Title: An
All-Consuming Fire (Monastery Murders #5)
Author: Donna Fletcher Crow
Pages: 294
Year: 2015
Publisher: Verity Press
Antony Sherwood has been pressed
into service as a narrator for a mini-series on the early mystics in the
church. The former narrator for the
mini-series was killed in book four of this series. It is two weeks before his wedding and one
week before Christmas. He is filming one
scene when the cameraman has an accident, which could have had serious
consequences. Fortunately, the cameraman
is only mildly injured. Antony wonders
if this was really an accident or if there is foul play at work.
Felicity has her mother to
entertain for two weeks until her wedding.
She and her mother have always had a strained relationship, but Felicity
really hopes this time together will help mend fences. Felicity has agreed to help one of the local
church-supported outreach for children in putting on an Epiphany Pageant. She misses Antony when he has to go on
location for filming, but puts her mind toward helping the children learn their
parts in the play.
As Antony continues filming, more
“accidents” or near misses continue, leading up to murder. When Felicity goes under the stage in
preparation for the play, she makes a grisly discovery. Antony is worried someone is out to harm
Felicity, but leaves the solving of these crimes in the hands of the
police. Felicity is counting the days
until she is married and hopes no more murders occur.
I have read all the other books in
this series and enjoyed them, but this one wasn’t my favorite. There is a vague hint of a relationship
between two women characters in the story that goes beyond friendship that
could be interpreted as a homosexual relationship. While I appreciate the author’s knowledge of
the Anglican Church and British history, there are too many Anglican Church
terms that are not defined and a lot of church historical information that made
the story more difficult to understand and slowed the pace. The first murder didn’t occur until I was
over 100 pages into the book. It didn’t
appear to me that Antony or Felicity did much to solve the murders either. I did like Felicity’s and Antony’s patience
with Felicity’s mother as well as their wish to have a simple wedding ceremony,
honoring God. I appreciated Felicity’s
sense of peace as she participated in the services. I also liked the different scenery used in
the story at the various filming sites.
The author is very knowledgeable about her topic and I know lots of
research went into writing the story, but this one was just okay for me.
My rating is 3 stars.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or
services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my
blog. Regardless, I only recommend
products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my
readers. I am disclosing this in
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Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”