Once started, I could not put this book down! From the short, urgent, opening sentences until the final chapter with its humour, pathos and the dawn of hope, I was held in its grip. It is the fifth in the 'Hawk and Dove' series of novels, set in the fourteenth century world of the monks of St Alcuin's Abbey. The story begins with a dreadful tragedy in the abbot's family, and as the tale unfolds, Penelope skilfully draws us into the raw emotions of her characters. It is a book about pain and suffering but it is also about grace and redemption and the way God can bring healing to the deepest pain. Often I stopped to re-read some of the beautifully crafted sentences - especially the section on the meaning of the Ascension, one of the many jewels in this book. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.