Late of this Parish (Inspector Gil Mayo Mystery) - Softcover

Eccles, Marjorie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1521121133 ISBN 13: 9781521121139

Publisher: Independently published, 2017

Synopsis

The Reverend Cecil Willard is not one of those born to be loved... A scholarly and austere man, ex-headmaster of the local boys’ school, his stern moral principles and die-hard opinions have never endeared him either to those close to him or to his neighbours in the village in which he has lived and worked for so many years. The debilitating effects of a recent stroke have only made him more bad-tempered and difficult to live with — as his only child, Laura, knows all too well. Yet despite his often aggravating personality and presence, no one could ever imagine doing him any real harm...until the discovery of his murdered body at the foot of the altar steps in the church shocks the whole community. As DCI Gil Mayo begins his investigations into the murder, he soon discovers that there are plenty of people in Castle Wyvering who had cause to resent the old man, and one at least who had reason to fear him for the knowledge he possessed. But the question remains: why has Willard been killed? Each interview seems to produce another viable suspect, from his submissive daughter to his animal-loving neighbours, his troubled gardener to the prospective headmasters for the local Uplands House School. Mayo’s investigation leads him down more than one strange path. What does the power struggle for the Headship of the school, or the shooting of three badgers, have to do with Willard’s murder? And who is the mysterious Sara mentioned in his diary? The answers only begin to appear after Mayo’s inquiries reach out beyond Wyvering and begin to connect up with another case in nearby Hurstfield...and the final solution to the murder will not become apparent until the killer has struck one more time... Late of this Parish is a chilling mystery filled with suspense that will keep you hooked.

Praise for Marjorie Eccles

‘My heart soars when I come upon a superior mystery, and this is one.’ — US Mystery News Marjorie Eccles was born in Yorkshire and spent her childhood there and on the Northumbrian coast. She later lived for many years in the Midlands, where her crime novels are set. She has written more than twenty books and short stories for broadcasting and serials, and is the recipient of the Agatha Christie Short Story Styles Award.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

The passions simmering behind the solid facades of a small English town and a respected boys' school lead to murder in Detective Chief Inspector Gil Mayo's fourth case (following More Deaths Than One ). Elderly, opinionated and rigidly moralistic, the Rev. Cecil Willard is found smothered to death with a sacramental pillow in St. Kenelm's church in Wyvering. Not a beloved man in the prime of his life, the former head of Uplands House School had become increasingly cantankerous with age and illness, though he retained the power to help choose his successor's successor. Prime suspects in the murder are the two main candidates for that spot: a former suitor of Willard's daughter Laura and the divorced man she hoped to marry, over her father's violent objections. Other suspects include the local vicar's animal-loving wife, who considered Willard responsible for shooting some lawn-destroying badgers, and a gardener, a local light-fingered troublemaker. A bomb by animal-rights activists at a local research foundation and obstructive behavior by some of the suspects' families complicate Mayo's case. Eccles's latest outstanding procedural is marked by her keen perceptions into human relationships.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A month after a bomb at the Fricker Institute narrowly misses killing its director, Dr. Denzil Thorne, Rev. Cecil Willard, Thorne's unlovable old neighbor in the village of Castle Wyvering, is smothered by an altar cushion in St. Kenelm's. In his search for a connection between the two crimes, Chief Inspector Gil Mayo (More Deaths Than One, 1991, etc.) turns up ever more shopworn secrets: Willard's dutiful daughter Laura has secretly married David Illingworth, the divorc‚ her father opposed to replace the retiring headmaster of Upland House School; Thorne's wayward daughter Phyllida has been carrying on with scapegrace Sebastian Oliver, son of Willard's successor as rector of St. Kenelm's; Oliver's mother, Catherine, has kept her forthcoming book of animal sketches a secret from her husband; and the animal-rights activists Willard irritably opposed were more determined than he imagined. Soothingly familiar fare, with a particularly sharp evocation of the hothouse atmosphere of Castle Wyvering's clerics and pedagogues compensating for Mayo's virtual invisibility this time out. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Independently published
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1521121133
• ISBN 13: 9781521121139
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 191