Fate of the Fallen

Fate of the Fallen by Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard is the fifth book in A Hope Street Church Mystery series. The Sunrise Bible Study Group is spending the day at a blue grass festival. There are many activities for them to enjoy (booths, food trucks, music) as well as hiking and swimming. They are enjoying a hike when the group encounters Nathan’s sister, Christine. Christine is on a mini-work retreat with her boss, Sinclair Gordon and fellow Sphinx Digital Systems and Solutions employees. Later in the afternoon, Cooper Lee and Nathan are enjoying some quiet time together when Christine comes stumbling out of the woods—with blood on her hands. Christine and her group were looking for their missing boss, Sinclair. He had failed to show up for dinner. Christine stumbled upon him in the woods off a hiking trail. Inspector McNamara is assigned the case. Christine quickly rises to the top of the suspect list. Cooper cannot let her future sister-in-law be accused of the crime. Cooper, with the help of the Sunrise Bible Study Group (Savannah, Trish, Bryant, Quinton, Jake, and Nathan), sets out to find the real culprit. Nathan also has some very important news to share with Cooper. But, every time Nathan tries to talk with Cooper, they get interrupted. How will Nathan’s news affect Cooper and Nathan’s future? Fate of the Fallen is easy to read and nicely written. The book did not have the same touch as Ellery Adams other novels (like her A Book Retreat Mystery series and The Charmed Pie Shoppe series, for example). I found the pace to be very slow in the beginning (and periodically throughout the novel). I give Fate of the Fallen 3 out of 5 stars. The mystery in Fate of the Fallen was easily solved. I could tell who was going to be murdered, who would get blamed, and the actual killer before the crime was committed (very disappointing). The actual crime did not take place until I was 15% of the way into the book. Fate of the Fallen was not as enjoyable as the previous novels in A Hope Street Church Mystery series. I just felt the book was lacking which is very atypical of Ellery Adams’ novels.

Very clever and nice quick read.. Fun characters..