Many thanks to the author for sending me an updated version of Death at the Lychgate. I liked it that much, I bought a copy.
This second book in the series brings back all the recurring character we met in Book 1. It was nice to catch up with them all as they tried to either find out how the vicar died or cover up their role.
Once again, I enjoyed this story. It still reminds me a lot of the old Ealing comedy films, which I love. And it’s a reminder of what England was like at that time too.
Or mostly. A few ‘Bridgertons’ crept in, i.e. mostly modern vernacular, and I found myself wondering ‘did we even have that then?’ more than once.
It did seem to be very well researched in the most part, such as which films would have been showing at the pictures back then. The characters really are quite wonderful caricatures. However, the publisher does seem to have skipped the proofreading step again. There is far too much overuse of commas and too many repetitions.
I thought it was a bit rude of Bodkin and Amy to refer to people by their first names when those people hadn’t asked them to. Mrs Gatting became Caroline, and Mrs Brown became Mavis. Then they reverted back to what would have been the correct way of addressing them in pre-war England.
Oh, and we had Amy, Alice, Ada and two Agathas, if you include Agatha Christie; Beryl (with her Big nose), Bill (Bungling and Bosworth, although I do like the alliteration there), Bob, Bodkin and Brown; Miriam, Martha and Maurice; and Constance, Carole and Caroline. There are more letters in the alphabet!
But apart from all of that, it’s still a fun read.
Four stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
