In the latest Homer Kelly mystery, Homer and his wife Mary are engaged in a steeplechase, a pursuit of a mysterious lost church. Chapters alternate between present and past, and slowly the events of 1868 in the town of Nashoba unfold as a disabled Civil War vet tries to get back to normal. Central to the story is a gigantic tree, the Great Nashoba Chestnut. And crucially intermingled with its fate are a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff. In addition to the customary impeccable sleuthing, the author has provided numerous drawings and a number of nineteenth-century photographs.