From Publishers Weekly
Scandal surrounds the politics and treasure of an Anglican church in this continuously absorbing mystery, Charles's fourth with a Church of England setting (after A Drink of Deadly Wine). London artist Lucy Kingsley and her live-in boyfriend, solicitor David Middleton-Brown, don't know what the reader has learned in the prologue when David is retained to arrange the sale of some silver belonging to St. Margaret's church: namely, that the former curate of St. Margaret's was bludgeoned to death during an apparent robbery. But they are informed right after the death of Rachel Nightingale, the new?and for obvious reasons, controversial?curate, who is killed in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident. Lucy and David investigate things more deeply, partly in response to a plea from old friends Archdeacon Gabriel Neville and his wife, an old school friend of Rachel. Then, after unwisely blurting out a connection between the two dead curates, an elderly parishioner is brutally murdered. Along with its adroitly drawn main characters, this gripping novel offers a finely etched supporting cast: sleazy churchmen, indiscreet solicitors and surly teenagers. Mystery Guild alternate.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Replete with genteel tone, evocative description, and astute observation, this series title (e.g., The Snares of Death, LJ 11/1/93) should arouse reader demand. Painter Lucy Kingsley and solicitor David Middleton-Brown, her lover, become involved in a scandal surrounding two neighborhood Anglican churches. After an apparent burglar murders a priest, the vicar appoints a controversial female deacon as a replacement. Contentious church wardens, valuable Victorian church silver, Lucy's temperamental niece, and the deacon's vegetative husband deepen the plot. Absorbing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
