Twelve Drummers Drumming

Starred review from September 5, 2011
This splendid first in a new whodunit series from Canadian author Benison (Death at Windsor Castle) introduces the Rev. Tom Christmas, the new vicar of St. Nicholas Church in the English village of Thornford Regis. Five months earlier, Christmas lost his wife to an unknown murderer in London. Soon after this tragedy, while visiting Thornford, he stepped in to officiate at a funeral service after the incumbent vicar, Peter Kinsey, failed to show. He subsequently replaced Kinsey, who has vanished. Christmas hopes bucolic Thornton will be a good place to rear his nine-year-old daughter, but once again he must deal with a violent death—that of Sybella Parry, the choirmaster’s grown daughter, whose body he finds inside a large drum. Rejecting the easy explanation, that something in Parry’s drug-addicted past led to her demise, Christmas begins to dig, and discovers that Thornford’s placidity is only skin-deep. An intelligent and empathic protagonist and skillful prose make this a winner.

September 15, 2011

A peaceful rural town becomes the murder capital of England.

Rev. Tom "Father" Christmas and his daughter Miranda have moved to bucolic Thornford Regis after the appalling and unsolved inner-city murder of his wife. His wife's sister Julia, a music teacher, and her husband Alastair, a physician, already live in the area, whose biggest mystery to date has been the sudden disappearance of Tom's predecessor. Tom and Miranda are settling in nicely when a nasty murder interrupts the festivities at the village fair. The teenaged daughter of well-known musician Colm Parry is found dead, her body hidden in a large Japanese drum. In his role as vicar, Tom finds himself privy to many confidences that reveal the sins his peaceful parish is hiding, stretching from theft and infidelity to murder. The suspects, varied and plentiful, range from an elderly retired army officer, whose stint in a Japanese prison camp left him with hate in his heart, to the church verger, who's so far succeeded in hiding a truly dangerous secret from his past. Though he's hampered in his search for the truth by the seal of confession, Tom still finds a way to unmask an unrepentant killer.

The first in a planned series of 12 is a promising departure from Benison's Her Majesty Investigates series (Death at Windsor Castle, 1998, etc.). This English village mystery moves slowly while the many interesting characters are fleshed out, but it proceeds deftly to a grim conclusion. 

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August 1, 2011

An English village's traditional May Fayre event is trended up by the introduction of 12 Japanese taiko drums, much to the delight of the local teen performers. But when a young village woman is found dead inside the largest of the drums, it's clear that there will be only 11 performers, and that a murder investigation is required. The victim, a child of a rock 'n' roll legend, doesn't seem to have had strong enemies. Was someone else the intended victim? The new vicar, Tom Christmas, a widower whose wife was murdered in London, is perplexed and angered that the tranquility of his apparently idyllic village has been violated. They say Sherlock Holmes found villages full of deceit, but poor Tom hopes for the better side of humankind. VERDICT This marvelous series debut by Ellis Award winner Benison (Death at Buckingham Palace) is a satisfying, character-driven read. The author presents a full plate of options, leaving the reader puzzling through the possible motives of an intriguing ensemble cast. The likable vicar and his Nancy Drew-loving daughter should become reader favorites. Highly recommended.

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