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Synopsis
In the picturesque English village of Little Sheldon, the peace and quiet is disturbed by the murder of local shopkeeper Mr Bartholomew Fynche. The village is gripped by fear, villagers wondering who will be next, and who could have committed such a heinous crime.
Police Inspector Stanley Burgess is in charge of finding the perpetrator along with his friends Sir Victor Hazlitt and famed Shakespearean actor Beresford Brandon. But who in the village committed the murder and why did they do it?
Review
Murder in Little Sheldon is a classic whodunnit set in post WWII. Everything about this book epitomises the era in which it is set; we have the quintessential English village, very picturesque with quaint houses, a church a pub, the characters and A H Richardson’s writing and dialogue.
I loved the cast of characters in this book, they were fairly stereotypical of what we would expect to find in a typical village; there is the wonderful Lady Armstrong, head of the village so to speak, the shy librarian, the retires army major, the spinster sisters and the vicar in his life. What really distinguished the characters, as well as their standing in the village is the dialogue used for each character; their individual voices are very distinctive.
The murder of Mr Bartholomew Fynch is well explored in the plot, and it seems every character had a reason to kill him. As each motive is explored you think you know who the murderer is, then you change your mind as someone else is put in the frame; it will keep you guessing until the final pages. I really loved the epilogue, it was a nice touch to see what happened to the characters after the conclusion of the investigation. Overall this is a brilliant whodunnit that pays homage to Agatha Christie, and will keep you engaged throughout; a quintessential English murder mystery.