Circle of Chesterfield (Callan Morrow Mysteries)

Professor Callan Morrow finds a card with an intriguing insignia on the outside flap and a student's name on the inside, a student who suddenly disappears from class. When another student is found dead in a sweat lodge that authorities first believe to be a hazing incident, the college president requests Callan, a former fraud examiner, to investigate on the college's behalf. Callan's interviews friends, family, and faculty members but comes up short due to answers shrouded in secrecy, lies, and fear. His investigation becomes more critical, however, when a second student dies in an unlikely area of the state. Could his missing student be the next victim? The common denominator seems to be one of the college's professors with extreme ideological ideas on predicting the future through the study of constellations, ancient Native American mounds used to celebrate the equinoxes and solstices, and a man from Detroit who tried a similar, but failed attempt, one hundred years ago. Callan's investigation twists and turns but eventually leads him to a small town on the banks of the White River in Indiana, a town of ancient folklore, superstition, and spiritualism that becomes the focal point for the professor's celestial delusions.