The Dangling Steeplejack: A Father Declan Supernatural Mystery

By Patrick Dorn

Entangled in Terror!

When a gifted priest discovers a petrified ghost dangling outside Sligo Cathedral's belfry, he must go to dizzying and dangerous heights to help the frenzied phantom down. Or rather, up.
Set in Ireland, the Father Declan Supernatural Mysteries are upbeat, redemptive contemporary fantasy short stories. Some are humorous, and others mildly horrifying.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patrick Dorn
• Release date: Oct 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223592938

Patrick Dorn

Patrick Dorn used to write weird westerns set in Old California, New Mexico, and Colorado, but then he visited Ireland. Now his supernatural fiction alternates between The West and The Emerald Isle, but is always, always weird. He's also an Anglican priest and a full-time chaplain. Check out Patrick's blog, stories, plays, musicals, children's books, and more at www.PatrickDorn.com. You can reach him at [e-mail]

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The Dangling Steeplejack

THE DANGLING STEEPLEJACK

A FATHER DECLAN SUPERNATURAL MYSTERY

PATRICK DORN

The Dangling Steeplejack Copyright © 2023 by Patrick Dorn.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To Walter Ryan-Purcell and the friends I made on Walter’s Way Tours. And to the priests and people of Sligo’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, who made me feel welcome in their majestic house of worship.

CONTENTS

Entangled in Terror

The Dangling Steeplejack

Also by Patrick Dorn

About the Author

ENTANGLED IN TERROR

When a gifted priest discovers a petrified ghost dangling outside Sligo Cathedral’s belfry, he must go to dizzying and dangerous heights to help the frenzied phantom down. Or rather, up.

THE DANGLING STEEPLEJACK

Franciscan Father Declan O’Shea was standing outside Sligo’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception greeting worshipers after the Saturday evening Vigil Mass when he heard a shrieking figure come hurtling down from far above.

Look out, he shouted, throwing himself onto a plump, middle-aged woman with whom he’d been shaking hands. He saw her round eyes open wide and her mouth open even wider as he bounced on top of her. They both gave out an oof, the impact causing them to exhale into each others’ faces.

Her breath smelled like chocolate.

Father Declan twisted his head to the side and saw a gray, human-shaped shadow strike the steps at the base of the bell tower. It shattered into hundreds of jagged shards and then vanished.

Are you all right? he asked the woman.

Oh, yes, Father, she said, panting in his face. Yes, indeed.

The friar pulled himself off the woman and helped her to stand. He looked around. None of the others seemed to have noticed the falling body.