Murder Before Evensong: The instant no. 1 Sunday Times bestseller (Canon Clement Mystery)

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Lots of story lines in the book I felt were set up ones for future books as they weren’t relevant for this story. The situation escalates into something much more sinister when Anthony is found dead in the church, a pair of secateurs plunged into his neck. Not the worst cosy mystery I've read by any means (The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes probably takes that crown), but a bit of a damp squib. I struggled to relate to the bland protagonist, Daniel, and found the plethora of weakly-drawn, supporting characters to be caricatures of elderly villagers and eccentric, landed gentry. Half of Daniel's (and his mother's) thoughts went straight over my head, too obtuse and loaded with religious terminology.

Richard Coles is one of the most sparkling, entertaining, clever and lovable people in public life, as rare and precious to British culture as a Norman cathedral. The Vicar of Dibley type setting is entertaining; the canon himself is rather bland but has potential. Canon Daniel Clement must solve mysteries temporal and theological while surviving his parishioners tender ministries. 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 . 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.

Hard-core cosy fans may enjoy it if they can get through the infodumping at the beginning, but I struggled to care about what was happening. There was a lot of ecclesiastical language, as might be expected, but which would have benefited from a glossary and I gave up looking up the numerous Latin phrases. When the murderer is revealed in the last 10 pages or so, I couldn’t remember who the character was, and by that point I just didn’t care. The Rector of Champton, Canon Daniel Clement is lives with Audrey, his widowed mother and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda in the Rectory.

I still found most characters very bland, their pasts barely reflected who they were in the present. Set in the late 1980s, the book introduces us to a cast of characters including: flower arrangers Stella Harper and Anne Dollinger; an aristocratic landowner, Bernard de Floures; a retired headmaster Ned Thwaite; and Daniel’s no-nonsense mother, Audrey, who “sometimes reminded [Daniel] of Pope Pius IX, who responded to the loss of sovereign powers over the papal states by making himself infallible”.The beginning of the books spends most time describing the church, the prayers and if they should have a toilet put in. Some controversy arises when he proposes installing a toilet in the church, which will mean getting rid of the back pews.