Showing results by author "Donna Fletcher Crow" in All Categories

Felicity Howard, a young American studying in a remote monastery in England is devastated when she finds her beloved Fr. Dominic bludgeoned to death and Fr. Antony, her church history lecturer, soaked in his blood.A Very Private Grave is a contemporary novel with a thoroughly modern heroine who must learn some age-old truths in order to solve the mystery and save her own life as she and Fr. Antony flee a murderer and follow clues across a sacred landscape. The narrative deftly mixes intellectual puzzles, spiritual aspiration, romance and the solving of riddles ancient and modern. Ancient ...

Why do the fallen women in The Magdalen House refuge continue to die mysteriously? A devastating fire at Danvers’s ancestral home induces Charles to accept his brother Frederick’s plea for help with his work among fallen women and impoverished orphans in York. Charles soon finds himself struggling to identify a ruthless murderer while Antonia helps feed the women and children living in the asylum Frederick runs. The trial of notorious poisoner William Dove leads to surprising discoveries and sets legal precedent still followed today.

Lady Antonia discovers a body at the opening of the Great Exhibition, in the presence of Queen Victoria, no less. The newly married Lord and Lady Danvers put all such unpleasantness behind them, though, as they sail off in his aerostat for a secluded honeymoon in Scotland. Until the shades of grave robbers a generation earlier come back to haunt them.

1993: Mary, Gareth and Brad continue their travels to an ancient ritual valley in the Scottish Highlands, seeking the answer to Scotland’s oldest secret. 847: Kenneth mac Alpin set his foot in the deep hollow of the of the ancient enkinging rock at Dunadd. A tumultuous blast of horns and the triumphant beat of drums rent the monks’ sonorous chanting. But Kenneth knew his work had barely begun. Fierce Viking warriors threatened from the west. The Picts, ancient foes of the Scots, threatened from the east. Contentious chieftains would rend the ties of his own people. His own sister ...

The elegance of a London season and the atrocities of an Indian mutiny woven into an intricate tapestry Antonia and Charles are swept up in the glittering swirl of a London season as they present Aunt Aelfrida’s ward to society. In India Antonia’s closest girlhood friend is caught in the most brutal massacre ‘in the book of time’. What could these disparate events have to do with murders in London and Brighton? This engrossing story comes to life with all the vivid historical detail readers expect from Donna Fletcher Crow.

Antonia is haunted by a secret. Charles will soon be asking questions and she fears the answers will be devastating for their marriage. With her own guilt weighing heavily on her mind, Antonia and Charles stumble across the murder of frail, elderly Catherine Bacon. Though the killing is blamed on a passing dustman, Lord and Lady Danvers begin tracking clues through Victorian Canterbury. What they find leads to a shocking revelation and a chase scene across the rooftop of Canterbury Cathedral.

Richard is teaching Jane Austen as a Queen of Crime at the University of London while Elizabeth researches all the London sites Jane knew. A lovely interlude to their summer until Richard's brother Andrew shows up to bid on a set of Jane Austen first editions, a pushy student intrudes on their agenda and they become responsible for a young boy. And then one of Andrew's business associates is murdered and he is accused of the deed. Elizabeth and Richard are exploring Jane Austen’s London, but their murderous opponent is all-too contemporary.

Lord Charles Danvers, still mourning his lost love Charlotte, hopes to escape from his ghosts at the gala coming-of-age celebrations for the son of his oldest friend. All is jubilation and proper respectability until the evening is shattered by a brutal murder. The police are quick to point to a quarrelsome farmer, but Danvers has his doubts. Is the real culprit much closer to home? And does Danvers owe the greater loyalty to an old friend or to the truth? Then, Danver is even more unsettled by the entrance of the alluring Lady Antonia Hoover. The first in the Lord Danvers Investigates ...

In all times and in all places, it has been universal to humankind to mark the darkest days of the year with a festival striving for the coming of the light. In our own culture, many of us call our midwinter festival Christmas—that great season that celebrates not merely light, but the coming of the Light of the World. Covering almost a thousand years of history, these scenes take the reader to: Saxon Scotland, Medieval England, Post-Regency England, Pioneer America, Depression Era America, 1970s America, and a contemporary monastery in England. Customs have changed, struggles have varied...

Elizabeth has one goal in life—to go to college and become a teacher. But it is 1929 in Kuna, Idaho, and the small family farm doesn’t produce enough to send both Elizabeth and her twin brother to college. Just when it seems Elizabeth’s dreams might come true the stock market crashes and the devastating Great Depression engulfs the nation. Overnight Elizabeth’s anxiety over tuition payments is superseded by fear that her parents will lose the farm. Is this one disaster that even Elizabeth’s faith in hard work and God can’t overcome?

