Murder Before Evensong: A Canon Clement Mystery

The Reverend Richard Coles' Canon Element Mystery series is a cozy crime with a cutting edge. The first novel in the series, "Champton," is set in a fictional English village where the crimes are as dastardly as the residents. Canon Daniel Clement is the Rector of Champton and has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother, Audrey, and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in church, the parish is suddenly divided, and long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village. When Anthony Bowness, cousin to Bernard de Floures, is found dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together and catch a killer.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 09 June 2022
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

The Reverend Richard Coles Canon Element Mystery Series is a cozy crime novel with a cutting-edge edge. The Sunday Telegraph praised it as even better than expected, while India Knight of The Sunday Times said it was a must-read for devotees of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories. The Guardian described it as charming and funny, while the Observer named it Thriller of the Month. Dawn French of The Daily Telegraph called it the unlikely heir to Barbara Pym, and Ian Rankin of The Daily Express praised it as a cunning whodunnit with a sharp but sympathetic portrayal of everyday life in a small community. Janice Hallett of the Sunday Express praised Coles' murderous take on a quintessentially English parish, while Damian Barr of The Sunday Express praised Canon Daniel Clement as Rector of Champton and his widowed mother, Audrey, and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in church, the parish is suddenly divided, and long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village. And then, Anthony Bowness, cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton, is found dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs. As the police investigate, they discover that there are more secrets than they could have imagined, and the stakes are higher than ever before.

Weight: 594g
Dimension: 164 x 241 x 36 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474612630