Devotees of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories will feel most at home here’

First, when exactly was this book set, I'm sure if I could be bothered to piece together the clues I could work it out, late 1980s/early 1990s? There is no indication (that I can see) as to when it is set, which is hugely discombobulating to the reader who imagines it must be present day. 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. Riiiiiight. Clever bloke! The policemen were portrayed particularly poorly as people who ambled around chatting and drinking tea and never actually doing any crime solving at all. I was really looking forward to reading this book. 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. It was a bit disappointing though. But between a family of idle aristocrats, embittered clam frogs and the son of a punk-looking Lord, he has a good range of suspects. Canon Clement may not be Coles’s alter ego, but he embodies some of the qualities that make Coles such an effective priest; and we see foreshadowed the institutional changes that lie ahead, not least in the balance between activity and inactivity: “‘Our measurements will only be as sound as the measures we use to establish them,’ he once said to a keen rural dean who wanted to apply the methods of business to the calculation of souls saved.”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. I also could’ve done with some explanation on specific church terms. I’m interested in Protestantism and Catholicism, but didn’t have much knowledge on the Anglican Church. A lot of the terms used I was therefore unfamiliar with. On top of that a lot of vocabulary used I didn’t quite get the hang of either. This is largely due to me not being a native English speaker, or me not being familiar with Latin phrases, but the way the sentences were structured definitely didn’t help either. A lot of (to me seemingly) posh words were bundled up in huge sentences. Initially I re-read these sections, but as I started to realise there wasn’t much important information to be found I started skimming over them instead. It therefore wasn’t as accessible as other cozy crime novels would be. It was bad. I already mentioned the indistinguishable characters, but what about the poor dialogues? They were terrible.

Canon Daniel Clement was a likeable main character but I couldn’t quite see him as a solver of murders. 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. The most memorable of these was probably Audrey, Canon Clements mother who definitely has her own opinions about what is going on and misses nothing. Most of the other characters were sadly, pretty forgettable.

Church Times Bookshop

I was hoping (given The Reverend Richard Coles' past life and amusing anecdotes) for something like Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club books, but featuring a rector, alas it was not to be. I kept reading right to the end but the style didn't change. I don't think I will be requesting the next book.