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

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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? I don't like giving low marks but I found the story rather slow and there were a lot of old words I had to look up because I had never seen or heard before, it could have been simplified for idiots like me but the outcome was well explained,I'm sorry to score it a 3 but I think I'm being generous,Shame because I like the Reverend Coles he seems a nice guy what I've seen of him on tv so I'll give the second book a go but in a few months time I think . 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. It feels like a series of interludes and chatter - one long paragraph on a biscuit tin description, for instance. The first in the Canon Clement series is a truly entertaining read and will leave you yearning for more!

In the early stages of this book the biblical references served to link those stories to the world of Champton. There were perhaps too many characters introduced initially but I suppose it was important to set the scene and introduce us to Daniel Clement (I can’t see him as anyone else but the author), his parish and work. I think the author has been quite clever in allowing lots of scope to extend the series and I am sure that I will follow this one as it was good fun and well written.

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. He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda . A dispute over installing a toilet at the church where the main people campaigning against were middle aged / elderly women?

as Daniel locks horns with his flock over the matter of whether the vintage pews in St Mary's can be moved to make way for a new lavatory, Coles rivals Barbara Pym in his ability to make supremely low-stake conflict gripping. Canon Daniel Clement is an inscrutable and erudite detective, while four-legged sidekicks Hilda and Cosmo are his delightful foils.His likable protagonist Canon Daniel Clement's struggle to get parishioners to accept the installation of a new church toilet is every bit as gripping as his investigation of the inevitable series of mystifying murders. And then Anthony Bowness – cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton – is found dead at the back of the church. I didn't like that the historic period it was written about was entirely unclear (only identified as 1988 more than halfway into the book when Daniel's mother watches Celine Dion win Eurovision in the TV), felt this was a missed opportunity for nostalgia and context. Half of Daniel's (and his mother's) thoughts went straight over my head, too obtuse and loaded with religious terminology.

For those of us who enjoy listening to and watching Richard Coles (now ex Rev), it’s not a surprise to read such an intelligently written, warm and funny book. 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.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. If this manuscript had arrived anonymously in the slush pile, would it have got this far this quickly? They would, of course, and the murders would enter local folklore, generate tales of dogs refusing to go into church, or birds no longer singing in the trees around the bath house. As readers we were expected to be familiar with a load of French and Latin phrases and some pretty hard vocab.

It is, as many other reviewers have said, very English and a large chunk of the book is taken up with church matters - the first murder doesn’t occur until 30% of the way through. Could it be they rushed everything through hoping for instant success on the back of Richard Osman’s excellent Thursday Club series? beyond the fascinating story with its rich characters, the real discovery here is the sniffing out of the author's formidable talent for writing about English life with English humour.Second, this was like some nineteenth century novel that you got forced to read at school, billed as a funny detective story.