3.75 stars rounded up.
There are lots of things I enjoyed about this book but, equally, there are also lots I didn't. I'm going to try and explain without spoilers.
Firstly, the author uses some very obscure words. I have a very good vocabulary and I had to reach for the dictionary on several occasions whilst reading. Luckily I was on my kindle and only had to touch the word for it to pop up, but even that brief interruption took me out of the book. I am not sure why authors do this, it only serves to alienate people and it's not big and definitely not clever!
Secondly, on the same theme, and I know it is set in "The Church" but, again, obscure words and rites and maybe a bit over the top there too. Again distracting.
Which leads me to the plot. Which was a bit thin. If you take all else that is going on around and about then it leaves it all a bit thin. Not that what is going on outwith the crime isn't interesting. It is. It's just that I was sold this as a "Murder Mystery"...
It's slow to start too, and not just scene setting and character introduction. Although I understand that this being the first in series, there are certain things that need to happen. Foundations need laid and all that. But here it was a little too much for me.
Oh and it was set in the 80s. Which I didn't twig until quite a way through. The author relying on telling rather than showing this to the reader.
But. If you take away the crime, you are left with a wonderful character study of village life and that which the church surrounds itself. Full of larger than life characters, bickering, jealousy, secrets, lies and more than a dollop of duplicitous behaviour. Hence the murders...!
Canon Daniel Clement is an interesting chap. His wry sense of humour, his obsession with installing a toilet, and his relationship with his mother, all made me chuckle along the way. He's passionate about what he does, and that shines from him. He loves his home, his church, and his village and serves them all to the best of his ability.
As to whether I will continue with the series? It's too early to sack it off. Some of the best series I still read started with a bit of a bump for me and went on to be firm favourites. I do have high hopes for this one too.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

This is a delightful cosy murder mystery, the first in a series featuring Canon Daniel Clement. Set in the parish of Champton St Mary, Richard Coles festoons us with an eclectic cast of characters, quite numerous and you do need to keep track of who’s who. He spends quite some time introducing us to the Daniel and his parish, and I thoroughly enjoyed his observations and commentary on the everyday life: for instance Daniel buying a pencil eraser - never asking for a rubber! I absolutely adored Cole’s use of language in these moments and thought he captured the essence of a typical English country parish perfectly. And then a shock discovery in the church throws the parish into turmoil. A murder in their quiet little village.
I liked how the history of the events of the wartime years in the big house were woven into the story and how hidden secrets were revealed as the story developed. It kept me guessing to the end as to who did it, which I was pleased about. Daniel is quite an incidental detective in that it’s not his main goal to solve the crime, rather to care for his flock, and this gave a different perspective to the popular (and excellent) cosy murder mysteries of the moment. I couldn’t help but see and hear Rev Richard as Daniel, but for me that added to the charm of the book. I’m looking forward to the next episode already! This is set to be one of the summer’s top reads I’m sure!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for a review.

Lovely start to a new cosy crime series.

Wonderful characters and scenery, witty fun conversations and a really enjoyable storyline.

I think Richard Coles has got off to a great start with his new cosy crime series and I look forward to book 2.

I enjoy a cosy mystery, but I am sceptical of celebrity authors, but as I am always looking for a new mystery series, I was very glad to receive a copy of Murder Before Evensong to review.

I really enjoyed this book, Canon Daniel Clement is a strong protagonist, he is well crafted and Richard Coles’ own experience as a member of the CofE clergy helps to create a believable and enjoyable character. However, for me, the stars of the show are Audrey, his forthright and quite domineering mother, and his two daschaunds Cosmo and Hilda.

The depiction of village life is well written and accurately represented so many of the villages throughout England. It is also very funny because it is so accurate, and the humour in this book is a real strength.

The mystery itself was intricate and believable and it kept me hooked until the very end, and I did think it was very well planned and plotted.

I highly recommend this book, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I really liked Daniel and I will definitely read further books in this series.

Thank you to the author, Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for an ARC in return for a honest review.

Overall, this is a recommendable read, despite suffering from some of the inevitable problems which obviously result from it being the first in a projected series about Canon Daniel Clement. For instance, the opening chapters are way too slow, but this is explicable as scene-setting is a must nowadays to get a series established.

The setting and the characters are congenial, although rather oddly I found it difficult to pin down Canon Clement. It was almost as if the author was holding back here and I think the reticence was overdone. The plot was fine, and, despite the withholding of some information, was not too difficult to fathom. The roots in WW2 aspect was quite well handled.

I gather that Richard Coles has recently resigned from the Church of England and will devote himself to writing. Bad news for the Established Church, but good news for readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Weidenfeld & Nicolson for the digital review copy.

