Please welcome Donna Fletcher Crow, to explain the path her historical Monastery Murders series has taken. One lucky reader who leaves a comment will win a copy of one of Donna’s books, print or e-book, your preference! So all you lurkers out there who read but don’t comment, today’s your day!
The Monastery Murders: A Year of Life-changing Adventures
Felicity Howard is a young American woman studying in a theological college in a monastery in rural Yorkshire. And no one finds that more surprising than Felicity herself.
But teaching school was so boring (even in London) and what else can she do with a classics major? Besides, she makes all her decisions on impulse.
When she finds her favorite monk brutally murdered and Father Antony, her church history lecturer, covered in his blood, however, she begins to question the wisdom of this decision. An enigmatic book of poetry Father Dominic gave Felicity just before his death catapults Felicity and Antony into an adventure chasing and being chased by murderers across northern England.
Thus A Very Private Grave begins the Monastery Murders, a series that follows Felicity and Antony through the most tumultuous and transformative year of their lives.
In book 2, A Darkly Hidden Truth, Felicity is off to become a nun, in spite of the fact that Antony begs her to help him find a stolen valuable icon. Then her difficult mother arrives unexpectedly and a good friend turns up murdered. The ensuing chase takes them from London to the water-soaked Norfolk Broads.
In An Unholy Communion, Antony is leading a youth pilgrimage across Wales, and Felicity joins him for some much-needed relaxation—until their idyllic ramble turns into a life-and-death struggle between good and evil.
Book 4, A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary, finds Felicity off to translate a manuscript in a convent in Oxford. “What could be safer?” she asks Antony when he warns her to be careful. When severed body parts start showing up in ancient reliquaries, Felicity learns that murder can stalk even Oxford’s hallowed shrines.
An All-Consuming Fire brings the year full circle as Felicity plans their Christmastide wedding while Antony narrates a mini-series for the BBC. It will all be perfect. If only Felicity can keep her mother from turning the event into a royal production and escape the murderer stalking the Yorkshire Moors.
Donna Fletcher Crow is a lifelong Anglophile, former English teacher, and a Companion of the Community of the Resurrection, the monastery that serves as a model for this series. She conceived the series when her daughter Elizabeth found teaching classics in London to be boring, went off to study in a monastery in Yorkshire and married…
You can see information about all her books and pictures from her research trips at http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/ and follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Donna-Fletcher-Crow-Novelist-of-British-History-355123098656/
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 
Dear Auntie M, Thank you so much for hosting me on your blog. I look forward to hearing from lots of your readers. Can’t wait to see who wins the free book.
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Hello, I’ve just read your post and an very interested in reading your work. Thank you, Kay Wilson
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Thank you so much, Kay! I think you’re our first entrant–maybe that will be good luck.
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These sound really interesting. Louis Penny used a monastery in one of her Three Pines series novels. It isn’t what I would have thought of for a mystery but the contrast of the peacefulness with the harshness of murder really gave an interesting twist and shock to the reader. I look forward to learning more about Donna’s books.
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Yes, Sherri, I think The Beautiful Mystery is one of Louise Penny’s best. You absolutely hit it on the head–it’s exactly the contrast that fascinates me. Peace and beauty vs. violence and death–but then, so much of life is light and dark.
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Congratulations, Sherri! You’re our winner. I’m assuming you refer a print copy? Marni sent me your address so I can get A Very Private Grave, book 1 in the series, in the post tomorrow. Happy adventuring with Felicity.
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I have read the first book and I am absolutely thrilled. I want to read the others too although I didn’t have the rest of the series. I really love Felicity and Anthony. I ship them so much. Haha.
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Thank you so much! You have made my day, Janelle! I’ll have to admit that Felicity is a lot of fun to work with–mostly because she thinks she know everything when, really, she has so much to learn.
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