The Camigas Scarf: Crone (Book Three)

by Alder Allensworth
The Alder Tree, 2026
357 pages
On Goodreads

Reviewed by Amy Horton | Warrenton, MO

The Camigas Scarf: Crone is the third novel in a three-part series inspired by an actual scarf passed from one woman to another to carry on pilgrimage. In The Camigas Scarf: Mother (Book One), readers followed Helen on her Camino Francés pilgrimage. In Book Two, readers accompanied Valerie on the Camino del Norte. In the trilogy’s final installment, readers join Dot on the Camino Portugués.

Dot steps off from Lisbon, with plans to cross more than 600 kilometers and walk into Santiago de Compostela on her 80th birthday. For Dot, who begins this journey as a grieving widow, this is a walk beyond the titles by which others know her—teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, caregiver—and a journey to rediscover herself and her meaning and purpose in life. 

In Book One, the scarf helped Helen “love like the mother.” In Book Two,  the scarf helped Valerie “dance like the maiden.” In Book Three, the scarf helps Dot to “think like a crone.” Scarf is a quiet companion with whom Dot can vent frustrations, challenge conceptions about herself and others, wipe away tears, and blanket herself in a renewed confidence to push through fears and relish her own strengths.

Woven throughout Dot’s pilgrim journey are threads of the healing rhythm of walking. Of the power of mindset on our connection with and compassion for ourselves and others. And of a sacred sisterhood that endures across the ages. “What began before us will continue long after us—like the scarf passed from one woman to the next.”

Editor’s note: Read La Concha reviews of the other books in the series: The Camigas Scarf: Mother (Book One) and The Camigas Scarf: Maiden (Book Two).

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