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’ A dispute over installing a toilet at the church where the main people campaigning against were middle aged / elderly women? Too ridiculous for words. So the scene is set for more than one murder in the company of a cast of finely drawn characters, immediately recognisable to anyone familiar with parish life. Coles is a sharp observer of human nature, but his observations are tempered with both humour and compassion, and much of the pleasure in the book lies in the incidental asides: “uncertainty and cluelessness, the hallmarks of authentic Christian discipleship”, or “supper, a light collation, he hoped, after the pound and a half of date and walnut cake he had felt duty-bound to consume”. I have ancestors in the Church of Ireland,” Coles says, going on to explain that his family were part of the O’Grady family that included the author Standish James O’Grady and the antiquarian Standish Hayes O’Grady. “It fascinated me that they were Church of Ireland, but they were greatly involved with the Celtic revival and the GAA. Which is why I am the only vicar of the Church of England to be a member of St Finbarr’s [National Hurling & Football Club] in Cork.”

Canon Daniel Clementis Rector of Champton. He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother–opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoyingAudrey–and his two dachshunds,Cosmo and Hilda. So much was over-explained, like the past of characters or the surroundings of an area. This really didn’t add anything to the narrative whatsoever. I still found most characters very bland, their pasts barely reflected who they were in the present. The church events or religious pondering felt particularly unnecessary to the plot. In the early stages of this book the biblical references served to link those stories to the world of Champton. I really liked that approach. Gradually the book resorted to simply telling us all about specific church services. Funerals were written about in a detailed way, complete with Bible quotes, and prayers were written out fully. I get why this is important to Coles, or to Daniel, but it didn’t serve the plot in any way. Murder Before Evensong is a gentle and humorous read.
The characters and the setting are all an absolute joy. I’ve been waiting for a novel with vicars, rude old ladies, murder and sausage dogs… et voila!’ Dawn French

Church Times/Sarum College:

He is certainly unmistakable. Tall and gangly, Coles offered a perfect physical complement to the taut, energetic Jimmy Somerville in The Communards. The frame has filled out since then, but the sense of near-archetypal Englishness remains. Canon Daniel Clement, protagonist of Murder Before Evensong, has much in common with Coles. Both are clergymen. Both keep dachshunds. Only one has a dead body in the nave. The rector’s mother, Audrey, and brother Theo form an enjoyably annoying family, and they and the policeman (romance blooming?) will plainly feature in the further books in the pipeline. Daniel has his series-character quirks all lined up – an amusing obsession with stationery, and a love for his two badly behaved dogs. For me the dogs were the most annoying part of the book, but others will adore them and find them a selling point. I feel fairly confident that I will as the characters grow on me the novels will continue to improve.

English villages are notorious havens for murderers – think of all the untimely deaths to have taken place across the county of Midsomer or in Agatha Raisin’s new home of Carsely in the Cotswolds. Now, with a nod to its most famous predecessor, Miss Marple’s home of St Mary Mead, the quintessentially English village of Champton joins the fray. “Two murders… in as many weeks. That must surely be way above the odds for an English country village, even St Mary Mead. What on earth is going on?” says the daughter of one of the victims. Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, where he lives alongside his widowed mother – opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey – and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. Devotees of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories will feel most at home here’ The Rector of Champton, Canon Daniel Clement is lives with Audrey, his widowed mother and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda in the Rectory. 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.No, I deeply resented it at the time,” he says with impressive frankness. “I was consumed with envy. That was inadmissible at the time. You had to pretend you didn’t mind, but you did mind. Also, if you stand next to someone who’s prodigiously talented they get a lot of light and air. And if you’re in the business of light and air yourself, you can feel that your diet is a little thin. Not that that was Jimmy’s intention.”