Murder in the Apothecary

De: Joseph Hodgkins

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

THE SECOND EDITION, PUBLISHED IN MAY 2026 BY JOSPH B. HOSGKINS, IS COPYRIGHTED AND INCLUDES MINOR EDITS, CORRECTIONS, CHANGES, AND ADDITIONS, BUT THE STORY REMAINS UNCHANGED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,

This crime drama begins in a small village near Zacatecas City, North-Central Mexico, where Church Gagne, a blacker-than-black ops CIA operations officer, is recovering from nearly fatal wounds received on his last, abortive mission.

The story quickly moves to Morris County, northern New Jersey, where Nancy Clarke, a pleasing high school senior and part-time employee in Doc Piscator’s Canal Ville Apothecary, disappears. Her remains are later found in the woods near the towpath of the defunct Morris Canal. Tom Johnson, the local police chief, is quite sure he knows who the killer is but is frustrated because he lacks sufficient evidence to obtain search or arrest warrants. Nancy’s mother, Zoe, is equally frustrated. She turns to the Reverend Elizabeth Williamson, the attractive, thirty-three-year-old Rector of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, who is a recovering alcoholic, and to her newly retired, disillusioned companion, Church Gagne.

Elizabeth and Church investigate in ways that Tom can’t. Together they solve Nancy’s murder and, in the process, uncover an astonishing criminal conspiracy that has operated from the Canal Ville Apothecary for years.

With vignettes of history about the Morris Canal and northern Morris County, this drama has an attention-grabbing cast of characters including: El Gordo, a Mexican cartel boss; Ronnie Gruenburg, a film noir detective, from the County Prosecutor’s Office, who’s on his final case before retirement; a N.J. mob boss affiliated with the “Five Families;” Judy, Elizabeth’s cousin, a computer savant, who was a world-class hacker before becoming a cyber warrior for the government and industry; Bill, Elizabeth’s stockbroker father, who surprisingly has the president’s direct line in his contact list; and Father John, a priest who is described as “a Jesuit’s Jesuit,” who aids Church while he recovers in Mexico; and Jacques, Elizabeth’s intrepid chocolate Lab.