"What the Vicar Saw" by Benedict Brown

Retired Scotland Yard detective Lord Edgington and his nephew Christopher Prentiss are in the small town of Condicote. The family is visiting Christopher’s paternal grandmother, who is something of a dragon on a good day. It’s a few days after Christmas of 1926, everyone’s in a good mood despite the dragon grandmother, and the talk is of the recent accidental death of the local peer, Baron Fane, in a car accident.  

The family attends a church service together, only to discover that the vicar has been murdered. The town constable seeks the path of least resistance, and he arrests a young man who has in his possession a chalice stolen from the church. Two months later, the trial is held, the young man found guilty, and the judge issues a sentence of death by hanging.

 

Christopher is convinced the young man is innocent, but his grandfather refuses to investigate. Two of the young man’s friends do investigate, and one of them dies if a gunshot wound to the temple. The constable sees suicide, but the victim’s mother and Christopher see murder. Lord Edgington is eventually prevailed upon to look into the case.

 

Benedict Brown

And what follows is a trail of land development shenanigans, another death, anyone and no one being the prime suspect (including the dragon grandmother), and Christopher beginning to step outside his grandfather’s enormous detective shadow. 

 

What the Vicar Saw is the ninth Lord Edgington mystery by Benedict Brown. It has all the distinctive characteristics pf the novels in the series – Christopher’s appetite and sarcasm, plenty of 1920s atmosphere and details, and humor amid the tragic circumstances. It’s also about 60 pages longer than its predecessors, and there are reasons for that. This story seems something of a transition for Christopher, who is less dependent upon his grandfather for observations and insights. (There’s also a fair amount of handwringing over all the clues going nowhere and lack of any obvious suspect.) But the story is still a treat and a fun read.

 

In addition to the Lord Edgington stories, Brown has written seven Izzy Palmer mystery novels and three novellas. A native of south London, he lives with his family in Spain. The Lord Edgington mysteries are likely aimed at both the general reader as well as the young adult audience. And they’re well-researched stories, full of information about the mid-1920s.

 

Related:

 

Murder at the Spring Ball by Benedict Brown.

 

A Body at a Boarding School by Benedict Brown.

 

The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall by Benedict Brown.

 

 Death on a Summer’s Day by Benedict Brown.

 

The Tangled Treasure Trail by Benedict Brown.

 

The Curious Case of the Templeton-Swifts by Benedict Brown.

 

The Crimes of Clearwell Castle by Benedict Brown.

 

The Snows of Weston Moor by Benedict Brown.