Bones in the Belfry

June 16, 2008
In Hill's delightful second mystery to feature the Rev. Francis Oughterard, the Surrey vicar is still reeling from having gotten away with the murder of one of his parishioners in 2007's A Load of Old Bones
. Oughterard feels he has no choice but to agree to storing stolen artwork at the vicarage at the insistence of an old theology college classmate, Nicholas Ingaza, because Ingaza provided him with an alibi for the parishioner's murder. The plot thickens when a visiting author with plans to write a mystery about the murder insists on a thorough search of the church and belfry where the clergyman has hidden the paintings. With his usual propensity for getting involved in crime, Oughterard soon finds himself in the midst of another tangled web of deception that even his cat, Maurice, and his dog, Bouncer, can't untangle, as revealed in chapters from their points-of-view. This dry, funny British gem, with its eccentric cast of characters, will leave readers laughing and eagerly awaiting the next episode.

August 1, 2008
The second entry in Hills pet series combines an animal investigator (la Midnight Louie), the cozy setting of Sneaky Pie Brown, and a Miss Marplelike British village mystery. Somehow, Hill manages to make it all work, with humor and appealing characters, both human and animal. Chapters alternate between The Vicars Version, The Dogs Diary, and The Cats Memoir. Francis Oughtergard(or F. O. to his pets) is a slightly manic vicar with shaky nerves and a taste for strong liquor who thinks he has a gift for funerals but not weddings. After an unfortunate incident with one of his parishioners (he killed her), F. O. ends up being forced to store some hot pictures for an old acquaintance, sending his shaky nerves into high gear and forcing him to self-medicate with cream buns and peppermint humbugs. The only drawback to this charming and engaging tale is the authors overuse of exclamation points. Recommend this series to anyone who reads cozy pet stories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)