The Mills of God (Reverend Nick Lawrence Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Having read Deryn Lake's series on the exploits of Apothecary John Rawlings, which I find excellent, it was with interest that I bought her first Reverend Nick Lawrence
Mystery. Unfortunately the flaws in her knowledge of the C of E were obvious. No Deryn, it is very usual for a person to be granted their first parish at 28 ! Bishop Claude (presumably of Manchester) cannot give a Benefice to Nick in another Diocese
(is Lakehurst in Chichester Diocese ?) The Revd Nick had a welcoming service but his Licensing Service never took place. Yes this is a bit pedantic, but Deryn needs a cleric to guide her around these obvious pitfalls. I like the characters, I like the village, the plot was quite reasonable....but it will be the second and third book in the series which will tip me to buying or avoiding the series. Take it from one Reverend Nick....a bit more fact finding needs to be done. I hope my namesake enjoys his new Parish..and enjoy your Vicarage...most of us now live in modern boxes !!!

First Sentence: It was, thought Nick, peering through the windscreen of his somewhat battered red Peugeot, a very oddly shaped village.

The Reverend Nick Lawrence arrives at his new parish in the village of Lakehurst. Awaiting him is an assortment of village characters, a 16th century vicarage, complete with ghost, and a serial murderer. DI Dominic Tennant, and his sergeant, Potter, come to catch a killer before the town's small population is even further reduced.

Ms. Lake is taking a new direction, moving away from her historical mysteries, which I love, into the contemporary. There are a few stumbles along the way but I've also learned that Ms. Lake had a serious issue which necessitated her writing the book much more quickly than normal. That, to me as a long-time reader of her work, does explain the weaknesses of this book which I know would have been corrected otherwise.

The story is set in a very small village. There are a lot of characters. This could be confusing except that each is very well defined through nice, brief, comprehensive introduction. Most of the characters come through as stereotypes rather than eccentrics, and I did have an issue with a comment that a married man with a disagreeable wife could decide to go gay.

However, there were some wonderful secondary characters as well and I look forward to seeing them again. I particularly appreciated that there were some relationships that, while confusing to some, worked well for those involved.

The exceptions are our protagonists. Father Nick, the new vicar, is young at 28 and understandably focused, but a bit too much so, on the attractive women of his parish. He is modern and accepting of others. I also appreciated that he doesn't go blinding off without protection and didn't try to solve the murders, but rather provided assistance to the police. The police were well represented by DI Dominic Tennant, who gets tired and misses having a woman in his life, and his sergeant Potter. I very much like the relationship between the two men. These are characters I want to follow and about whom I want to know more.

The sense of place and dialogue need a bit of work. While some of the descriptions were wonderful, others left me wanted. In the first sentence, we told the village is very oddly shaped, but never in what way or why. The cover art on the hard cover shows deep snow, but snow is never mentioned in the text (I blame the cover artist), and other than a slight reference to cold, the weather and season are never really defined until almost the end. The dialogue at times flowed very well, but at other times, seemed awkward.

What really saved the book was the very well structured plot and Ms. Lakes ability to portray differing attitudes really well. You sense of frustration of the police and there is just the right level of menace. There is a small red herring, which I appreciated, and I was never able to anticipate the next move in the plot and certainly not the killer. I also very much liked the realism that while the "who" of the killer is identified; the "why" is left something of a question both to the characters and the readers.

For its flaws, I enjoyed this book very much. I recommend one forgive the weaknesses--Ms. Lake is a good-enough author to correct them next time out--revel in the strengths; for there are many, and enjoy. There was definitely more good than bad about the book, as reflected by my immediate reaction of wondering when the next in this series will be available.

THE MILLS OF GOD (Trad Mys-Rev. Nicholas Lawrence/DI Dominic Tennant-England-Cont) - G+
Lake, Deryn - 1st of series
Severn House, ©2010, UK Hardcover - ISBN: 9780727868343

Previous reviewers have already given the synopsis of the plot, so I will not repeat it. The number of murders rivals an episode of Midsomer Murders - in fact the book is written in that genre - an improbable English village, peopled by larger than life characters, all being bumped off in an impossibly short space of time. Any faint flicker of interest in the Rev Nick (wet behind the ears and espousing those trendy 'inclusive' values which have decimated the congregations of the C of E) was rapidly exstinguished by the arrival of the far more intriguing Inspector Tennant. Slim, black hair, green eyes - need I say more? Wish my local police looked like that! If this is the first in a series of books I recommend that the author rapidly marries off the Rev and leaves him to his trendy sermons, and renames it the Inspector Tennant series!

For a fan of light,tongue-in-cheek detective fiction this is a pleasant read, and I would give it 3.5 stars. I will happily look out for further books in this series in the library, but I won't be buying them at this price. A couple of quid for anything this short and lightweight is OK, but the current download price of £8 is excessive.