A Dead Man Out of Mind

Starred review from October 30, 1995
Scandal surrounds the politics and treasure of an Anglican church in this continuously absorbing mystery, Charles's fourth with a Church of England setting (after A Drink of Deadly Wine). London artist Lucy Kingsley and her live-in boyfriend, solicitor David Middleton-Brown, don't know what the reader has learned in the prologue when David is retained to arrange the sale of some silver belonging to St. Margaret's church: namely, that the former curate of St. Margaret's was bludgeoned to death during an apparent robbery. But they are informed right after the death of Rachel Nightingale, the new--and for obvious reasons, controversial--curate, who is killed in what appears to be a hit-and-run accident. Lucy and David investigate things more deeply, partly in response to a plea from old friends Archdeacon Gabriel Neville and his wife, an old school friend of Rachel. Then, after unwisely blurting out a connection between the two dead curates, an elderly parishioner is brutally murdered. Along with its adroitly drawn main characters, this gripping novel offers a finely etched supporting cast: sleazy churchmen, indiscreet solicitors and surly teenagers. Mystery Guild alternate.