cover image Death in the Opening Chapter

Death in the Opening Chapter

Tim Heald. Severn/Creme de la Crime, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-78029-002-7

As the title promises, the first chapter of Heald's stately new entry in his Simon Bognor series (Red Herrings, etc.) does indeed find the Rev. Sebastian Fludd hanging in the nave of St. Teath's in Mallborne, a feudal relic of an English seaside town. It's the eve of the annual Flanagan Fludd Literary Festival named for a distant ancestor, and this doubting and almost radical clergyman, who was also at odds with his wife, Dorcas, had been preparing tomorrow's sermon. Sebastian's baronet cousin, Sir Branwell Fludd, a believer in order and tidiness, is sure the vicar committed suicide, but Bognor, a special investigator for the Board of Trade, suspects otherwise. The witty Bognor, while guest of Sir Branwell, begins his own inquiry with a methodical if at times unorthodox approach to interviewing suspects. Those who prefer rambling, allusive, mildly humorous English mysteries will be most rewarded. (July)