In Prior's Wood by G. M. Malliet

In Prior's Wood by G. M. Malliet ISBN-13: 9781250092809 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Minotaur Books Released: April 17, 2018

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Newly returned from investigating a murder in Monkslip-super-Mare, handsome Max Tudor wants nothing more than to settle back into his predictable routine as vicar of St. Edwold’s Church in the village of Nether Monkslip. But the flow of his sermon on Bathsheba is interrupted when the lady of the local manor house is found in a suicide pact with her young lover.

Lady Duxter’s husband rallies quickly from the double tragedy―too quickly, it is murmured in the village. When a young girl goes missing and a crime writer becomes a target, DCI Cotton asks Max to lend his MI5 expertise to the investigation.


My Review:
In Prior's Wood is a mystery set in England. This is the seventh book in a series. You don't need to read the previous books to understand this one, and this one did not spoil the mysteries of the previous books.

Details about the setting were woven into the story, making the village seem a distinct, unique place full of interesting people. The point of view was distant rather than deeply in someone's head, so we got the background and thoughts of a number of characters. Max, an Anglican priest married to a Wiccan, was the main point-of-view character. People came to him to share their concerns about things that happened, and Max gleaned clues from these conversations. He helped his detective friend solve the mystery. We're not told everything that Max hears, thinks, or does, so some things came as a surprise and were explained only at the end. Even so, there were enough clues that I strongly suspected whodunit.

There were no sex scenes. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting and relaxing mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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