Review – A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary

In this fourth novel of Donna Fletcher Crow's Monastery Murders series, Felicity Howard finds that a relic, the shriveled hand of a saint, has been replaced by a freshly amputated hand. Felicity has traveled to The Convent of the Incarnation in Oxford to translate a rare medieval Latin document about St. Frideswide, the adopted patron of Oxford University. But she immediately gets involved in the mystery of the Reverend Mother's disappearance, the amputated hand, and the substitution of a freshly amputated foot for a relic in the Ashmolean Museum. These events propel Felicity and her betrothed, Father Antony Sherwood, into two murder investigations and a series of perils mysteriously related to the document Felicity is translating, the disappearance of the Reverend Mother, church history, and the lineage of a particular barony. The author skillfully builds tension from one peril to another, leading to a thrilling climax and satisfying denouement. But the novel is more than just a mystery. It is beautifully researched to the last detail. Without ever slowing the pace of the narrative, Donna Fletcher Crow weaves in rich and colorful details of English church and political history. Who knew, for example, that William the Conqueror "introduced the rank of Baron in England to distinguish the men who had pledged their loyalty to him"? And that is merely a one-sentence aside. Thus the novel becomes an education in itself, yet without a single dull moment. In this novel, Donna Fletcher Crow delivers more of her special, delicious blend of history, suspense, and mystery.