Kate Charles

Page Updated: 17/03/2006

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Kate Charles - Page 1

pbk 06 Feb 06

Evil Angels Among Them

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Praise for Kate Charles

by Kate Charles

About the Author (Photo (c) Jerry Bauer)

Bibliography

Paperback - Allison & Busby (2006)

First British Edition Allison & Busby (2005)

Evil Intent
Life in the clergy is quiet, respectful, and peaceful - or so Callie Anson believes when she begins her new job as curate at All Saints’ Church in Paddington.
Following her traumatic break-up with fiancé Adam, the last thing Callie needs is more emotional turmoil. However, she soon finds that her new job brings with it more than its fair share of challenges. She is exceedingly disturbed when she finds she is the subject of deep-seated hatred, cast upon her by her male colleagues. One in particular, Father Jonah Adimola, picks her out for a torrent of verbal abuse. To Callie’s relief, her good friend and mentor, Frances Cherry, jumps to her defence. But when Father Adimola is found strangled to death the next day, suspicion falls upon Frances. Callie must now call upon her faith to steer her through the turbulent times ahead, and help prove her friend’s innocence. With the help of Dl Neville Stewart, it isn’t long before the ecclesiastical facade is chipped away to reveal the hidden secrets of the clergy.
Evil Intent is a gripping crime novel that pitches the reader into a dark world of concealment, power and deception, as up-to-date as today’s headlines.
Praise for Kate Charles
‘The modern ecclesiastical mystery ... is a fast-growing sub-group of whodunnitry; no one is more skilled at it than Kate Charles. With the lightest of touches, she weaves the goriest murders into a convincing and provocative backdrop of clerical politics... Thoroughly entertaining, even to those of no religious bent’ The Times
‘Compulsive reading’ Birmingham Post

First British Edition Little,Brown (2000)

Cruel Habitations
An unplanned pregnancy. A wife desperate to conceive. A young girl's suicide. A body unidentified…
April 1989, and sisters Alison and Jacquie Barnett take a holiday to Greece neither of them will ever forget. For Jacquie, soon to be married, the holiday represents one last opportunity for fun, and she is determined to make the most of it. Alison, naive and sheltered, disapproves, but it is her meeting and falling in love with Mike that is to define both their lives...
Eleven years later, and Sophie and Chris Lilburn are leaving London for a new life in Westmead. It seems an ideal move - a teaching job for Chris at the cathedral school, the coveted position of Lay Clerk in the cathedral choir, and a rent-free house in Quire Close, a magnificent stretch of stone mediaeval terraced houses. But Chris's delight is tempered by Sophie's longing for a child, by the sinister gossips who exercise control over the community, and by the unsolved murder of a young woman Just over a decade earlier ...
With the death of her father, Jacquie, now divorced, is hopeful of being the sole beneficiary of his will. Instead he has split everything equally with the daughter no-one has seen for eleven years. And with her father's assets frozen, Jacquie has no choice but to try and trace her sister, a journey that eventually takes her to Westmead, and a stirring of old emotions that will once more put lives in danger ...
A novel of ever-tightening tension and psychological subtlety, Cruel Habitations is another tale of sharp, skilful suspense from the pen of Kate Charles.

First British Edition Little,Brown (1999)

Strange Children
Friendless and virtually an orphan, Tessa craves a husband, a home and a baby: above all she wants to be loved. Against her better judgement she attends the wedding of her on-and-off lover, Ian, and finds that the bride thinks it amusing to sit her next to her own ex-amour, Rob Nicholls, but in a manner which takes both of them by surprise they embark on a heady, wholly satisfying romance.
After their own marriage, Tessa settles into a regime full of contentment, especially when she discovers she is pregnant. Yet, despite her material and emotional security, she finds that Rob's reluctance to allow her to meet his mother becomes increasingly vexing. Puzzled and a little hurt by his attitude she vows to discover the cause of the coolness between mother and son.
Then Linda Nicholls is murdered.
deeply shocked, but more determined than ever to discover the truth about her mother-in-law, Tessa is plunged into a nightmare world of secrets, where nothing is as it seems, and her own life - and the life of her unborn child - are in danger.
Praise for Kate Charles
"It takes someone with the skill of Kate Charles to remind us that murder among the middle classes can be just as chilling and credible as death on the mean streets. ... The leisurely unravelling of the dark secrets of people passionately committed to keeping up appearances produces and intelligent and convincing story. One to hide from the vicar." (Val McDermid in the Manchester Evening News)

First British Edition Little,Brown (1998)

Paperback - Warner (1999)

Unruly Passions
See Review by Andrew Taylor - author of the highly acclaimed Roth & Lydmouth Series
Margaret Phillips, Archdeacon of Saxwell, is in the prime of her life. Her position in the church is testament to her exceptional ability, commitment and drive, as she effortlessly combines her clerical duties with a rock-solid marriage to the charming and devoted Hal. The couple are to discover, however that their smug stability is what makes them vulnerable.
For the sake of their Down's syndrome daughter, Daisy, Gervase Finch moves with his fiercely protective wife into the parsonage in the nearby village of Branlingham, before assuming the post of vicar. Although they love their spouses, Rosemary Finch and Hal Phillips are drawn together, both disturbed by ideals of womanhood: Rosemary competing with the ghost of Gervase's first wife, Hal married to a paragon.
Valerie Marler, a best-selling novelist; has also identified Hal as the object of her unruly passion. Ever the author, Valerie strives to rewrite her past failures by pursuing her fictional ideal, but when Hal refuses to play his part in her love story, her revenge threatens to descend into tragedy.
Kate Charles has deftly woven the threads of many contemporary obsessions into a chillingly credible tale of passion and suspense.
'Thoroughly entertaining' The Times
'Compulsive reading' Birmingham Post
'A blood-stained version of the world of Barbara Pym' The Guardian

