Candle for a Corpse

Ann Granger is one of the best modern English village mystery writers out there as far as I'm concerned. I love the Mitchell and Markby series. There are plenty of spills and chills, and many surprises along the way. In this book a skeleton of a young pregnant girl is found buried in a very old grave. Markby feels haunted by this corpse and feels he must do his best for this young girl since she'd been laying forgotten for 12 years. Of course Meredith has to help because she knows how much this case means to Alan. They uncover some old village secrets that have lain undisturbed for many years. And a lot of people that want to keep the past buried at any cost. There are lots of wonderful characters in this book. I particularly like the old grave digger Nat Bullen. I am really enjoying this very entertaining series!

I have read eight of the Markby/Mitchell series. I would place this one in the top three. The suspenseful plot builds at a wonderful pace and the full mystery is not solved until the last page. This series is glorious either in book form or in audio when the magnificent Judith Bond reads. Granger's books place you square in the middle of an English village and you don't leave it until the final pages.

This was my first (but definitely not my last) experience with Meredith and Markby. I completely enjoyed this story, and my only complaint was that the style was so easy to read I was through the book long before I was ready for it to end. I felt like a child following a trail of jelly beans as the clues and red herrings turned up. Just an awfully lot of fun with a couple of sharp plot turns in the end that sends you into worlds of thought and conjecture when you lay the book down finished. I highly recommend it.