abraham Lincoln). Loughery peels back the layers of the public life of this complicated man, showing how he reveled in the controversies he provoked and believed he had lived to see many of his goals achieved until his dreams came crashing down during the Draft Riots of 1863 when violence set Manhattan ablaze. To know "Dagger" John Hughes is to understand the United States during a painful period of growth as the nation headed toward civil war. Dagger John’s successes and failures, his public relationships and private trials, and his legacy in the Irish Catholic community and beyond provide context and layers of detail for the larger history of a modern culture unfolding in his wake.

His opponents called him “Dagger John” with mixed derision and awe. His enemies, and there were many of them, used uglier words. His allies approached him with careful deference, his subordinates with trepidation. He was, in real life, the Most Reverend John Hughes, Archbishop of New York, a one-time day laborer and foreman of slaves who became a preacher and pamphleteer and a political force to be reckoned with. No demure ecclesiastic, Hughes was a hard-nosed battler for the rights of immigrant Irish in the middle decades of the 19th century. He championed their cause in an age when the Catholic Church was only grudgingly accepted as a partner in the American dream. Hughes was, moreover, the prototype of the autocratic prelate who would rule the American Catholic Church for the next one hundred years. Squelching democratic strivings among his clergy and laity whenever they appeared, he created a model for the highly structured Romanized Church that would eventually dominate the American religious scene. This book is the first major biography of John Hughes to be published in more than a century. It reflects new research into the life of Hughes and the details of his many struggles. It does not set out to explain the inner impulses of the man – who was, in the end, tightlipped about his private life. But it does shed new light on the public Hughes, a churchman who appeared in the newspapers as often as he appeared in the pulpit. It recounts his raucous, sometimes hilarious battles with the pre-Civil War nativists, with disgruntled clergy from his own Church, and with public figures such as James Gordon Bennett. It tells of his (often high-handed) dealings with revolutionaries, politicians, fellow bishops, apostates, Presidents, ranting bigots, Popes, and his own poor, belligerent, but fiercely devoted Catholic flock.

Sons of Saint Patrick tells the story of America's premiere Catholic see, the archdiocese of New York—from the coming of French Jesuit priests in the seventeenth century to the early years of Cardinal Timothy Dolan. It includes many intriguing facets of the history of Catholicism in New York, including: the early persecution of and legal discrimination against Catholics the waves of catholic immigrants, most notably from Ireland the Church's rise to power under New York's first archbishop, "Dagger" John Hughes the emerging awareness in the Vatican of New York's preeminence the clashes between America and Rome over the "Americanist" heresy the role New York's archbishops have played in the life of America's greatest city—and in the world The book focuses on the ten archbishops of New York and shows how they became the indispensable partners of governors and presidents, especially during the war-torn twentieth century. Also discussed are the struggles of the most recent archbishops in the face of demographic changes, financial crises, and clerical sex-abuse cases. Sons of Saint Patrick is an objective but colorful portrait of ten extraordinary men—men who were saints and sinners, politicians and pastors, and movers and shakers who as much as any other citizens have made New York one of the greatest cities in the world. All ten archbishops have been Irish, either by birth or heritage, but given New York's changing ethnic profile, Cardinal Timothy Dolan may be the last son of Saint Patrick to serve as its archbishop.

Edgy, twisted and disturbing, the first Crime Writers’ Association Daggers Award retrospective anthology featuring 19 visceral and thrilling stories. Featuring bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina, John Harvey and more. NINETEEN CWA DAGGER AWARD-WINNING SHORT STORIES FROM THE BEST OF THE BEST IN CRIME FICTION The first retrospective of the CWA’s Dagger Award winners, brings together some of the greatest names in crime fiction to deliver a cutthroat collection of serial killers, grizzled detectives, drug dealers and master forgers. Observe as a Senior Curator at the Tate Gallery constructs the perfect crime in Ian Rankin’s “Herbert in Motion”. Watch an unlikely romance sour into a deadly obsession in Stella Duffy’s “Martha Grace”. Face parents who discover their child has committed the unthinkable in Denise Mina’s “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit”. And in Jeffery Deaver’s “The Weekender” an intense hostage situation hits its peak in the most unlikely conclusion. Keep your secrets close, and your daggers drawn. Featuring: Peter O' Donnell (writing as Madeleine Brent), Julian Rathbone, Larry Beinhart, Ian Rankin, Jerry Sykes, Stella Duffy, Jeffery Deaver, Peter Lovesey, Cath Staincliffe, Margaret Murphy, John Harvey, Richard Lange, L. C. Tyler, Denise Mina, Danutah Reah and Lauren Henderson.

*Shortlisted for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award 2017* World-weary Jonathan Craine is a detective at the LAPD who has spent his entire career as a studio ‘fixer’, covering up crimes of the studio players to protect the billion-dollar industry that built Los Angeles. When one of the producers of The Wizard of Oz is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Craine must make sure the incident passes without scandal and that the deceased’s widow, the beautiful starlet Gale Goodwin, comes through the ordeal with her reputation unscathed. But against his better instincts, Craine finds himself increasingly drawn to Gale. And when a series of unsavoury truths begin to surface, Craine finds himself at the centre of a conspiracy involving a Chicago crime syndicate, a prostitution racket and a set of stolen pictures that could hold the key to unravelling the mystery.

A 12-year-old boy, mourning the death of his mother, takes refuge in the myths and fairytales she always loved--and finds that his reality and a fantasy world start to meld.

Nothing is as it seems in Tall Oaks, a small California town where everyone knows each other and violent crime is unheard of. The community's idyllic façade is shattered when a kidnapper in a clown costume snatches three-year-old Harry Monroe from his own home. Despite sensational media coverage and dogged police investigations, the abduction remains a mystery. Three months later, Harry is still missing and most people have moved on, except for Jessica, Harry's distraught mother, and Jim, the local sheriff. Anyone in Tall Oaks could be a suspect: Jerry, the loner with a secret that only his mother knows; Jared, the roving lothario; teenage Manny, an aspiring gangster; and even Jessica's Aunt Henrietta and Uncle Roger, who are clearly hiding something. Chris Whitaker’s debut novel, with its striking blend of tragedy and offbeat humor, was awarded the U.K. Crime Writers' Association New Blood Dagger Award. The Guardian praised this beguiling novel as "a pleasingly unusual mixture of a psychological thriller and screwball comedy," noting that "the combination of verve, humor, and pathos make it well worth a read."