‘The Flame Ignites’ by Donna Fletcher Crow

Published by Verity Press,
June 2018.
ISBN: 978-1-72066677-6 (PB)

Really enjoyed reading this - it flows along beautifully.  Elizabeth is staying with a friend in New England, so she can do research for her Ph D dissertation on writer Elswyth Thane.  She has corresponded with the writer for years and is using that correspondence as a basis but needs to build the corroborative evidence around it.  Unfortunately, the writer died before Elizabeth could meet her in person.

The story begins with a bang when she is visited by the local sheriff to be accused of careless driving when exiting a space in a car park.  She manages, however, to begin her research and meets Richard whose grandmother was a friend of Elswyth.  Richard is friendly at first but reveals great opposition to Elizabeth writing anything about Elswyth.  There is a mystery connected with Richard’s past which Elizabeth wants to solve.  

Things happen in a spiral of slightly strange events culminating in an amazing reappearance.  Elizabeth’s research proves crucial in an investigation.   The story really involves the reader and the mysteries are cleverly resolved.

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Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer

Donna Fletcher Crow is an accomplished writer with several series and standalone books.  This book is the first of a series.

 

Donna Fletcher Crow is a former English teacher and a Life Member of the Jane Austin Society of America. She is the author of 50 books, mostly novels dealing with British history.  The award-winning Glastonbury, A Novel of the Holy Grail, an Arthurian grail search epic covering 15 centuries of English history, is her best-known work.  She is also the author of The Monastery Murders: A Very Private Grave, A Darkly Hidden Truth and An Unholy Communion as well as the Lord Danvers series of Victorian true-crime novels and the literary suspense series The Elizabeth & Richard Mysteries. Donna and her husband live in Boise, Idaho.  They have 4 adult children and 12 grandchildren. She is an enthusiastic gardener.

To read more about all of Donna’s books and see pictures from her garden and research trips go to: http://www.donnafletchercrow.com/

You can follow her on Facebook at: http://ning.it/OHi0MY

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.