A Bedlam of Bones

May 23, 2011
"Being a clergyman is an exacting matter at the best of times, but the difficulties are compounded if one is also an assassin," declares the Rev. Francis Oughterard at the outset of Hill's diverting fifth mystery featuring the vicar of Molehill in 1950s Surrey (after 2010's Bones in High Places). Bishop Clinker, the vicar's superior, needs help. A blackmailer is threatening to expose "an absurd whimsical indiscretion" Clinker committed at Oxford in prewar days that the bishop prays his wife will never hear about. When the first body surfaces, Oughterard, who unapologetically admits to murdering one of his parishioners in an earlier outing, has no compunction about hiding the corpse. In separate chapters, the vicar's dog, Bouncer, and cat, Maurice, comment on the action in the same jokey argot as their owner. References to past cases, marked by footnotes throughout, may lead curious newcomers to previous books in a series that blithely mixes cozy elements with black farce.