Here’s the Church, Here’s the Steeple introduces Andy Gammon,a former history teacher and transplanted Detroiter, now living in a New England coastal town with her dyed-in-the-wool Yankee husband, two children, and crusty mother-in-law.

When a storm damages the steeple of the First Parish Church of Newburyport, revealing a skeleton holding a silver tankard that has been missing from the church plate since 1811, Andy (who has been updating the history of the First Parish) becomes involved in an ancient mystery. She finds herself stepping on toes as she seeks answers to questions surrounding a 200 year-old death, Newburyport’s Great Fire of 1811, and certain town officials who might have a few closet skeletons of their own.

A death in the distant past may be the motive for murder in the present. Now that she and her husband Gus have moved back to his native Newburyport, Mass., Andy Gammon's immersed herself in local activities. Her skills as a researcher are requested by the Tricentennial committee when they update the town history. As she and her fellow researchers are working in the old church, they discover a body hidden in the steeple along with a silver tankard missing since the great fire of 1811, which Andy's research reveals was not an accident but the final act of an unidentified firebug. She suspects that the murdered teen whose corpse she's found is someone whose involvement in the fire has been covered up by prominent citizens.

Then a fresher body is discovered in the church, that of a contemporary local Lothario who'd been restoring the steeple. Many of the town leaders are descendants of suspects long dead and gone, and when someone sets fire to Andy's garden shed, she realizes that one of them must be unhappy with her research. Despite the threats, Andy continues to investigate both murders, barely escaping with her life when a modern killer tries to add her to the list.

Former Motor City social studies teacher Andy Gammon wants to be part of life in her husband’s small Massachusetts hometown of Newburyport so the mother of two children joins every committee looking for volunteers. Her latest joining is on a historical committee to update the information on the First Parish Church in time for a tricentennial gala. Andy is to research and write up between the years 1801 and 1850. Her mother-in-law Mayta provides her with some books to help her.

A storm damages the church’s steeple, but also reveals a corpse buried inside for about two centuries. As she links the body to the Great Fire of 1811 that destroyed much of the business section, Andy continues to dig into the records of that time over the objections of almost everyone. That is until a second recently murdered corpse is found inside the church and a fire is set to Andy’s home. While the police investigate the current homicide, Andy continues her quest for the truth in the early nineteenth century that she believes is tied to today’s murder.