Wicked Autumn

Having partially recovered from my disgust and disappointment in the police world of Paris that I wrote about yesterday, I am across the English Channel and settling quite nicely into the world of Nether Monkslip, home to handsome Max Tudor, the vicar, and the ladies of the Women's Institute.

Here is the leader of the WI preparing to address her audience:

Calling on her knowledge of public speaking, newly refreshed by a rereading of the 1983 classic Grabbing Your Audience by the Throat: Tips and Tricks for the Successful Orator, Wanda paused, her unblinking gaze panning the crowd, gathering eyeballs like so many marbles into her rhetorical basket.

So far all is quiet. The village folks are preparing for the Harvest Fayre (the reason for the WI meeting) and the vicar has been asked to judge the Largest Vegetable contest. (One woman comments that her husband should win. Not one of his vegetables, just him!)

So this mystery, Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet looks promising. I can't wait to see what trouble is afoot. I do love an English village brimming with crime.