Appointed to Die
Format:Paperback
Publisher:SPCK Publishing
Published:16th Jul '15
Should be back in stock very soon
The third in the much-loved Book of Psalms mysteries.
Death at the Deanery – sudden and unnatural death. Someone should have seen it coming. For even before Stuart Latimer arrives as the new Dean of Malbury, shock waves are reverberating through the tightly-knit and insular Cathedral Close, with sweeping changes afoot. And the reality is even worse than the expectation. The Dean’s naked ambition and ruthless behaviour alienate everyone in the Chapter: the gentle John Kingsley, vague Rupert Greenwood, pompous Philip Thetford and, especially, the strongly traditionalist Arthur Brydges-ffrench. Financial jiggery-pokery, clandestine meetings, malicious gossip, and several people who witness more than they ought to, make for a potent mix. But who could foresee that the mistrust within the Cathedral Close would spill over into violence and death? Canon Kingsley’s daughter Lucy draws in her lover David Middleton-Brown, against his better judgement, and together they probe the surprising secrets of a self-contained world where nothing is as it seems
A disarming comedy of clerical manners . . . What you'd expect if Trollope decided that what the Barsetshire novels needed to juice them up was a tincture of illicit (albeit well-bred) passion and homicide. * Kirkus Reviews *
Fascinating behind the scenes cathedral politics * Sunday Telegraph *
KATE Charles’s earlier series of mystery books, "A Book of Psalms Mystery" (as an expatriate American she prefers "mystery" to the British usage of "crime novel"),has been republished, 25 years after their first appearance in the now almost-unimaginable world of record players, fixed telephones and address books. As befits a former chair of the Barbara Pym Society,Kate Charles’s books are more concerned with the people than the crime, and this is demonstrated in two of the series’ volumes. The first in the series, A Drink of Deadly Wine (£8.99), introduces the reader to solicitor David Middleton-Brown and artist Lucy Kingsley as they try to unravel the problems confronting Fr Gabriel Neville. A familiar cast of church community characters – eccentric organist, disapproving family, main gossip source – has to be investigated in what one reviewer described as "A bloodstained version of the world of Barbara Pym". The same duo are put to the test in The Snares of Death (£9.99) where denominational clashes manifest themselves at the National Pilgrimage to Walsingham. More recently – and in tune with today’s Anglican Church – a new female sleuth takes the lead in a new series. Deacon Callie Anson appears for the fourth time in False Tongues (£8.99), set in Cambridge and London and with the thoroughly up-to-date topic of cyber-bullying to confront. All three books are published by Marylebone House and any one of them is likely to set the keen who-dunit reader on a hunt to discover the whole of Kate Charles’s very readable output. -- Margaret Daniels * Methodist Recorder *
ISBN: 9781910674116
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 316g
288 pages