Interest in reading mystery novels began in my preteens. Fascination with stained glass, however, predates memory - at a time when I was surrounded each week by sun streaming through stained glass windows during Sunday mass. Over the years, my experience of viewing stained glass has ranged from daily exposure to church-lined walls during mass in grade school; to the Rose Window of the Notre Dame in Paris; to the front window of Waikiki’s St. Augustine Church by the Sea, which has greeted sailors as their ships approached Honolulu since the late 1800s.
Imagine my delight, as an enthusiast of stained glass and mysteries, in reading the novel Tapestry of Tears, a story about a stained glass expert traveling to England and France to research the Bayeux Tapestry then becoming involved in a murder investigation and a baffling theft.
'TAPESTRY OF TEARS' by Michele Drier
As the plot unfolds, along with characters’ relevant back stories, protagonist and stained glass artist Roz Duke prepares to examine the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth and unique 11th century artifact/artefact representing numerous historical events leading up to the Norman conquest of England.
Her self-proclaimed sabbatical from home life in Oregon, intended as a quiet research project, soon turns complicated when Roz happens upon a dead body in a dark corner of a church in England.
Expecting Tapestry of Tears to be a cozy mystery, I was surprised to discover a thriller unfolding. As a Scotland Yard type of investigation unfolds, Roz becomes more deeply involved in not only a homicide case, but theft of priceless property and possibly even seedier activities with even more dangerous suspects.
Who to
trust, and how to remain alive, become her focus - when all she wanted was to
immerse herself in the task of transferring historical details from a tapestry
to stained glass.
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Upcoming post - Wednesday July 21: “Tapestry of Tears” interview with Michele Drier. Get to know more about the author and her process of weaving a well-researched tale about stained glass - and murder.
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