Peril in the Parish

September 15, 2022
A long-buried secret and several love stories come together in a very English mystery set in 1933. Florence Norris, the longtime housekeeper at Mullings, is about to marry George Bird, the well-regarded owner of the Dog and Whistle Pub in Dovecote Hatch. A stranger who enters the pub says, "Twenty years ago today I buried my sister," and asks George to pass on a letter to the police, setting off a series of revelations that will seriously disturb the peace of the quiet village. It doesn't take long for Florence and George, who've dealt with murder in the past, to figure out who the stranger is and why he's returned. Meanwhile, Sophie Dawson has been living frugally in another small town until a co-worker she's hardly noticed develops an obsession with her. The potential scandal drives her to seek respite with her mother's cousin Agnes Younger, who lives in Dovecote Hatch. Sophie's met at the station by the new vicar, Aiden Fielding, who explains that her cousin is dying and wants to see her. Sophie and Aiden knew each either as children, and Sophie must admit to herself that she's loved Aiden ever since. Florence and George dig into information from the past to solve the puzzle of who wrote the letters that drove a woman to suicide and into an unmarked grave while uncovering a raft of modern-day secrets that lead to another murder. A haunting tale of love, death, and obsession.

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September 26, 2022
Set in 1933 in the English village of Dovecote Hatch, Cannell’s leisurely third Florence Norris mystery (after 2015’s Death at Dovecote Hatch) finds kind and canny Florence, the housekeeper at Mullings, the great house of the district, preparing for her wedding to genial George Bird, proprietor of the village pub, the Dog and Whistle. One evening, a stranger walks into the nearly empty pub and announces, “Twenty years ago today I buried my sister.” He goes on to hint at the circumstances of his 17-year-old sister’s illegal burial when he was 13 and asks George to pass on to Inspector LeCrane a batch of anonymous threatening letters his sister received shortly before she died. The stranger wants the inspector to “hunt down the writer of those letters and bring him or her to justice.” After George consults with Florence, they know what they need to do in response to the man’s request. Other deaths ensue, but the focus is on the relationships among the nicely portrayed residents of Dovecote Hatch, both pleasant and unpleasant. The villagers’ romantic triumphs and losses tend to overshadow the efforts to unravel the puzzles surrounding the various deaths, including a suicide. Fans of traditional British mysteries will find much to like.