October 1984, the New England hillsides are ablaze with redgold autumn. Elizabeth is beginning her academic career and recently widowed Richard is stuck in the family business. They should be able to help each other but their meeting strikes sparks and raises old ghosts, possibly even the ghost of Richard's dead wife. When Elizabeth finds an academic coup within her grasp for her thesis on the beloved American novelist Elswyth Thane, Richard stubbornly throws up barriers, but why? Rudyard Kipling, William Beebe, Charles Lindberg, Edna Ferber and a host of celebrities from an age past fill ...

1993: Three modern young people listen as the Scottish storyteller spins his tales of adventure, romance, and intrigue. While candles flicker and a Celtic harp sings its accompaniment, the question grips them: Can they find the answer to Scotland’s oldest secret? 563: Young Corban, tending his father’s sheep—stupid creatures that they are—on the back of the island, has no idea how much his life is about to change when he sees the holy men arrive on the beach below him. Columba has led his little band of monks from Ireland, seeking expiation from his great sin. Can he find peace on ...

Georgiana is intrigued by the handsome stranger who appears unexpectedly at the hunt ball—then amazed and delighted to discover he is none other than Granville Dudley Ryder, dearest playmate of her childhood. The specter of Granville’s harsh father, however, shadows all that Granville strives to achieve until the terrors of the Cato Street Rebellion lead Granville to reconciliation and love. An entirely historical story that moves from Cambridge to Somerset, to London to Wales and includes many of the most famous people of the day, the letters they wrote, and the words they spoke—even...

Mary and Gareth continue to struggle with their efforts to help the youth at the reconciliation center in Belfast in 1996, but their work is torn apart by sectarian strife. In an effort to understand the roots of the unimaginable atrocities she sees around her, Mary turns to accounts of 17th century Ireland. In 1639 the Lanark family is torn apart as the sons march off to war—on opposing sides. But at least the women will be safe behind the strong walls of their fortress. Won’t they? And then Oliver Cromwell arrives at the head of his New Model Army in one of the most turbulent periods ...

First light, Ascension morning. From the top of the tower at the College of the Transfiguration, voices rise in song. Felicity's delight turns to horror when a black-robed body hurtles over the precipice and lands at her feet, the strange emblem of a double-headed snake clutched in his hand. Matters grow murkier as Felicity and Antony, leading a youth pilgrimage through rural Wales, encounter the same sinister symbol as they travel. Lurking figures follow them through the land of dragons and old Celtic saints. Then a body is found face-down in a well … An Idyllic pilgrimage through Wales ...

The Monastery Murders moves to Canada when Antony is invited to lecture on the British saints who inspired the founding of Toronto and Felicity couriers an ancient manuscript connected with Saint Patrick to monasteries in Montreal and Vancouver. A spectacular train journey across the breadth of the continent carries them even further away from the murder Felicity witnessed in England. Or does it? In Against All Fierce Hostility, Donna Fletcher Crow allows you to take the fanciful trip we all wish we could embark on during these strange times. It’s an all-frills-and-chills included journey...

Sorely burdened by the strife in Belfast in 1996, American Mary Hamilton searches deeper to understand the tangled roots of the troubles that continued to tear this land apart, as they had for so many generations. Her hopes for success with the youth at the reconciliation center had been shattered, but somehow there had to be an effective way to work for peace. Likewise, in 1683, the desperately ill Janet Lanark’s agony increases as she watches her son and husband feud between themselves, and then march off to war in response to King Billy’s call to arms as troops mass on the Banks of ...

Larger than life, perhaps the greatest patriot that ever breathed, William Wallace gives his life’s blood for Scotland’s freedom. A glorious victory at Stirling Bridge leads to heart-rending defeat at Falkirk and payment of the ultimate sacrifice at the Tower of London. And young, faithful Jamie Maclnnes experiences it all—even to paying a great personal price himself. Though scarred—like Scotland—Jamie is unconquered. He rallies behind the dynamic Robert the Bruce and follows on the arduous odyssey of defeat, exile and humiliation until it leads finally to glorious victory on the...

Mary returns to Scotland in the summer of 1996, her head brimming with wedding plans. But Gareth has quite different ideas. He is off to work in a reconciliation center in Northern Ireland, made possible by the recent ceasefire in the Troubles. Filled with trepidation, Mary agrees to go with him. But what if those mad Irish start throwing bombs at each other again? Desiring to understand the history of the conflicts that have torn this beautiful island for centuries, Mary turns to their friend’s family journals. In 1610, Calum Lanark, refused the hand of his beloved Deirdre, joins the ...

A Christmas wedding in a monastery— what could be more idyllic? And Felicity has never been happier, in spite of her over-bearing mother who wants to turn the whole event into a royal affair and Antony’s worries over the television series he is narrating on the English Mystics. Then Felicity takes on responsibility for directing an Epiphany pageant for Kirkthorpe’s wayward youth. At least, most of the vexing disruptions occurring on the filming locations are miles away from the Community of the Transfiguration. Until the threats move closer. Close enough to threaten Felicity’s life....