The Advent of Murder by Martha Ockley review

Title: The Advent of Murder

Author: Martha Ockley

My Rating: 4/5

Part of a series? Yes, this is 'Faith Morgan mystery' book two. 

Genre(s): Mystery, British literature. 

Description/Blurb:

Faith Morgan, former policewoman and vicar of the small English village of Little Worthy, goes to visit one of her parishioners at his farm, only to discover the house surrounded by police cars. A body has been found in the local river and farmer Markham is charged with murder.

Though busy with preparations for Christmas, Faith is called on to investigate when it's found out that the victim is also a member of her congregation--Lucas Kemp, a member of the choir.

Faith's informal inquiries lead her to uncover a hotbed of tensions and romantic rivalries in the choir, questions about drugs, and a run-in with an unsavory uncle--which leads to a dramatic rescue by Ben, Faith's former detective partner and ex-boyfriend.

My review: 

Goodness knows why but throughout this book I kept thinking of ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ and imagining the main character as looking a bit like Dawn French, I can’t even remember what Faith was meant to look like according to the book so it looks like she’ll always be Dawn French to me.

 

I haven’t read the first book in this series but I don’t think that it really held me back, Faith’s connection to each character was well described and although events in the previous novel were alluded to they weren't really a big part in this novel. The author also left me in the dark enough to be able to go back and read the previous novel.

 

The characters in this book where surprisingly realistic, I could imagine meeting most of Little Worthy’s in an English village. In fact Pat reminded me of one of my Brownie pack leaders, so you know. It’s a very middle English novel, mostly wealthy villagers and a nice little parish church.

 

Despite the book having a Christian theme non-religious people can still enjoy this book quite easily. Yes, Faith is a vicar and she does have strong beliefs herself and she does spend a lot of time thinking about church related tasks but the novel itself doesn't preach religion. It’s just a light hearted crime novel set at Christmas time, it also does the job of getting you in a wintry mood even though at the moment for me it’s still summer.

 

I’d recommend this to anybody who enjoys a light mystery with a main character who has a strong resolve to stick to their morals despite this sometimes creating a bit of a dilemma for them.