There's been a murder, of a visiting royal, and as intrigued as Kitty is, she absolutely cannot get involved (national security and all that) ... until she is asked to investigate by his mother! She gathers her team together and they dig into what happened and why. Curiously enough, said royal had asked to stay in the same room as Anne Boylen did before her beheading. Murder at the Tower of London is the fourth in the Kitty Worthington Mystery series by Magda Alexander, and has it all: murder, intrigue, politics, foreigners, explosions, a touch of romance ... all that was missing was Sir Winston, the Basset!

Canon Daniel Clement has managed to divide the congregation of his small church. What is causing such turmoil? The addition of a lavatory (his words)! The church has been fine without one for four hundred years, so why add one now? And don't even think about moving some of the pews! Then there is a murder (you knew it was coming), of someone who was working on getting old records into order. (Story seems to take place in the mid-eighties ... I finally looked it up and it's 1988). Old secrets begin to surface, new secrets, too, and there are more bodies ... a mural ... an opinionated mother and two dachshunds, all of which come together in Murder Before Evensong, a Canon Clement Mystery by Reverend Richard Coles. Not a gripping read, more, mmm, reflective, perhaps, as Daniel and the police figure things out, but not bad!

Reading Hermit With Dog