MURDERING MINISTERS

Second in a series featuring Oliver Swithin, a writer whose children’s stories relate the adventures of nasty Finsbury the Ferret. Oliver’s uncle is Supt. Tim Mallard of Scotland Yard, a part-time Shakespearean actor whose enforced retirement from the CID seems imminent. But Oliver’s own thoughts are far from his uncle. He’s preoccupied with his article on Plumley’s United Diaconalist Church, where Rev. Paul Piltdown is an old school friend. In the course of his research, Oliver (An Embarrassment of Corpses, 1997) meets some of the parishioners, among them the Quarterboys and their teenage daughter Tina; Deacon Cedric Potiphar; and Nigel and Heather Tapster. Nigel, a constant source of anxiety for Rev. Piltdown, has gathered around him a group of teenagers who seem fanatic in their near-worship of their charismatic leader. It’s at a service a few days before Christmas that Nigel, taking his Deacon’s chair for the first time, dies of strychnine poisoning. Young Tina had disappeared some time before and Sgt. Effie Strongitham, on loan to Plumley’s police department, is at the service pursuing her search. She and Oliver work together as Oliver probes the intricate relationships among the parishioners, eventually coming up with the twisted motives that propelled the killing. Burdensome, often incomprehensible plotting casts a pall on the author’s playful way with words and characters. P.G. Wodehouse fans may stick to the end; others are allowed an early exit.