As a fan of Richard Coles, I really wanted to love this book - but I'm afraid I really didn't. Too slow, too many (often interchangeable) characters, too long a wait for something to happen and then feeling a bit so-what-ish when it eventually did. I'd hoped for something along the lines of an ecclesiastical version of The Thursday Murder Club but alas not - it was flat and dull and while there was the occasional flash of Coles' humour (and I ended up with a much deeper understanding of the theological side), try as I might I just couldn't get invested in either characters or plot.

I really wanted to like this book and was looking forward to reading it.
The depiction of village life, the attitudes to the church and the plotting of the church ladies are all too familiar to those of us who live in such places. However having to wait 100 pages for something to happen did mean that after reading the first few chapters I became impatient for the actual story to begin and nearly gave up altogether.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

This is the first book which is set in 1988, Champton St Mary.

Daniel, a Rector wants to have a toilet fitted in the church which causes the village to be divided in his decision. Audrey, his mother, a widow, is on his side. The ladies who are in charge of the flowers are opposing this.

But, things take a turn when someone finds Anthony stabbed, using secateurs in the church.

I absolutely loved reading Murder before Evensong. The story is written from the viewpoint of Daniel, being the main person of the village life.

After what felt like a bit of a slow start I was soon able to lose myself in this cosy murder mystery set in Champton in 1988.

The quiet village is shocked by plans to install a lavatory in the church and then even more so when a member of the congregation is found murdered.

I’m sure this will be a hit when published.

If you are looking for the next 'Thursday Murder Club' with some healthy doses of 'The Vicar of Dibley' thrown in, carry on walking... I was incredibly disappointed with Richard Coles 'Murder Before Evensong' which is less a cosy murder mystery and more an overwritten diatribe about history, literature and religion. Somewhere in the dense writing, we have a murder which shocks the small community of Champton and their rector Daniel. A dispute about a toilet for the parish church, flower arranging, and some historical events involving the French during the war, lead to a twisted trail of death and a less than satisfying conclusion come the novel's final pages.

The sheer number of similar characters in this book make this often confusing, as does Richard Coles' preference for a complex sentence over clarity in the story. When one of the murders happened, I read the short chapter twice, still none the wiser at what the convoluted writing meant. It would be good if our central character had some personality or spark but I found Daniel a dull person to follow and thought many of the revelations came out of nowhere, clearly swilling around his head but not really hinted to the readers, making the twist ending an odd surprise...

Overall, this book bored me to tears - sorry! Apparently this is the first of a new series. I shall not be tuning in for any future instalments.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this first instalment in this series. Here we meet Daniel, the titular mystery solver, who has lived in Champton for close to a decade, and still doesn’t necessarily feel part of the furniture. His mum Audrey lives with him and she is a wickedly wonderful woman, well able to help her son out in his investigations. Fortunately, Daniel’s dachshunds Cosmo and Hilda also play an important role, at least when the first body is found in the church. All Daniel had wanted was to install a toilet in the holy place, not find a gruesomely murdered body. But a small town is packed to the religious rafters with secrets and it’s clear someone will go to great lengths to stop anyone from them being discovered. Overall 4 stars

A slow burner , but once the scene is set and the characters introduced it moves along at a reasonable pace.
Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton.
One minute he is proposing the installation of a lavatory in the church ( much to the disgust of some parishioners!) and the next the parish is rocked by murder.
There are a lot of characters to familiarise yourself with which was a slight distraction.
Overall the story was a robustly written cosy mystery , a solid start to a new murder mystery series.
Looking forward to the next book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group.

So, once I'd got my head round all the characters and their roles and idiosyncrasies.
( A fair bit to remember)..I found I could get in to the cosy crime scene..a sort of Agatha Christie meets Agatha Raisin!!
Loved the main character and his quirky parish of Champton. Having lived in a small village for many years it was fun to identify/ match several fictious characters with real people! Plenty of humour and welll written. I'm sure a series will be well received

Murder Before Evensong is the debut novel by Richard Coles and it is an enjoyable cosy crime which sets the scene for future books.

The book initially spends a long time scene setting and introducing a large cast of characters before the first body arrives and whilst the murder is fairly vicious and unique the author does not deviate from cosy crime so should have a wide appeal.

Overall a good debut.

Author Richard Coles is well known in the UK for being a previous member of The Communards and also for appearing on many television shows as a witty and companionable guest, so I was keen to read his first mystery and I was delighted that I found it a really enjoyable read.

