15th December 2024

This novella takes us to visit the rectory at Christmas. It takes a bunch of the best bits from the series and compresses them in.

Some readers I suspect might be disappointed by how much some aspects are compressed. Personally, I found that my favourite parts of these novels were left intact, and the others were just there in sufficient volume.

I found this to be a nice cosy read. It was really nice to visit the characters in a slightly different setting, and to see their Christmas unfold. There are some new characters to add to the mix, but a decent amount of time spent with the regulars that it felt like a familiar get together.

I really liked it and can only look forward to more visits to this world.

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23rd June 2024

Everything is a bit shaken up in Canon Clement’s third mystery novel, which follows immediately on from the second.

The narrative is split here across multiple locations, as we follow three different threads of plot, which only somewhat overlap into plot. This feels quite odd in places where we jump between points of view mid chapter, which isn’t a style I’m all that used to.

One of the big changes with this book is that it’s much more a story about the characters, and less of the focus is on the mystery. This might be seen as detracting from it, as the murder referenced in the title feels secondary to the actual story that’s being told. Personally, I found it an interesting take and was engaged sufficiently with the characters that this didn’t matter.

I’m continuing to really enjoy this series and am intrigued to see where Richard Coles is going to take us next.

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16th July 2023

Book two, and we’re back in the rectory with Canon Clement, the unlikely detective in this cosy crime village, whose life is already busy and complex ministering to his flock, overseeing the new priest in the next village, and exploring new hobbies with his policeman friend.

We get some great character development, seeing those established previously grow, and we get some new characters join to fill out the cast and add variety. There’s a lot of churchiness, which some readers might find off putting, but mentally I liken to world-building in fantasy novels.

The mystery itself I’m not entirely sure I followed the resolution of. There seemed to be quite a lot of threads of story all wrapped up quite quickly, and I can’t remember how exactly they added up.

Overall though, a nice cosy tale which I enjoyed, and I’ll definitely be picking up the next book when it in turn comes along.

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3rd July 2022

Rev Richard Coles adds mystery novelist to his annoyingly long list of talents with this tale of a crime solving rector in a village church in the late 1980s.

The world building is rich and really fun - setting up the village with the classic set of characters, getting fascinating insights into the life of a CofE rector, and seeing all the little conflicts that arise.

However for the actual plot I felt that the book suffered from having too many characters. There were a lot of suspects and I found it quite hard to keep track of who each one was, how they related to all the others, and thus couldn’t follow the mystery as well as I would have liked.

This of course will in no way prevent me from reading book two next year.

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