MURDER ON THE MOOR

English gentleman and amateur detective Drew Farthering does a spot of investigating in his fifth case (Dressed for Death, 2016, etc.).

On a dark and stormy night, Drew gets a call from Hubert “Beaky” Bloodworth, one of the old boys from Eton. Beaky has only just inherited the family manse, where, unfortunately, it seems someone has bashed in the head of the local vicar with one of the stones from his own churchyard. So Mr. and Mrs. Farthering take a jaunt to Yorkshire to see what they can uncover. Beaky’s bride, Sabrina, is rather too glamorous for village life—or indeed for Beaky—and seems a bit chummy with rakish gamekeeper Rhys Delwyn. The other local gentry are tackling a feud with the Bloodworths that goes back decades. And local scoundrel and poacher Jack Midgley is buying rounds in the pub more often than his position should allow. The plot thickens when Sabrina’s old nanny is found dead in her home. After Drew spends a night alone on the moors, waiting for the murderer’s assignation with Midgley, he winds up very nearly accused of the crimes himself. But the ending, while heavily foreshadowed, neatly ties up all the loose ends into a tidy package of justice.

Yet another entry in the classic genre of the English country-house murder, clichéd but competent.