This is very much a cosy mystery, with the central character, Canon Daniel Clement, Rector of Champton St Mary, with echoes of St Mary Mead, and a cast of characters which includes the Big House and Lord de Floures, as well as Daniel’s widowed mother and his actor brother. This is set within living memory of the Second World War, (from television shows mentioned, I put it at the early Eighties, but I may be wrong,) and the village housed many of the Free French, who have left their mark behind.

The plot involves changes suggested by Daniel, of putting a lavatory into the church, which is stoutly resisted by the flower guild (though why women, when we so often lack appropriate toilet amenities in public spaces, would do so was beyond me). The local dissent allows Coles to introduce the characters and then a murder occurs, which Daniel becoming involved in the investigation.

I think the author has been quite clever in allowing lots of scope to extend the series and I am sure that I will follow this one as it was good fun and well written. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Imagine Keeping Up Appearances meets Downton Abbey, in an enjoyable piece of escapist cosy crime fiction.

A solid scene setter in what could become a very enjoyable series of books.

And so another investigative rector enters the canon (of literature), in this Reverend Richard Coles' first foray into novel writing. Overall the tale is well told and now we are versed into the world of Champton the mystery elements may come more to the fore. All the characters are well observed and the relationships between them sparkles especially between Daniel and his mother. There is much humour sprinkled throughout the text and anyone involved with any sort of organisation will recognise the 'politics'.

I do wonder if the main character Daniel might not have superficially appeared to have so much in common with the author. It would void the inevitable comparisons and the text being examined for references to people that the author may know. I note from some other reviewers that they found some of the detail a little overbearing but for me it added to the richness of the story.

A good read, perhaps a little light in this introductory tale on the mystery but that will hopefully develop in future outings of this series. I would have no hesitation in wanting to read another.
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#MurderBeforeEvensong #NetGalley

I think Richard Coles is a wonderful person and when I saw he had written this book I was excited to read it. Like many, I’m sure, I was thinking on the lines of ‘Thursday Murder Club’, and without doubt this is a very well written book expertly explaining the life in a quaint countryside village that the author is well-equipped to offer. But it just left me a little deflated because it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Although I understand the first few chapters are there to set up the characters and background, I just found it a little slow and confusing which, as much as I hate to say, found it a bit boring!

I did stick with it as I could well imagine the Rev Richard Coles’ language being the same in real life as in the book, including his sense of humour which I very much enjoy. I just didn’t fully enjoy the overall story and found it lacked clues to enable me to try and work out the killer, even leaving me confused as to the actual motive. That may be that I just didn’t fully understand what I had read which is a shame on my part leaving me disappointed overall.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy of Murder before Evensong, the first novel to feature Canon Daniel Clement of Champton St Mary set in 1988.

Daniel stirs up the village with his plan to install a toilet in the church. The battle lines are drawn with his widowed mother Audrey leading his defence while the ladies of the flower guild lead the opposition. Then Anthony Bowness is found stabbed to death by a pair of secateurs in the church.

I thoroughly enjoyed Murder before Evensong, which is written in the style of a cosy, but with a bit more bite and erudition. It is mostly told from Daniel’s point of view and this is apt as he seems to be the centre of village life, moving easily between the various factions and employing a subtle psychology to get the right result.

The novel is slow to start with a lot of scene setting and character introduction. For those who want immediacy this might not work well, but I, no stranger to a need for action and developments, found it fascinating and absorbing. The author has a way with words and character delineation that drew me in and never let go. It all seems quaintly old fashioned and rather nostalgic in its depiction of class and entitlement, but the characters, their sins and secrets are sharp enough to disprove this.

The murders, and there are several, are the driver for the novel but not always the main focus as the novel is as much about the characters and their secrets. On the plus side the novel is full of surprising developments and a few not so cosy secrets, on the downside I thought the solution was strange. It fits the author’s narrative but I didn’t buy it enough to find the solution wholly credible.

The novel is on the literary side in its allusions. I got the reference to Proust’s madeleines only because I was forced to study it years ago, how many readers will? I got some more but others passed me by completely. To be fair I think they elevate the novel.

Murder before Evensong is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is set in the fictional typically English Village of Champton, so beautifully brought to life by the Reverend Richard Coles. Very much along the lines of Agatha Christie and Father Brown mysteries, but brought right up to date. Someone is found brutally murdered in Canon Daniel Clements church and as more murderes follow he teams up with the local police. He has help from his brother (an actor) his mother and two dachshunds !!! It made me laugh out load on occasions but still had a fabulous plot that kept me guessing right to the end. Such wonderful wit and great writing well done to the Reverend Richard Coles!!!! Can't wait for the next instalment.