Ashes to Ashes Book Review

Ashes to Ashes

Mel Starr

About the Book:
The morning after the festivities of Midsummer's Eve, the villagers of Bampton make a grisly discovery

Master Hugh, Kate, and their children attend the Midsummer's Eve fire. The next morning Hugh hears the passing bell ring from the Church of St. Beornwald, and moments later is summoned. Tenants collecting the ashes to spread upon their fields have found burned bones.

Master Hugh learns of several men of Bampton and nearby villages who have gone missing recently. Most are soon found, some alive, some dead. Master Hugh eventually learns that the bones are those of a bailiff from a nearby manor. Someone has slain him and placed his body in the fire to destroy evidence of murder.

Bailiffs are not popular men; they dictate labor service, collect rents, and enforce other obligations. Has this bailiff died at the hand of some angry tenant? Hugh soon discovers this is not the case. There is quite another reason for murder . . . -

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My Thoughts:
Like everyone else on planet earth, my time is severely limited. I don't have time for frivolities unless it's going to be worth my while. When I received notification that another Hugh de Singleton book was coming out, it was a no brainer. I knew this would be a book that I would enjoy spending time on. Perusing. Reading. Enjoying. I wasn't disappointed.

Set during the 1300's, we get a glimpse into the everyday life of peasants, lords, and bailiffs. Not many fiction books out there are written in this timeframe. That alone sparked my curiosity with the first Master Hugh book I read, The Tainted Coin. (Another good book.) In short, Mel Starr is a very gifted writer that puts time and much research into his Master Hugh books. All I've read enthrall me and make me anxious for the next one. The characters aren't cardboard cutouts that are all perfect and pretty (Master Hugh has a large nose) and they are written so that we care for them.

If you like time period books set during a time that hasn't been over-written, this is a great series of books to begin. Very good read.

My thanks to Kregel and the author who provided this book in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts are my own.



 

He Made me Cry in the Store

I talked with a piece of living history today. I don't know how, but I knew he was special as soon as I saw him standing behind me in the line at the checkout. It could have been his hat that announced that he was a World War II veteran. Or it could have been his graying hair, his age spots, his once strong back now hunched over with care. The perfect picture of what my husband and I are going to become if the Lord tarries.

That's when I felt it. The nudge from the Holy Spirit. I don't talk too much about the Holy Spirit because let's face it. Somehow, instead of being the third part of the Holy Trinity, the world has begun treating Him as Santa Claus with their 'If I say He has to do something, according to Scriptures, He has to do it!' I say, bah. Not like taking the Bible out of context and making it what you want it to say. But that's a rant for another time.

Anyway, I seriously felt the push. The gentle leading. The gentle whisper to pay for this man's item. It was only one small thing, and yet, I was afraid to do it. I can't explain why I feared doing something like that, but that fear was there.

"Are you sure, God? Are You leading me to do this, or am I doing this for a selfish reason?" You see, my dad is a veteran of Vietnam. And every time someone does something nice like say "Thank you for serving our country" it makes me cry. Without fail. I didn't want to do this for the wrong reason.

But really. Is there a wrong reason to do something kind for someone else? Yeah. That's what the Holy Spirit said too. So without fanfare and very quietly, I asked the cashier to ring up his purchase as well. It didn't matter that she looked at me like I was stupid. This was what I needed to do. God had asked me to do it, and I was going to do it.

Afterward, he thanked me, and we talked a little bit. He said I was welcome for his serving the country, and that he had fought at Iwo Jima. That if he lived one more day, it would be 70 years since he got his release papers. That his wife was sick and he had to go get her at the pharmacy.

And I was crying because he was so grateful that I bought his bag of chicken when really, it was me getting the blessing. That I wish I could have done so much more. Compared to his sacrifices, mine amounted to nothing. While mine was simple, his had cost him so much.

Truly it is better to give than to receive. Now at the oddest times of day (and night) I find myself praying for that man and his wife, and I wonder, do they know Jesus as their Saviour? And I beg God that if they don't, that somehow He would send someone to tell them about His love for them and His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Because that's one Sacrifice only He could make to save us.

On This Day in History

37 years ago, my mom and I were sitting in the car waiting for my brother and my dad. I don't know where they were, but we were waiting. I was sitting in the red backseat of that old white Nova staring into the starlit sky.

It was cold. Usually is in Michigan in January. We had just rung in the New Year watching a Christian film at our church, A Thief in the Night. Literally scared me to pieces. I remember asking my mom,

"Mom, why didn't those people come back?" (referring to Christians that God raptured up in the movie)

"Because they were raptured up and once you go to Heaven, you can't come back."

I knew I wanted to go to Heaven when it was time for everyone to go. I knew that if He was going to rapture people to Heaven, I didn't want to be left alone without my parents. I knew at the tender age of 4 (it was the night before my birthday, so I could technically be considered 5) that I wasn't going to go. So I asked Jesus to take me to Heaven when I die. Just like that. Simple. But I believed that He would.

I consider that night the night I received Jesus as my Saviour. When I tell people that, they always ask me if I knew what I was doing. If I understood enough to really believe that God heard me and saved me. To be honest, for quite a few years, those questions threw me for a loop.

I knew that I needed Jesus to take me to Heaven. I knew He was the only Way there. I knew I was a sinner - sheesh, I'm a redhead, for crying out loud! Good night, everyone knew I was a sinner! I knew that if the rapture occurred that night, I wouldn't be on my way to Heaven if I didn't do something about it.

I made sure I was saved a little later with my parents. Then I made sure again with an older, wiser friend. Then I made sure again after our first child was born. Goodness, I made sure over and over and over and over. I was scared spitless that somehow, I had messed it up and didn't do everything correctly. That I didn't say the right words. Or that I didn't understand enough. Or a million other what ifs. Those questions haunted me for many years.

Reading your Bible can really answer a lot of questions. All in fact. I was a bit older when I read:

Mark 10:13-15 (KJV)
¹³ And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
¹⁵ Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

and again: 
I John 5:13 (KJV)
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

And I knew that God heard me. So, today is my spiritual birthday. Today, I turn 37 as a born-again believer in the finished work of Christ on Calvary, and tomorrow is my physical birthday. I'll be 42. Not too bad.

I sit here and wonder. How often do we discourage others from receiving Christ as their Saviour on the grounds that "they probably don't understand it all yet"?  Will we 'seasoned' Christians ever understand everything that God did for us in sending Jesus to die for us? Praise the Good Lord if you do, because honestly, I'm still in awe of this Perfect Sacrifice. I don't understand everything there is to understand about salvation or Hell or Heaven or even the rapture, but I do understand that Jesus is the only Way to Heaven.

So Happy Birthday to me and to all the people out there who have Jesus in their heart. May 2016 be an excellent year for us!