Murder Before Evensong: The instant no. 1 Sunday Times bestseller (Canon Clement Mystery)

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Started off with big smile as the canon brought up the topic of installing a much needed lavatory in the cathedral in the face of overwhelming opposition due to the ingrained belief of the congregation that the historic building must not be sullied.

When the second murder happened I had almost forgotten about the significance of the first, and I had been introduced to so many characters I wasn’t sure who everyone actually was. Funerals were written about in a detailed way, complete with Bible quotes, and prayers were written out fully. The situation escalates into something much more sinister when Anthony is found dead in the church, a pair of secateurs plunged into his neck. Some controversy arises when he proposes installing a toilet in the church, which will mean getting rid of the back pews. A disclaimer at the start with something along the lines of ‘words that were prevalent at the time’ would have been a good way to do this, because there are a range of slurs used through, including g***y, that really doesn’t feel necessary.Hard-core cosy fans may enjoy it if they can get through the infodumping at the beginning, but I struggled to care about what was happening. But the cast is overblown and not terribly distinct en masse, and includes a bunch of people who play no part in the story at all (why did we need the brother? He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. The Reverend Richard Coles gives us a serpent in England's pastoral Eden - and whodunit fans can give praise and rejoice. The story was set in the late eighties and this was primarily established by many updates about what Daniel and his mother were watching on TV.

He read Theology at King's College London and after ordination worked as a curate in Lincolnshire, London and Northamptonshire. But talk soon focuses on the murder of Anthony Bowness when he is discovered dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs, This is the start of a spate of deaths in the community as the police race to catch the killer. There is a motive, however, and, when I thought my eyes couldn’t roll anymore, after the reverend’s sudden realisation of who the murderer is, they still rolled some more as I read about the motive for the murders.He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda . But talk soon focuses on the murder of Anthony Bowness when he is discovered dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs, This is the start of further deaths in the community as the police race to catch the killer. This is quite a enjoyable mystery, and I didn’t guess whodunnit, which is always satisfactory, though the motive for the murder seemed a bit far fetched - but I suppose people have been killed for strange reasons. Daniel joins forces with the local detective sergeant, Neil Vanloo, to solve the mystery and flush out the culprit.

As always in this type of novel, there were a host of other characters from the nearby Lord of the Manor to the women who run the flower arranging.When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in the church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village.