Paperback - Headline

Evil Angels Among Them
'Peaceful' is the most common entry in the visitors' book of fifteenth-century St Michael's Church, with its glorious angel roof and its medieval Doom painting. But outside the church, and under the surface, peaceful is scarcely the word for the tiny Norfolk village of Walston. The Rector's new bride, Becca Thorncroft, is receiving phone calls so unpleasant that her very sanity is at stake, and the newest residents of Walston, Gillian English and Lou Sutherland, are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Then sudden, gruesome death shatters even the outward peace of Walston. Fortunately for Father Stephen Thorncroft, his friends Lucy Kingsley and David Middleton-Brown are on hand to sort through the tangled relationships and dark motivations of the villagers, uncovering more than they bargain for. But it is not until a little girl goes missing that the final, deadly pieces fall into place in their search for the 'evil angels among them'.
"Quick-witted ... nice, tight plot." (New York Times Book Review)
"A special treat for readers who treasure the books of Agatha Christie and P.D. James, as deeply satisfying as afternoon tea by the fireplace, with a wise and witty storyteller for companionship." (Houston Chronicle)
"All is answered with Charles' consummate skill. This is another satisfying and first-rate novel from her pen." (Pen & Dagger)
"Kate Charles conveys with her usual elegance of style and form the vicissitudes of life in an English village and her wonderful understanding of the human heart." (Kate's Mystery Books Newsletter)
"Kate Charles writes with insight and authority ... The novel manages to resonate emotionally while exploring controversial themes with sensitivity and authenticity." (Mostly Murder)
"Don't try to hurry this one, or to second guess the villain's name: it's worth a whole evening, and a second read, my award for the care-and-delight of readers." (Rockland Courier-Gazette)

About The Author
Now it can be revealed: Kate Charles, who was described by Oxford Times as 'a most English writer', is in fact an expatriate American, though an unashamedly Anglophilic one. The insights she gained while working as parish administrator of her local church have been put to good use in her books, all of which are grounded in the Church of England. She has a special interest and expertise in clerical mysteries, and presents frequent lectures on crime novels with church backgrounds. Kate lives in Bedford with her husband and two dogs, one white and one black. A former Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, she is currently Chairman of the Barbara Pym Society. Her favourite hobby is visiting churches, and this interest is reflected in her membership in the Ecclesiological Society, the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, the Kempe Society, and her enthusiastic support of Music in Country Churches.
A Few Words from Kate Charles …
I grew up in the U.S.A. with that most valuable of influences, a mother who read to me. She has always loved detective novels, so Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie were a part of my early reading, and it was only natural that one day I should write in that genre. I was 'transplanted' to the U.K. in 1986, finding in the Church of England the fertile ground of inspiration for writing the books I'd always wanted to write. I think it has something to do with the gap between the ideal of the institution and the all-too-human foibles of the people who constitute that institution; that gap is at the heart of my writing.
My first book, 'A Drink of Deadly Wine', grew out of a fascination with a group of characters, David Middleton-Brown and his circle of friends. It was meant to be a one-off, but developed into a series. Each of those books explores some issue in the Church of England: 'A Drink of Deadly Wine' is about 'outing', before that term hit the news; 'The Snares of Death' deals with the High Church/Low Church divide, and related issues of extremism and fundamentalism; the problems of a cathedral and its battling personnel are detailed in 'Appointed to Die'; 'A Dead Man out of Mind' focuses on the ordination of women; and 'Evil Angels Among Them' explores the consequences of the Church's financial crisis. But it is the characters that are important, and in this my books are very much in the tradition of Barbara Pym. 'A bloodstained version of the world of Barbara Pym' is the review quote I most treasure. She has been and remains the most profound literary influence on my work.*
A life-changing experience (open-heart surgery) in 1996 triggered a change of direction in my writing, as an idea came to me for a one-off suspense novel. That novel is Unruly Passions, still set within the background of the Church, and containing recognisably Kate Charles characters, but with a different sort of emphasis and form. Unruly Passions has now been followed by Strange Children and Cruel Habitations, and the next book, False Tongues, is in progress.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Evil Intent (Allison & Busby, 2005) Allison & Busby Pbk Feb 06

Cruel Habitations (Little,Brown, 2000)

Strange Children (Little,Brown, 1999) Warner Pbk Apr 00

Unruly Passions (Little,Brown, 1998) Warner Pbk Jun 99

Evil Angels Among Them (Headline, 1995) (Mysterious Press, 1996) ( Middleton-Brown & Kingsley)

A Dead Man Out of Mind (Headline, 1994) (Mysterious Press, 1995) ( Middleton-Brown & Kingsley)

Appointed to Die (Headline, 1993) (Mysterious Press, 1994 - out of print) ( Middleton-Brown & Kingsley)

The Snares of Death (Headline, 1992) UK out of print (Mysterious Press, 1993) ( Middleton-Brown & Kingsley)

A Drink of Deadly Wine (Headline, 1991) (Mysterious Press, 1992) ( Middleton-Brown & Kingsley)