Author: Andrew Taylor

This book came to me from Deloise. It was on the shelf on Texada and I kept putting off starting it; it’s big and you know the rules. The book is actually three books in one, hence the size of it.

The Last Four Things

The story starts out when Michael and Sally Appleyard’s daughter, Lucy, had been taken. Michael is a Detective Sergeant and Sally is a Deacon in the Church of England. Could the kidnapping be related to either of their professions? There were always those who wanted revenge for an arrest and there were certainly many who did not believe women had a place in the church hierarchy. Shortly before the kidnapping, during Lucy’s first service, an unhinged woman disrupts the sermon with obscene curses. By the end of the book we know who the kidnapper was and the unhinged woman is also identified.

The Judgement of Strangers

In this book, a prequel to the previous one, Michael is a young boy and living with his godfather, David Byfield, for the summer. David is also a minister in the Church of England but is very much opposed to the ordination of women. As a widower, David is raising his daughter, Rosemary, on his own. But when he meets Vanessa he is smitten and the two wed. After a few mysterious animal deaths in the community, and some very un-ministerial conduct on the part of David, Vanessa is murdered by Rosemary during a summer party at the neighbours.

The Office of the Dead

Going even further back, we meet Rosemary (Rosie) as a young girl living with her mother, Janet, and David. Janet’s recently-divorced friend, Wendy, has come to stay with the family while she sorts herself out. Janet’s father, who is slipping deeper and deeper into senility, completes the family living in the house. When David decides that Janet’s father must move to a nursing home the news doesn’t go over well. One morning the father is found dead and it is believed to be suicide. When the police aren’t satisfied with that explanation Janet overdoses on sleeping pills and takes the blame. But was it really her?

Goodreads Rating: * * *