The three reviews below were responses to the original Blood on Holy Ground. But because the book was not released, the reviews were never published. Since the changes made after that time were relatively minor, the author is assuming that the reviewers’ opinions still apply.
IndieReader Review: 4 stars
Miranda Lamden couldn’t turn down the offer from her old friend, Catherine at the convent of Monte di Angeles, to come and study a legend of the local Conicoke tribe concerning the miraculous healing of a young girl by a Christ figure with Native features. She finds the one-time convent a haven of peace and beauty – but when a Conicoke child is brutally murdered, that peace is ripped to shreds. When a chance discovery makes her the killer’s primary target, she finds her only hope lies in the land itself, and the people who know it best.
This is the second in Francisco’s Miranda Lamden series, succeeding THIS MADNESS OF THE HEART. Like the first, it is written with vibrantly poetic imagery that reinforces its deeply spiritual tone. Francisco’s gift with language is apparent, from her reverent awe at the beauty of a perfect spearpoint or an owl in motion, to her evocation of Miranda’s fear, grief, and rage when she and those she loves are attacked. Miranda is an engaging heroine, generous, intelligent, perceptive, but not too perfect, while her relationship with the enigmatic and ferociously introverted Jack Crispen continues to be a complicated and intriguing balance of two very strong wills.
While the author’s perspective is distinctly Christian, it is a warm, welcoming, and non-dogmatic Christianity, with room for the study and understanding of, and relationship with, other points of view. The story itself certainly has its share of darkly chilling moments, especially since she continues her practice of letting us see through the killer’s eyes and from his point of view at regular points throughout the story. This book will please those interested in the psychology of evil more than it will those who love a good whodunit puzzle, as the story does not focus as much on discovering who the criminal is as on the process of hunting him down and bringing him to justice. However, while we see the justification for the killer’s actions in his own head, he is too deranged and too uniformly nasty for us to really empathize with him – a more sympathetic villain might have, paradoxically, more power to scare and shock the reader.
IR VERDICT: BLOOD ON HOLY GROUND is a beautifully-written mystery novel that combines a gripping and suspenseful story with thought-provoking and heartfelt spirituality.
Self Publishing Review: 4 1/2 stars
“In Blood on Holy Ground by C.L. Francisco, a convent built on remote ground sacred to a small Native American tribe forms the setting for this eerie and evocative murder mystery.
Francisco has penned her second whodunit fashioned around a most unusual – at times unwilling – crime stalker, religion professor Miranda Lamden. Lamden has taken the summer off from her teaching at an Appalachian college to research an alluring ancient legend about the appearance of Christ among with Conicoke tribe in the Tennessee mountains. Her contact for this intriguing sabbatical is her old friend Catherine .
Reuniting with Catherine, Miranda meets a little girl, Gloria, a member of the obscure Conicoke group, who shows remarkable artistic gifts and religious fervor. But soon Gloria will be savagely murdered, sparking off a series of bizarre incidents and making Miranda the unwitting target of an insane stalker who has fixed his mind on her total destruction.
Joining in the hunt for Gloria’s killer is Jack, Miranda’s lover, an artist who has spent years trying to recover from the traumas of military service, though his skills in tracking will be needed now. Also on board are the local lawman, Willie, and a much respected maintenance worker, Earl. And perhaps most significantly, there are the Grandmothers of the dwindling Conicokes – Galogeah, an ancient wise woman keeps Miranda under her watchful eye, interprets her dreams, and brings her back to the acceptance of her lost Christian faith by reminding her of its most cherished elements. But Miranda must suffer grievously in body and mind before the identity of the villain is established and his evil plotting brought to a grisly halt.
C.L. Francisco is a modern writer in the tradition of Christian apologists like C.S. Lewis. Her ecumenical view of spiritual experience permeates this magical novel, expressing a love of the natural world and a reverence for religious folklore and fable. One of the central motifs of Blood on Holy Ground is the visitation of Christ to the Conicokes and the people’s veneration for carved figure of Jesus hidden in the forest near the convent, and that same veneration can be found within these pages.
Francisco’s writing is richly laden with descriptive passages, from the glories of prophetic vision to the dark maundering of a psychopathic mind. Labeled as Gothic mystery, the novel manages to expose issues of Catholic and other religious dogma – the good and the not-so-good – embedded within the novel’s tightly knit plot. Francisco capably weaves these disparate elements together without seeming didactic or straining the tension that builds throughout the novel, as a college teacher, a former military man turned artist, and a group of Native American tribeswomen try to stop a murderer who has already killed twice and intends to strike again.
With a story focused on crime and punishment, love and forgiveness, a search for life’s enduring truths, and an engaging heroine who has high ideals, Blood on Holy Ground is a well-drawn and engrossing Christian mystery, propelled by C.L. Francisco’s considerable writing talents.”
Midwest Book Review, Diane Donovan, Editor and Senior Reviewer
Blood on Holy Ground, Book 2 in the Gothic mystery Miranda Lamden series, continues religion professor Miranda’s story, following her to an old convent where she’s researching a Native American myth. Perhaps predictably, murder and mayhem follow in her footsteps, turning a quiet research project into a paranormal encounter that requires finely-tuned psychic abilities and a proclivity for problem-solving.
As she and Jack stumble upon crime scene after crime scene, the killer has her in his sights; and lethal assaults blended with Native American myth come alive for a tense story that moves deftly between two very different worlds.
In one way, Blood on Holy Ground represents a sojourn into faith, delusion, and an ancient terror inadvertently reawakened by too much inquiry, offering a depth and approach that belays formula mystery writing in favor of incorporating spiritual and paranormal elements not usually seen in the Gothic mystery genre. This would appear to make Blood on Holy Ground a crossover production designed to appeal across genres; but the heart of its strength lies in an investigation filled with the satisfying twists and turns of intrigue and cat-and-mouse action.
With Tennessee serving as the backdrop and fast-paced action introduced from the first few paragraphs where a storm, a near-accident, and a fire capture Miranda’s attention, readers are treated to a tale steeped in Native American tradition and culture. A researcher’s unique perspective and her investigative and psychic abilities provide surprising supplements to her decisions and actions: surprising because Miranda isn’t intrinsically drawn to be a PI or a murder investigator, but is just a professional researcher with a nose for truth.
As this penchant for information gets her into trouble, readers will find her experience a fine saga of not just paranormal mystery, but connections between different peoples and cultures. Darkness and light and ethereal encounters are all linked together as the plot thickens and Miranda finds herself guarded by some unusually powerful protective forces: “Ameganeh has opened her home to you,” Galogeah explained as we walked, “because it lies in the place of the rising sun, and it is to the power of light that we pray in this time of darkness. We have protected it as best we can. You may sleep soundly here without fear of trouble.”
Troubled dreams, different cultures and people who have lost their ways, and the meeting of two very different yet sympathetic minds keep Blood on Holy Ground an exciting contrast between belief systems, peoples, and forces of both good and evil, making for an engrossing story that’s hard to put down, filled with Native American and Christian rituals and revelations alike.