Reviews

Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles

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jilliroo's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

mysteriesandhistories's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Too many characters introduced in rapid succession and often with similar names (Nathan/Norman, Dot/Dora). There’s a good book in here somewhere but this feels like a first draft. The protagonist does little to solve the crime and the denouement comes out of nowhere.

ebbywoowoo's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.25

I spent far too much time trying to figure out when this story took place with its scant references to the period (mid 80’s I’m guessing, I still don’t know). I had to go back to check the beginning to be sure I didn’t gloss over a date somewhere after a reference to AIDS and one of the characters maybe being gay and a lack of cell phones. Until that point (over 1/3 of the way in) I was reading as if it were set in modern times. It was just too subtle a thing and hugely distracting. There were far too many villagers introduced at one time with a lot of effort going in to describe and develop them but they all just got blended together and I never really remembered who was supposed to be which character. All in all it was very much a this murder happened and suddenly in the fourth from last chapter by divine intuition it was solved and then explained to all in the end.

lou_mac's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

2.5

This story picked up in the middle - but given they say on the back cover who is murdered, it takes a huge chunk of the book for that to happen so it's quite a slow start of scene setting a little country parish, and then the ending wraps itself up v quickly. Lots of the ending felt quite convenient, with lots of things being revealed for the solution. It also took me a while to figure out when this was set - but that could be just me.
I did enjoy the characters, and it was well written enough but I wouldn't rush to the next in the series