Stephen Nash is dead, and the Prophesied One, Alex Bancroft, is the main suspect. How does one question a religious leader named in an age-old prophecy? Especially when he denies being the Prophesied One? Emily Fisher would like to know, because that’s the job she’s set herself in the appropriately titled chapter 9 of Prophecies and Penalties, “The man of the prophecy.”

If you’re not already reading my weekly serial about a murder in an obscure religious commune in Vermont, you can start out with chapter 1. A new chapter gets posted every Friday.