Evil Angels Among Them (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Kate Charles (Author)

Book Description

Series: G K Hall Large Print Book Series | Publication Date: January 1997

MysteryLarge Print EditionSt. Michael and All Angels Church is a peaceful refuge. But just outside its doors, in the tiny town of Walston, the atmosphere is anything but peaceful. A series of terrifying phone calls is attacking the sanity of the rectors young bride. A nosy biddy is stirring up trouble. A new church warden has been elected without the rectors consent. And the gruesome murder of one of the towns most familiar faces has the churchs priest looking for help from above. What he gets instead is a visit from his old friends Lucy Kingsley and David Middleton-Brown who begin to unravel tangled relationships and dark secrets in Walston and a killer who plans to shed more blood.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Another English rectory murder mystery from Charles. A series of uncharitable happenings and signs of communal tension under the placid surface lead the meek rector of St. Michael and All Angels to exclaim in exasperation "This parish is a cesspit." Obscene phone calls to his wife, a distinctly unwelcoming attitude toward a new parishioner in a lesbian relationship, and the refusal of the churchwardens to pay church dues, are all signs of this discontent. When one of the churchwardens is murdered, outside help is needed to empty the cesspit. That help comes in the dependable shape of David Middleton-Brown, a London attorney and amateur sleuth. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The Nick and Nora Charles of the church set, lawyer David Middleton-Brown and artist Lucy Kingsley star in Charles's fifth Book of Psalms mystery (A Dead Man Out of Mind, etc.). Walston is a "small, rather undistinguished Norfolk village" whose landscape is dominated by the spire of the magnificent church of St. Michael and All Angels. Apparently, it's only the landscape that the church dominates, for the inhabitants practice most of the deadly sins and a few that are just plain annoying. First, there's the less than warm welcome given the new minister, earnest and sensitive Stephen Thorncroft, by his new parishioners, and the overly heated one his young bride Becca endures from an obscene phone caller. Enid Bletsoe raises busybodyness to a murderous degree after learning that newcomer Gillian English, a young divorced mother whom Enid planned to take under her wing, has a woman lover. Plotting to take Gillian's young daughter from her, Enid makes a quiet charge of child abuse. Then Flora Newell, vestry member and child welfare worker beginning to investigate the abuse charges, is found dead on Gillian's doorstep. With the plot rolling in earnest, Stephen and Becca call in their friends, Middleton-Brown and Kingsley, to pursue a discreet investigation. Meanwhile, everyone is worshipping together on Sundays. Charles's characterizations are entertainingly venomous and penetrating, with just enough believable goodness to balance the equally believable evil at play under Walston's serene surface.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 510 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783820240
• ISBN-13: 978-0783820248
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,509,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not as good as the others, April 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Evil Angels Among Them (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) (Hardcover)

I've read the other books in the "Book of Psalms" series and this one was very disappointing. The story began in a fairly amusing and intriguing way, as is usual with Kate Charles, but about half way through, the characters and dialogue became very predictable and the ending was not a surprise, to say the least. The dialogue also seemed very dated and similar to the author's other stories. I hope the next one will be better.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder in a small English village, November 20, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Evil Angels Among Them (Hardcover)

In a small and insulated society, sometimes evil grows and festers. And then, if changes are introduced from outside that society, sometimes that evil begins to ferment. Evil Angels Among Them by Kate Charles takes place in the small English village of Walston. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone understands his or her place in the social and power structure of the village. Newcomers Gillian and Lou, a lesbian couple with Gillian's young daughter, and Stephen and Becca, the newly married rector and his wife, engender the change that activates the malignancy. There is gossip and rumor, then obscene telephone calls and finally murder. Stephen's friends, David Middleton-Brown and Lucy Kingsley, come to Walston to try to sort things out. This is a study of evil, a banal and petty evil, but evil nonetheless. The atmosphere of the book is fetid with fear and ambition and hatred. Only the church stands, peaceful, beautiful, above the infection in the village. This intricate and intellectual mystery pulled me into the story, taking me down by-ways and back lanes, until finally the solution was revealed, layer by layer. It also introduced me to some very complex and interesting people, three-dimensional people who change and grow because of what happens to them in this little village.The church and the rector are at the center of the story, but the storm swirls around them, hardly touching them with its frightfulness. This is hopeful because that means the good people who live in this village may rise above the gossip, the prudishness, the licentiousness of the few tainted people. This is a story that is a mystery and yet surmounts the mystery to reflect a universal truth

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A well-plotted mystery., April 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Evil Angels Among Them (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) (Hardcover)

This book held my interest all the way through and was well-written. One thing puzzles me. Part of the plot hinges on a young bride who receives obscene phone calls. She gets so upset that it is ruining her marriage and her health. She listens to each phone call all the way through each revolting detail. Why? Why doesn't she simply hang up the phone? Or report the problem to the telephone company? Somehow, since the gal is not an idiot, this part does not ring true. I wonder if this bothered any other readers.