HURRAH for the fifth coming of Canon Daniel Clement, and the murder and mystery that follow in his wake: \u201cIt\u2019s like having Hercule Poirot as the rector.\u201d This time, the familiar cast of patron and parishioners \u2014 not forgetting the \u201cdauntless\u201d and wonderfully drawn rector\u2019s mother \u2014 is augmented by the actual cast of a film being shot at the Big House.<\/p>\n
The fictional plot is soon overtaken by a real one, and Daniel \u2014 his emotional equilibrium and his friendship with the local detective sergeant restored \u2014 is once again called upon to exercise his intuition, his local knowledge, and his willingness \u201cto face, not flinch from, the worst of us\u201d in identifying a murderer.<\/p>\n
Part of the pleasure of the series is the author\u2019s wry but affectionate depiction of the Church of England. Daniel puts on a stole \u201cin the worn green of the long season of nothing much happening\u201d in order to toll the bell \u2014 \u201canother Church of England tradition of people getting indignant about what is done in the church they don\u2019t go to\u201d \u2014 accompanied by his dachshund, who \u201cwould follow the long-hallowed Church of England tradition of responding to the call to worship by falling asleep\u201d.<\/p>\n
But this is the 1980s, and times change, even in Champton, where dealing in illicit substances traverses the customary social barriers; and there are plenty of dogs and drugs, if as yet no rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. Once again, the revelation of unexpected facets of familiar characters and the disentangling of threads from their past casts a long shadow over the present, and offers the hope of further instalments \u2014 although the population of Champton is shrinking almost as rapidly as that of Midsomer.<\/p>\n
And some things, reassuringly, don\u2019t change: Daniel cherishes the Anglican bias towards a middle way, but is clear-sighted about it: \u201cSometimes a via media could be found, sometimes only a barely credible compromise, designed to keep both parties just happy enough until something else came along that they wanted to fall out about more.\u201d Thank God it\u2019s fiction.<\/p>\n
Caroline Chartres is a contributing editor to the Church Times.<\/p>\n