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    Pagan Spring: A Max Tudor Mystery
    Pagan Spring: A Max Tudor Mystery
    Pagan Spring: A Max Tudor Mystery
    Ebook343 pages5 hours

    Pagan Spring: A Max Tudor Mystery

    By G. M. Malliet

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "There are certain things you want in a village mystery: a pretty setting, a tasteful murder, an appealing sleuth . . . Malliet delivers all that." —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

    G. M. Malliet has charmed mystery lovers, cozy fans, and Agatha Christie devotees everywhere with Wicked Autumn and A Fatal Winter, the critically-acclaimed mysteries that introduced former spy turned cleric Max Tudor. Now, Max returns to the small English village of Nether Monkslip, where some new residents cause quite a stir.

    Vicar Max Tudor, reveling in his new-found personal happiness with Awena Owen, feels that life at the moment holds no greater challenge than writing his Easter sermon. With Awena away, he looks forward to a dinner that includes newcomers to the village like West End dramatist Thaddeus Bottle and his downtrodden wife Melinda. But when one of the dinner guests is found dead in the pre-dawn hours, Max knows a poisonous atmosphere has once again enveloped his perfect village of Nether Monkslip. Connections to long-ago crimes, some sparked by the paintings of a famous local artist, help Max unravel the clues—but can he restore peace to Nether Monkslip and still manage to finish his sermon? Funny, smart, and perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny, Pagan Spring is a one-of-a-kind mystery featuring everyone's favorite attractive vicar.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 8, 2013
    ISBN9781250021397
    Pagan Spring: A Max Tudor Mystery
    Author

    G. M. Malliet

    G. M. MALLIET's Death of a Cozy Writer received the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and was named one of the best books of 2008 by Kirkus Reviews. It went on to earn nominations for Anthony, Macavity, and Left Coast Crime awards. The first books in the Max Tudor series—Wicked Autumn, A Fatal Winter, Pagan Spring, and A Demon Summer—also were nominated for the Agatha Award. She and her husband live in Virginia and travel frequently to the UK, the setting for many of her stories.

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    Reviews for Pagan Spring

    3.5/5

    76 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I am thoroughly enjoying the audiobooks in the Max Tudor series---I do miss the character list at the beginning of each book and the guide to Nether Monkslip. This centers on spring, on rebirth, on love, but also mingles the horror stories of WWII. The characters jump out of the book and enter the reader's world. I adore the descriptions of the various settings and especially the talk of food. The book contains many surprises, which I will not disclose. A horrible, conceited actor dies and Cotton and Max must discover the killer. I must admit that I feared for the demise of Luther, but learned the Luther has returned to his previous home. I would love to find a list of the various characters that is sadly missing from the audiobook. A very pleasant adventure for an afternoon.
    • 4/5
      The morning after a dinner party Reverend Max Tudor attends in Nether Monkslip, one of the diners is dead under suspicious circumstances. Max is pining for his lady love Awena, who’s away teaching a class, and working on his Easter sermon, but still finds time to do a little snooping to help Detective Inspector Cotton. Cotton has come to rely on Max’s powers of observation, honed in his years with MI5.The victim, Thaddeus Bottle, was a particularly obnoxious man, a bully, a braggart, and an overall loathsome toad. There are so many people he’s ticked off over his years as an actor and playwright that suspect list is quite long. Unraveling the mystery is quite a complex job, but the fearless vicar is up to the task. I really enjoy this series. It reminds me, in a way, of Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand mysteries featuring Annie Darling. Although there are continuing characters, in each mystery there is a whole new cast of characters that circle around the victim. In Pagan Spring, those characters are mostly newcomers to Nether Monkslip, characters whose histories are not known. That’s Max’s job – to ferret out the secrets that have lead to murder. Avid cozy fans will enjoy Pagan Spring.
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable follow-up to Wicked Autumn and A Fatal Winter, Pagan Spring finds our handsome vicar, Max Tudor back on another murder case. As an ex-MI5 operative, his credibility with local DCI Cotton is high and his opinion - much respected. As a vicar, people open up to him and clues are dropped about like cookie crumbs. No one seems terribly saddened by the demise of a narcissistic thespian has-been, who has returned to his childhood home of Nether Monkslip to rub the locals' noses in his success. The obvious suspects are just too obvious. There is much more to this murder and one is held in suspense well until the final pages. I look forward to the next installment of this series, presumably set in the warmth of sunny summer days and breezy balmy evenings.
    • 5/5
      This is a cozy mystery, where the people in the village are more important than the mystery itself. The events involved in the death central to the story started during World War II, some 60 years before, which goes to show the reality that unexpected death, murder, can have long roots. I found the back story, when we got to it, more compelling than the cozy portion of the book.
    • 3/5
      I continue to enjoy this mystery series, but this entry was a little less fun than the previous ones. I think it's because it required some everyday knowlege of English life that I just don't have. However, Max and Arwena are continuing their relationship, the bishop has been given the opportunity to object and didn't, and all is moving in the right direction.The mystery involves a new arrival in Nether Monkslip, who is actually a returnee who lived there as a child. He's also a thoroughly unpleasant person, and no one is too surprised or upset when he dies. Except that he was murdered, that's a bit of a problem.As usual, the clues are in the text, the writing is crisp and evocative, and the characters are excellent. I'm waiting to see what happens in summer!
    • 4/5
      PAGAN SPRING is written by G.M. Malliet. It is the 3rd Max Tudor Mystery.Max Tudor is a former MI5 agent who retired to a more peaceful, less stressful life as an Anglican priest. The small village of Nether Monkslip with its lovely parish church promises to be a perfect fit for ‘Father Max’, until murders begin to occur.The characters are very well-developed and the plots are good with just the right amount of red herrings. I like the ‘cast of characters’ section and the ‘author’s note’ which provides a bit of historical, interesting information for the book. The small, yet bustling village and the locally-sourced food selections round out the series’ appeal.Great series. Great Title. ****

    Book preview

    Pagan Spring - G. M. Malliet

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