When Daniel announces he will be installing a lavatory at the back of his church, there is uproar among the congregation, who are unaccustomed to change.

Canon Daniel Clement must solve mysteries temporal and theological while surviving his parishioners tender ministries. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Canon Daniel Clement is rector of Champton, and lives with his mother Audrey and two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. Coles' rendering of his fictional church, St Mary's, in the village of Champton, twinkles with quirky detail and sharp humour.

He has won Christmas Masterchef, Celebrity Mastermind twice, and captained Leeds to victory in Christmas University Challenge in 2019. Sadly I have to put this one as a DNF, I so wanted to like this book as I am a big fan of cozy murder mystery books in little villages but after 100 pages it just wasn't the one for me. normally that's great at the start so you get a feel of the place and people but not when it's 80 pages of it.

I never felt the slightest hint of tension, I never cared about any of the characters and the reveal was so far-fetched it left me defeated more than anything.Britain's favourite vicar might be hanging up the dog collar, but in Murder Before Evensong he proves to be the unlikely heir to Barbara Pym. Daniel is told to be uneasy about the situation, but this isn’t shown in this story, his character doesn’t change. Murder takes yonks to actually take place, there is zero characterisation, and it just felt like a slog to finish, honestly. Auden would have admired this novel for meeting his requirements for the classical detective story: but he might also have recognised Coles as being, at his best, a fellow artist with words.