Murder Before Evensong

Even better than I knew it would be. Really well plotted... beautifully written, charming without being twee, funny, intelligent and mordant too. It's cosy, yes, but waaay better than "cosy crime" suggests.

SUNDAY TIMES

Murder Before Evensong is like a walk in the country on a warm summer's evening... one during which your fellow ramblers can be murdered horribly at any moment. Canon Daniel Clement is an inscrutable and erudite detective, while four-legged sidekicks Hilda and Cosmo are his delightful foils. You'll want to take a front row pew in Champton while this delicious series unfolds.

Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal

An absolute joy from cover to cover - funny, clever and wonderfully plotted. Praise be!

Adam Kay

Beautifully written and a warm funny joy from start to finish.

Sarah Millican

Perfect for those who like their cosy crime to have a cutting edge.

Ben Aaronovitch

Glorious.

Robert Webb

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. Canon Daniel Clement must solve mysteries temporal and theological while surviving his parishioners tender ministries. Delightful! And only Richard Coles could pull this off so joyfully and with such style. Biscuit-thieving Cosmo, too, will soon have his own fan club.

Damian Barr

Coles has a gift for subtle comic writing... beyond the fascinating story with its rich characters, the real discovery here is the sniffing out of the author's formidable talent for writing about English life with English humour. Roll on the rest of the series!

THE OLDIE

Coles does a wonderful job of bringing his congregation to life... [and] moves seamlessly between humour and something deeper... Charming and funny, it is just what you'd expect from the excellent Coles.

THE OBSERVER, Thriller of the Month

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

SUNDAY EXPRESS

Cosy crime with a cutting edge.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

A good old page-turner with brilliantly drawn characters, from the aristocratic de Floures to Daniel's astute, snobbish mother, and dachshunds so real you can almost smell them.

SAGA, Book of the Month

[A] cunning whodunnit... This wise and often beautifully written novel remains most memorable as a sharp but sympathetic portrayal of everyday life in a small community and a clergyman's role within it.

DAILY EXPRESS

Richard Coles is one of the most sparkling, entertaining, clever and lovable people in public life, as rare and precious to British culture as a Norman cathedral.

Victoria Coren Mitchell

Murder Before Evensong has all the elements that make up a classic detective story: a pitch-perfect setting, a genuine puzzle, a gruesome murder (or more) and engaging characters. I enjoyed it very much.

Philip Pullman

Coles' rendering of his fictional church, St Mary's, in the village of Champton, twinkles with quirky detail and sharp humour.

METRO

A wry, tongue-in cheek and whimsical debut with more than a trace of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown... charming.

DAILY MAIL

Violent deaths aside, it's a cosy world of Desert Island Discs, flower rotas and walnut cakes, beautifully written and evocative, run through with the comforting, ancient liturgical rhythms that transport you to Evensong and gentle organ music in a cool country church on a summer's evening.

COUNTRY LIFE

This has all the ingredients of a brilliant new cosy crime series.

MY WEEKLY

A brilliant crime romp set in a village full of gossip and secrets.

WOMAN'S WEEKLY

A deliciously thrilling murder mystery.

WOMAN'S WEEKLY SUMMER SPECIAL

He's very good on the nitty-gritty of a clergyman's life. His likable protagonist Canon Daniel Clement's struggle to get parishioners to accept the installation of a new church toilet is every bit as gripping as his investigation of the inevitable series of mystifying murders.

MAIL ON SUNDAY

Coles is a sharp observer of human nature, but his observations are tempered with both humour and compassion, and much of the pleasure in the book lies in the incidental asides.

CHURCH TIMES

Coles adds another string to his bow with this witty, Barbara Pym-ish village whodunnit about a crime-solving cleric.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, Best Holiday Reads