Tangled Web UK Review October 2007
The Flower Arranger at All Saints (Northbridge Chronicles Murder Mystery) by
Lis Howell
hbk out May 07
Published by Constable
at £18.99
A substantial whodunnit in the author's 'Norbridge Chronicles' series,
based in a Cumbrian village. It probably comes into the 'cosy' genre, as
the title suggests, but the rural community locale is full of some hard-
edged characters and situations. Basically, there is a feud going on
between the traditional die-hards in the church and the 'happy-clappy'
vicar, who has taken over after the more benign rector abruptly went sick
with a nervous breakdown.
One problem for readers, not uncommon in crime novels, is that a wide
spectrum of characters is introduced at the start of the book, which take
some remembering for the first few chapters, but apart from that, the
story is a page-turner and cleverly crafted.
Much of the tale is seen from the point of view of Suzy, a recently-
separated young mother and Robert Clark, a widower who has to be
pulled from the apathy of bereavement. His wife Mary was a previous
flower-arranger, but her friend is found dead in the church amid some
strange symbolism worked in foliage.
The book reveals the wide knowledge of the Old Testament, especially
Isaiah and of the chronology of the Church Year, which is explained in an
Appendix.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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