Murder before Evensong by the Rev Richard Coles - this is the first novel by this author, who is best known in the UK as keyboard player with the band The Communards, and more recently as a broadcaster (and briefly a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing!), he has now retired from the priesthood and having written several non-fiction books has now turned his hand to fiction, and this is the first in a series set in the village of Champton, and centred around it's church and rector Daniel, who lives in the rectory with his widowed mother Audrey, and two dachshunds, plus his actor brother Theo who drops in occasionally. Apart from an argument as to whether pews should be removed from the church to make way for bathroom facilities, life is fairly calm, until one day a local historian, and cousin of the local Lord, is found, by Daniel, brutally murdered in the church. Another murder soon follows, the village is rocked and Daniel finds himself helping the police with their inquiries, both officially and unofficially, and it looks like Daniel and the Detective Sergeant, Neil, will be forming a team for future books; the next is already out in hardback with a 3rd book to follow next year. After a slow start, once the book got going I really enjoyed it, it's generally well written although at times it's slightly over-written and a little flowery in places, plus some references went over my head, but overall this was a perfect cosy(ish) crime story fairly well told, with appealing characters and a well-thought out plot (can't say anymore for fear of spoilers) and I would read more in this series. My slight quibble is that it took a while to establish just when the book was set, initially I assumed it was in the present, but a few cultural references eventually pointed it towards the mid to late 80s, which of course means that technology as we now know it was only just starting to make it's presence felt - he refers to expensive machines with keyboards and a screen at one point. But some more author notes would have been useful, other than that, a promising debut. 7/10