Poisoning of a businesslike archdeacon who is pushing for the sale of some cathedral land to a group of mildly shady developers. The cathedral dean --a tough former missionary --is suspected. James Scotland, a hardworking young pathologist on holiday, investigates, somewhat distracted by his growing love for the dean's daughter. The ending wraps everything up neatly in almost VIctorian fashion: ervry minor character properly rewarded or punished, including the villain, who is the next thing to a minor character. ( )

James Scotland, a young pathologist, has been overworking himself and goes to visit a friend in a quiet cathedral town. But the town is in the middle of a heated battle within the cathedral and against the town as well. The dean and the archdeacon are the two opposing forces, and when the archdeacon becomes ill at a large luncheon, not too many folks are sad to learn of his death. But Scotland is not content to ascribe the death to natural causes. It must have been murder; and it will take his skill and his contacts as a forensic pathologist to track down the killer.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a little hard to categorize. In some ways, it is a cozy, with the closed range of suspects and the amateur sleuth. In some ways, it is a classic British police story, except that the police are not very well represented. And in some ways, it is a forensic crime mystery. But however I might categorize it, I was very pleased to find that for the first time in a while, I was completely unaware of the identity of the murderer until the very last moment. Nicely done. ( )

Elegantly written by this master stylist of the mystery and crime novel. ( )

A young but exhausted pathologist takes a holiday at the cathedral school where he once taught. But soon the Archdeacon's dead, and it's hard to find anyone who didn't bear him a grudge. I had only recently heard of Michael Gilbert, and was very pleased with this taut, stylish cozy-with-an-edge. I'll be reading more of Gilbert soon. ( )