Agatha Award winning author G.M. Malliet has a new series! This one features MI5 operative turned Anglican priest Max Tudor. Max had a religious conversion after witnessing the death of his best friend and fellow agent in a car bombing. Weary and burnt out from his years with the MI5, he decides that a more simple, spiritual life was his true calling. He is now settled into the vicarage in the picturesque community of Nether Monkslip and closely involved with its people and traditions of the charming English village. Not everything in Nether Monkslip is idyllic, though, and as the annual Harvest Fayre approaches feathers are ruffled and feelings hurt by Women's Institute president Wanda Batton-Smythe. Wanda considers herself to be the driving force behind the Harvest Fayre and is heavily critical of her less-than-perfect but good-natured fellow citizens. An efficient, well-organized leader, she is also adept at reducing people to tears when her demands are not precisely met. Wanda's body is discovered in the Town Hall on the day of the Fayre and the verdict is that she died from anaphylactic shock caused by her allergy to peanuts. Was the untimely death accidental or engineered? Max, as vicar and confidante, is in a very good position to help the police investigate, and he does.
Malliet's cast of villagers range from the seemingly stereotypical, such as the grieving Major, Wanda's widower, and Mrs. Hooser, Max's hopeless housekeeper, to the fascinating, including Awena Owen, proprietress of the New Age shop, Goddesspell, and Noah Caraway, the wealthy antique expert and owner of Abbot's Lodge. Who in Nether Monkslip had NOT fantasized about killing Wanda, but who had motive enough to actually do the deed? Malliet keeps the reader guessing until the end and every page is a pleasure.
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