A Different Kind of Halloween...Donna F. Crow

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Do you want a Halloween Treat? Well, I have a good one for you today. Donna Fletcher Crow shares a taunting post and some excerpts from her book, A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary. Ms. Crow tells us a bit about her heroine and sets the stage for the spooky events that follow! If you like mystery, you will love this one! 

Welcome back to More Agreeably Engaged, Ms. Crow.  The first time that you visited was April 23, 2013, when you were here to tell us about A Jane Austen Encounter. By the way, I loved that book and if any of you have not read it, I highly recommend it! Okay, back to the present, it is so good to have you here again and to read about this fascinating murder mystery. It definitely has me in the mood for Halloween! :) 

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A Different Kind of Halloween

A black-draped casket flanked by orange candles, clouds of earthy-scented smoke, black-robed priests chanting in a minor key. The latest Dracula movie? An occult ritual? A creative Halloween spook house?

No, this scene from A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary, the latest in my series The Monastery Murders, is a modern day service for All Souls’ Day in a thoroughly orthodox church in Oxford, England.

My heroine Felicity Howard, a young American woman who is studying theology in a monastery in England, has gone to Oxford to translate an ancient document in a convent. That should be a harmless enough venture, but Felicity just can’t seem to avoid danger. It’s hardly Felicity’s fault, though, that severed body parts start showing up in ancient holy reliquaries. Or that Felicity and one of the nuns is assaulted.

Then Antony, Felicity’s Church History lecturer and fiancé, arrives in Oxford with a group of students and Felicity experiences a Halloween like she has never known before—first with the police and then in the emergency room getting her head bandaged. Late that night she realizes it is Halloween and recalls her childhood trick-or-treating with her brothers.

But there’s nothing so light-hearted for Felicity this year. The next day she and Antony go to an All Saints’ service where Antony preaches the homily:

“Here, in these days dedicated to All Saints and to All Souls we have time set aside for remembering the dead, and contemplating our own deaths. We are given time to deal with the reality of death—our own, as well as the death of others. In these days we are to bring death and the dead into the light; to mourn, but not to despair; even more to celebrate what needs to be celebrated. Most of all we are to see life as a gift and death as a new beginning.” 

Nice words, but Felicity is mourning too many losses to be comforted. And then the next day’s All Souls’ observance turns even more somber. Earlier in the day Felicity had climbed the bell tower to help muffle the bells (a scene I based somewhat on my own daughter’s muffling bells for All Souls’ when a student at Oxford). Later in the evening a depressed Felicity listens to the tolling of the muffled bells:

And then the tolling stopped. Felicity shivered and entered the church, drawn forward by the minor key of the organ prelude that so suited her mood. She slipped into an empty seat, choosing not to sit with her friends. She would experience this on her own. A service for the Dead—for all who had died, for all who would die. As she would some day.

On the altar ochre-colored unbleached beeswax candles stood in dark wooden candlesticks on a black altar cloth. Was this the source of the tradition of decorating in orange and black for Halloween, Felicity wondered.

But a far more stunning symbol stood in the center of the aisle before the altar rail. A catafalque draped with a black pall and flanked with six massive candlesticks bearing again the unbleached, dull orange candles. She knew the coffin was empty. Still, the imagery of death was overpowering, increasing the weight on her spirit.

The clergy entered robed in black vestments, and the introit began, “Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord… Unto thee shall all flesh come…” The earthy scent of the incense added to the sense of solemnity and mystery. Felicity could almost see the souls of the departed ascending as the wisps of smoke floated upward as to heaven.

Then the organ began the urgent, driving rhythm of the  Dies Irae. At first the melody was everything, then the vigor and intensity of the choir penetrated Felicity’s consciousness and she found herself translating the Latin text as they sang: Day of wrath, day of anger… the world dissolves in ashes… Sound of the trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God… All creation arise again. The sequence left her feeling weak, yet strangely invigorated with its picture of violent horror ending in triumph.

Then the priest changed his chasuble for a flowing black cope and processed to the catafalque, to stand at the foot of the bier. “The sorrow of death compassed me.”

A prayer for mercy and forgiveness followed. Then, while the cantor chanted, “Libera me, Domine…” The black-vested priest moved around the catafalque, sprinkling it with holy water. “Deliver me O Lord, from death eternal, in that day tremendous when the earth must pass away…”

The priest completed his circuit, then took up the thurible and began another round, incensing the casket. “Deliver me when thou shalt come to judge the world… Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.” 

Still in the grip of the experience, Felicity remained in her seat as the candles were extinguished and the congregation moved toward the door. Then, from the tower over her head, as if from heaven, the peal began. Focusing on the muffled bells, she went out into the darkness of the night.

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Not the All Hallows’ Eve most of us are likely to experience, but an appropriate prelude to the killing to follow— after all, the book is a murder mystery. Who will be the next victim of the murderer stalking the shadows of Oxford’s hallowed shrines?

 A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary is a gripping contemporary suspense story set against the background of Oxford’s rich history. Could the Medieval Latin document Felicity is translating for the good sisters at the Convent of the Incarnation have anything to do with the repeated attacks?  The latest in Donna Fletcher Crow’s popular Monastery Murders series. Follow Donna on Facebook.

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Donna Fletcher Crow

A Newly CrimsonedReliquary, The Monastery Murders

A Jane AustenEncounter, Elizabeth & Richard Literary Suspense

A Tincture of Murder,Lord Danvers Victorian True-Crime

Glastonbury, ANovel of the Holy Grail

DonnaFletcherCrow website

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You do have a way with murder mysteries, I must say, Donna Fletcher Crow! I love your writing as it is always obvious that you have done your research and have spent time in the surroundings of your story. You have that first-hand knowledge that is evident in your descriptions. (decided I should not say 'writing' when speaking of first-hand knowledge since this a murder mystery! lol)  Thank you, Donna, for being my guest again. It is a pleasure! (I would love to know where your picture was taken. I like the Celtic cross in the picture with you.)

There is a giveaway and it is international. One eBook of A Newly Crimsoned Reliquary, is up the treat, and not a trick, for one lucky reader. Please leave a comment and your contact info to be entered. The giveaway ends at 11:59 PM the 30th of October, just in time for a spooky Halloween! Good luck to all!