The Snares of Death - Softcover

Charles, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747238731 ISBN 13: 9780747238737

Publisher: The Mysterious Press, 1992

Synopsis

Everyone agrees that Bob Dexter, the prominent Evangelical clergyman, has a great deal of personal charisma. Those who know him realise that he also has an unshakable faith in his own righteousness, and a real talent for rubbing people up the wrong way. It is no surprise, therefore, that someone should want to kill him. In fact, when the Reverend Dexter moves to a small Norfolk parish, traditionally Anglo-Catholic, and begins remoulding it in his own image, his distraught parishioners are not the only ones with good reason to want to remove him. And there are secrets in his seemingly tranquil family life that Dexter does not even begin to suspect - until the fateful and eventful day of his death. Solicitor David Middleton-Brown and his artist-friend Lucy Kingsley step in to investigate. Their search for the truth culminates at the annual National Pilgrimage to Walsingham, where Anglo-Catholic pomp clashes with heated Evangelical protest, and feelings run perilously high. Too late, perhaps, David realises the danger: will he be in time to prevent a second murder?

About this title

About the Author:

Kate Charles, who was described by the Oxford Times as 'a most English writer', is in fact an expatriate American, though an unashamedly Anglophilic one. She has a special interest and expertise in clerical mysteries, and lectures frequently on crime novels with church backgrounds. Kate lives in Bedford with her husband and their dog, and is a former Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and the Barbara Pym Society.

From Publishers Weekly:

American-born Charles reaches new heights of Anglophilia in the second adventure (after A Drink of Deadly Wine ) to team up London artist Lucy Kingsley and Norfolk solicitor David Middleton-Brown. Bob Dexter is a loutish evangelical clergyman soon to be installed as pastor of St. Mary the Virgin, a High Church parish in Norfolk. Insisting on being called "Bob" and often referring to himself in the third person, Dexter is set on removing all traces of "idolatry" and Papistry from his new church, causing much consternation among the parishioners. When he's found bludgeoned to death in the church, fingerprints point to a young Anglican priest who hires David to defend him. Lucy and David must sort through various Anglo-Catholic and evangelical clergy and laity, animal-rights activists and the victim's browbeaten family to find the killer, all the while trying to determine the future of their own relationship. Two additional deaths and the seduction of a young woman also occur--in keeping with the book's tone of high gentility, offstage--before David and Lucy determine who did what to whom and why. Charles entertains with well-drawn characters, a serviceable plot--though no real surprises--and a deftly explored High Church milieu.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0747238731
• ISBN 13: 9780747238737
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448