The first in a new series which includes vicars, old women, dogs and murder. Not your typical cozy because it's more graphics than most. Plenty of twists and turns. A good read but a little gory for me. Thanks#netgalley and #TitanBooks for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

Could not make my way through this. I don’t understand all the praise. Plodding, uninteresting, overly genteel—sorry, not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of Rev Richard Coles' newest book 'Murder Before Evensong'. This review contains my own thoughts and comments upon completing the novel.

In 'Murder Before Evensong' Reverend Coles has done what every aspiring author is told to do. He has written what he knows. Unlike many aspiring authors though the Reverend has the benefit of celebrity interest as a reason for the publication of his novel. Not to say the novel is without merit. I very much enjoyed how aptly he captured the varying relationship between parishioners and how accurately he depicted the fraught nature of interactions between the flower guild and church members in the dispute over installing a loo in the church.

For the benefit of those who have yet to start reading, this novel is set sometime in the 1980's or 90's although this is never explicitly stated. I only really noticed after a few odd comments, one of which was about Celine Dion's Eurovision win.

It takes a while to get to the first murder. Before that the Reverend goes into great detail about the debate over the installation of a loo in the church, the background of numerous characters (I admittedly lost track of who many of them were), and the day to day ins and out of being a rector of a Catholic church. When the murder(s) do occur they are somewhat lost amongst pages of descriptions of church functions and scenery depictions.
I think Reverend Coles has the potential to write a captivating murder mystery, but his publishing teams and editors need to help him reign in some of the bible quotations and church references so he can concentrate on unravelling the mystery without distracting readers.

I think I'm missing something about "Murder Before Evensong." Maybe I went into it expecting too much, based on the hype, but for me, the book never really found its footing. There were multiple references to Trollope, and there was somewhat of that flavor to it, but then there was all the focus on the loo, and some unnecessary (IMO) bucolic scenes, like where a rabbit is stunned prior to being killed and eaten. Of course, there are the obligatory poachers, who are referred to throughout as "gypsies." It's not quite used as a slur, but those characters are definitely set apart.

My other quibble is that it takes awhile to figure out when the book is set. There are mentions that the canon was born during the Battle of Britain, and that his mother, who lives with him, drove an ambulance during the war and is entering her eighth decade. I assumed late 80s/early 90s from that, but it made for some oddness.

Being a village, there are a lot of characters, and some of them are so similarly named that I mixed them up a time or two. The few clues that the canon stumbles across don't point to anyone in particular, and the canon just seems to have a (divine?) revelation at the end who committed the crimes and why. This was odd, because he apparently observed the murderer in church enough to know that they paid attention to his sermons, but no closely enough to notice their distress. Very odd.

Maybe this would have worked better as an epistolary book, since it read, for a good chunk of it, like a parish diary.

It's a decent little village life story that just happens to have a couple of murders in it. Hopefully the series will find its feet with the sequel.

3.0/5.0 stars

I received an advance copy of this book from Titan Books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Although the premise of this book was good, it was way more serious than the typical cozy I prefer as the descriptions of the murders and the way some animals were killed were too graphic for a cozy. There are some good characters in this book. especially the Rector's mother Trudy. There are lots of plot twists and plenty of suspects and I was surprised by who the killer turned out to be.

Absolutely perfect cozy mystery. Highly recommend. Well written, fun, and a fast read. Will definitely continue the series.

I was delighted to be able to read an advance copy of this book thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I knew how popular the book was in the UK, and I've been wanting to read it. I alternated between reading the e-book and listening to the audiobook (which I had acquired from the UK), and I enjoyed both formats. The author read the book and did a great job. Although the author succeeded in bringing the village locale to life, I consider the book to be a little more serious than the typical cozy mystery. Much of it was about the life of the clergy during the 80s, and there were interesting references to the history of the village. I was amused by the squabbles in the congregation. As a murder mystery, it was unusual that the reverend wasn't actively trying to solve the crimes, but he happened to deduce much of what had happened. I look forward to seeing what happens next with the reverend and his congregation.