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

Product Information

Instead it felt more like the diaries of a reverend, in a parish where some murders take place sometimes. He is also the only vicar in Britain to have had a number-one hit single and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing .

Champton joins St Mary Mead and Midsomer in the great atlas of fictional English villages where the crimes are as dastardly as the residents delightful. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The canon's widowed mother Audrey seems to know a thing or two, but it was a job discerning who was behind murder and mayhem in the small community. The journalist and restaurant critic narrates her tender and funny memoir about her relationship with her father, George, and the food that brought them together. When the murderer is revealed in the last 10 pages or so, I couldn’t remember who the character was, and by that point I just didn’t care.

The Vicar of Dibley type setting is entertaining; the canon himself is rather bland but has potential.Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, a small village with its own stately home owned by Bernard de Floures. Ultimately we found out who did it because the rector had an amazing moment of insight during his sermon at the funeral for one of the victims. He is known for having been the multi-instrumentalist who partnered Jimmy Somerville in the 1980s band The Communards, which achieved three Top Ten hits. 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.

The big news in the parish is the announcement of a new toilet in the church which seems to cause more rumpus than anyone expected.

I didn't understand why; I can't imagine the cast of characters would really have used that language, so maybe it was just the author showing off.

I like the author, Richard Coles and am always on the look out for a new crime series so this book based around the Rector of a small English village sounded perfect.

The most exciting thing to happen in Champton is the argument as to whether the church should install a lavatory or a buttery for the flower arrangers, then Bernard de Floures' alcoholic cousin is found by Daniel, murdered in one of the pews, with a pair of secateurs no less!