Murder Before Evensong

"I've been waiting for a novel with vicars, rude old ladies, murder and sausage dogs... et voila!" Dawn French This first in a new series is a charming, warm and witty tale of secrets and murder set among the parishioners of a quaint English village. The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling crime novel, perfect for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series. 'Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice' IAN RANKIN Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton. 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. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, 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 pruning shears. As the police moves in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together... and catch a killer. A delightful, cosy murder mystery with a sharp edge from the bestselling author.

THE INSTANTLY ICONIC NO. 1 BESTSELLER 'Devotees of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories will feel most at home here' Guardian 'I've been waiting for a novel with vicars, rude old ladies, murder and sausage dogs... et voila!' Dawn French 'Cosy crime with a cutting edge' Telegraph 'Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice' Ian Rankin 'Charming and funny' Observer Even better than I knew it would be' India Knight 'Quintessentially English' Sunday Express 'An absolute joy' Adam Kay ''Wry, tongue-in cheek and whimsical' Daily Mail 'Glorious' Robert Webb 'Beautifully written, charming, funny, intelligent and mordant too' Sunday Times 'Pitch perfect' Philip Pullman 'A cunning whodunnit' Daily Express Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton, where he lives alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in the church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, 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. As the police moves in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his community together... and catch a killer.

The body was found in the village school. The vicar of Rooksby-le-Soken in East Anglia was found on Monday morning on a classroom floor with a hole through his heart--but no trace of the bullet. Indubitably he had been killed on the spot, the blood on the wall behind him was proof of that. Detective Chief Inspector George Masters was sent by the Yard to sort things out and decided the method was less important than the motive. From his headquarters in the local pub Masters began his delving into the private lives of the villagers and soon discovered that the vicar was a much unloved incumbent. No one had a good word for him and quite a number had considerably less than that. The publican and his Italian wife, with an attractive, still unwed daughter of twenty-eight, the local G.P. and his obstreperous son who ran a joint practice, the village carpenter, and the schoolmaster with a grudge, were only a few of the suspects Masters unearthed in twenty-four hours. In a few days he had raked up enough dirt to put a lot of them on the spot. But in the end it was his capacity for remembering significant details and fitting them into the jigsaw that sorted out the man and the method. Praise for Douglas Clark "The many who miss the properly clued inductive detective story will fall on this one with relief" - Times Literary Supplement "A good, satisfying, competent whodunit, intelligently thought out and believable without unnecessary fireworks of sex or violence. And the answer, when it comes, is much more convincing than the majority of those in thriller dénouements" - ANTHONY PRICE, Oxford Mail Douglas Clark was born in Lincolnshire, 1919. He wrote over 20 crime novels and under other names, including James Ditton and Peter Hosier.

Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they're not telling Rhodes. Lynn was known to flirt, and it's possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town. Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.

After years of chasing around sniffly munchkins with a tongue depressor, nurse Pauline Sokol has had it. She's sick of being an "angel of mercy"—she'd like to raise some hell for once! But finding a new career won't be easy for someone who's had no experience beyond thermometers and bedpans. Luckily, the smarmy head of an agency that investigates medical fraud thinks she'd be perfect for the job, since, for him, a potential employee's most important qualification is a killer pair of legs. So now Pauline's a p.i., but since she knows as much about detective work as a potted geranium might, the hunky and mysterious Jagger steps in to teach her the ropes. Her first assignment—going undercover at a local clinic to investigate fake insurance claims—promises to be a hoot ... until the healers around her start inexplicably dropping dead. And before she can say, "streptococci," Pauline's stuck in a true health care crisis with her own continued wellness in very serious jeopardy.

From St Fillan of Munster, patron saint of the mentally ill, who read by the light of his miraculously glowing arm, to Santa Lucia, who tore out her eyes to dismiss the lascivious attentions of her would-be husband, here are nearly two hundred classic stories of the saints of Christian legend.Richard Coles, former half of 80s pop duo The Communards, now a Church of England priest and presenter of Radio 4’s Saturday Live, has collected these wonderful tales from around the world. Despite their bizarre, colourful and sometimes grotesque stories, many of these saints are still celebrated and prayed to today.Every page illustrated by cartoonist Ted Harrison, giving the book a saintly Horrible Histories feel.

When the body of a theology student is found on a desolate stretch of coast in East Anglia, his wealthy father demands that Scotland Yard should re-examine the verdict of accidental death. Commander Adam Dalgliesh agrees to pay a visit to the young man's theological college, St Anselm's, a place he knew as a boy, expecting no more than a nostalgic return to old haunts and a straightforward examination of the evidence. Instead he finds himself embroiled in intrigue, secrets and mystery as the college is torn apart by a sacrilegious and horrifying murder . . . Award-winning P.D. James (author of Death Comes to Pemberley and Children of Men) masterfully explores an isolated and beleaguered community coping with the evil and disruption of murder. In 2003, this novel was adapted for BBC television and starred Martin Shaw, Hugh Fraser and Robert Hardy. Set on the wild coast of East Anglia, this number one bestseller is the fourteenth Adam Dalgliesh novel and a thrilling work of crime fiction possessing all of the qualities which distinguish P. D. James as a novelist.