Twelve Drummers Drumming

If you just looked at this title and didn't read my post, you'd be sure to think that this is a Christmas book.  After all, outside of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" you would not hear much about twelve drummers drumming.  However, this is NOT a Christmas book in the traditional sense.  It IS a book about Father Christmas, Father Tom Christmas, that is, who is the new vicar of St. Nicholas' Church in the small village of Thornford Regis.  For obvious reasons he prefers to be called "Mr.", or Vicar, or Tom.

Tom and his nine-year-old daughter Miranda have come to Thornford Regis to find peace after the violent death of wife and mother Lisbeth.  But he soon discovers that a gossipy little village can harbor the same dangers as the inner-city when he is drawn into the mystery of his missing predecessor and the murder of a teenage girl. Colorful suspects abound, and in true Agatha Christie/Miss Marple fashion, Tom plows through red herrings and false trails to eventually arrive at the truth.

C. C. Benison has created a character and place that is mystery at its finest.  Good lives right next door to evil, black and white merge with shades of gray and things aren't always as they appear. Lucky for us Benison has followed up Twelve Drummers Drumming with Eleven Pipers Piping, and is working on Ten Lords A-Leaping.  All of a sudden I have a hankering to listen to that song...

Now, try to get THAT out of your head!
TBC