Murder Before Evensong: The instant no. 1 Sunday Times bestseller

THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE REVEREND RICHARD COLES'' CANON CELEMENT MYSTERY SERIES

''Cosy crime with a cutting edge''
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

''Even better than I knew it would be''
INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES

''Devotees of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie''s Miss Marple stories will feel most at home here''
GUARDIAN

''Charming and funny''
OBSERVER, Thriller of the Month

''I''ve been waiting for a novel with vicars, rude old ladies, murder and sausage dogs ... et voila!''
DAWN FRENCH

''The unlikely heir to Barbara Pym''
DAILY TELEGRAPH

''Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice''
IAN RANKIN

''A cunning whodunnit... A sharp but sympathetic portrayal of everyday life in a small community''
DAILY EXPRESS

''You''ll want to take a front row pew in Champton while this delicious series unfolds''
JANICE HALLETT

''Coles'' murderous take on a quintessentially English parish makes for a likeable, cosy crime caper''
SUNDAY EXPRESS

''Champton joins St Mary Mead and Midsomer in the great atlas of fictional English villages where the crimes are as dastardly as the residents delightful''
DAMIAN BARR


Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton. He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother - opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey - and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda.

When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village.

And then Anthony Bowness - cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton - is found dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs.

As the police moves in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together... and catch a killer.