Murder Before Evensong, The Reverend Richard Coles. Pub 2022
Since reading The Madness of Grief a few years back, I’ve been a quasi-fan of Coles. He retired from parish duties in 2022, and continues his writing, presenting, social media activities. This book is his first work of fiction, creating a new accidental-detective-in-an-English-village character for a series of murder mysteries.
In Murder Before Evensong, we meet Canon Clement, rector of Champton and vicar of St. Mary’s church, and the dozen or so characters who populate the village and the manor. Indeed, nearly the entire first half of the book is devoted to introductions, village history, and setting the stage before the murder at last happens. We then meet the not-so-plodding detective, learn more secrets, and ultimately resolve the murders (yes, there are two more) in a somewhat mystical way.
While enjoyable, the book seems weighted by the expectations of an English village murder: the caricatures of spinster sisters, nosy busybody neighbours, and the nearby gentry; the trope of three murders before the mystery is solved; the bizarre methods of murder employed; the misdirection and reveals of local gossip; a troubled individual with a deep dark secret they’ll protect at all costs. I also found the timeframe difficult. Ostensibly set in the ‘late 1980’s’ (1988 seems to be the generally agreed date, but the novel itself is mostly vague or silent about dates), perhaps to allow for music and other cultural references to be employed, the period seems almost not long enough ago to be quaint and too recent to avoid anachronism. For example, Clement has been at Champton for 8 years, and yet refers to having conducted a funeral at his previous post in London (so prior to 1980) for a man who died from AIDS-related illness (which did not emerge until a few years later).
I was hoping this would be a series to rival my beloved Lane Winslow, and perhaps the series will improve over time. The next book is now out, so perhaps a book for next year.
Fate: little book library.
1 – a book with a murder or three
4 – published in 2022
37 – part of a series
rclr 