Synopsis
In the fourth novel in the critically acclaimed Book of Psalms series, when a female priest becomes the vicar of St. Margaret's church, she must contend with the seemingly accidental death of a parishioner. 10,000 first printing.
Reviews
Scandal surrounds the politics and treasure of an Anglican church in this continuously absorbing mystery, Charles's fourth with a Church of England setting (after A Drink of Deadly Wine). London artist Lucy Kingsley and her live-in boyfriend, solicitor David Middleton-Brown, don't know what the reader has learned in the prologue when David is retained to arrange the sale of some silver belonging to St. Margaret's church: namely, that the former curate of St. Margaret's was bludgeoned to death during an apparent robbery. But they are informed right after the death of Rachel Nightingale, the new?and for obvious reasons, controversial?curate, who is killed in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident. Lucy and David investigate things more deeply, partly in response to a plea from old friends Archdeacon Gabriel Neville and his wife, an old school friend of Rachel. Then, after unwisely blurting out a connection between the two dead curates, an elderly parishioner is brutally murdered. Along with its adroitly drawn main characters, this gripping novel offers a finely etched supporting cast: sleazy churchmen, indiscreet solicitors and surly teenagers. Mystery Guild alternate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Charles, a Cincinnatian turned Brit, uses her experience as a former Anglican church administrator to write a devilishly clever little mystery that's chock-full of intrigue, scandal, greed, evil, and all sorts of other nastiness not normally associated with the Church. Artist Lucy Kingsley and solicitor David Middleton-Brown are inadvertently caught up in a baffling case involving a puzzling burglary and not one but three violent murders, all of which seem to have some connection with London's St. Margaret's Church, a set of valuable ecclesiastical silver, and the past lives of the church's young curates. Solving the case is complicated not just by the many conflicting clues and the dead bodies that keep turning up but also by Lucy's 14-year-old niece, who's determined to play amateur sleuth along with David and Lucy. All the "good stuff" is here--an assortment of plausible suspects and motives, plenty of unexpected plot twists, a heaping helping of danger and suspense, and enough red herrings to keep even the sharpest reader off balance. Well written and cleverly plotted, this one's worth adding to all but the smallest collections. Emily Melton
Replete with genteel tone, evocative description, and astute observation, this series title (e.g., The Snares of Death, LJ 11/1/93) should arouse reader demand. Painter Lucy Kingsley and solicitor David Middleton-Brown, her lover, become involved in a scandal surrounding two neighborhood Anglican churches. After an apparent burglar murders a priest, the vicar appoints a controversial female deacon as a replacement. Contentious church wardens, valuable Victorian church silver, Lucy's temperamental niece, and the deacon's vegetative husband deepen the plot. Absorbing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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