The Authorized Version

Progress Report, the Last

Finally, after many months of toil over a stubborn computer (or was it just my brain that wasn't cooperating?) I can announce that the draft and my myriad rounds of self-editing are complete and the manuscript of A Wind in the Hebrides, book 7 in the Monastery Murders, is in the hands of my wonderful editor Sheila Deeth!

We should be on-target for a November release, so watch this space.

Cover Reveal

The cover, straight from the drawing board of artist Ken Raney, features two of the most famous things about the Isle of Lewis, the Standing Stones of Callanish, where a critical scene in the novel occurs, and the Lewis Chessmen, a Viking hoard discovered on Uig beach in Victorian times, also featured in the novel. 

The story

Moving back and forth between present day and post world War II times, readers will get a mini travelogue of the Hebrides Islands as my series heroine Felicity Sherwood shepherds her five-year-old son on a solo research trip while husband Antony remains cozily employed on the Isle of Iona. Felicity follows the experiences of Aileana Mackay whose adventures are based on the true-life heroine Mary Morrison. The murder is my own invention, but the accounts of the remarkable spiritual awakening are as true to fact as I can present them. I can assure you that in spite of alarms, anxieties, and abundant atrocities in the midst of much beauty, joy, and even some romance, both of my heroines emerge triumphant.

Here is how it's summarized on the back cover:

The Isle of Lewis, the northernmost island in the Outer Hebrides, a dot in the ocean, but the scene of a powerful event that changed lives in the years following World War II—including that of Aileana Mackay who is drawn back to the island much against her will.

Today, Felicity Sherwood, a young American woman, delves into Aileana’s story. Two women, two generations apart, and yet their lives coincide in strange ways. Each must make agonizing decisions concerning their careers, family, and ultimately, their very lives. 

Anguish and ecstasy in the midst of a spiritual outpouring in the remotest corner of the Outer Hebrides 

Praise for the Monastery Murders

Atmospheric contemporary crimes with their roots buried deep in the mists of time

“Donna Fletcher Crow has created her own niche within the genre of clerical mysteries.” Kate Charles

“Crow gives us, in three extremely persuasive dimensions, the world that Dan Brown merely sketches.” Timothy Hallinan

“Crow is the leading practitioner of modern mystery entwined with historical fiction.” Mike Orenduff

“Myth and holiness, wild nature and tourism, art and prayer run in parallel, and capture the imagination—all this with a cinematic skill. We are in the timeless zone of greed and goodness.” Ronald Blythe

 “A wonderful series.” Vic’s Media Room

“It’s obvious the author really knows her stuff.” Dolores Gordon-Smith 

Donna Fletcher Crow says, “This is a story I have wanted to tell since 1990 when I first heard of the Hebrides Awakening. I did the research in 2001 (taking one of the first planes to leave Boise after 9/11). I wrote the proposal in 2010. At last, the time has come to tell the story.”

Crow is the author of more than 50 novels of English history and spirituality, including the award-winning Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England, and the best-selling Lord Danvers Investigates, Victorian true-crime series. She and her husband of 60 years have 4 adult children and 15 grandchildren. A Wind in the Hebrides, based on carefully researched true events, is the seventh novel in her popular Monastery Murders series.