Twelve Drummers Drumming: A Mystery

Description

Father Tom Christmas moves to the picturesque English hamlet of Thornford Regis to become its new vicar and to seek a peaceful haven. But inside the empty village hall, the huge Japanese o-daiko drum that’s featured in the May Fayre festivities has been viciously sliced open—and curled up inside is the bludgeoned body of Sybella Parry, the daughter of the choir director. Realizing this village is not the refuge he’d hoped for, Father Tom comes to a disturbing conclusion: Sybella’s killer must be one of his parishioners. No one is above suspicion—not Sebastian John, the deeply reserved verger, nor Mitsuko Drewe, a local artist, nor Colonel Northmore, survivor of a World War II prison camp. And over all hangs the long-unsolved mystery of a sudden disappearance, one that brought Father Tom to this picture-perfect place to live—or die.

About the Author

C.C. Benison is the pen name of Douglas Whiteway, a journalist and author who lives in Winnipeg, Canada. He has a degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa and has worked for the Winnipeg Tribune and the Winnipeg Free Press.He is most recently the author of The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, a Father Christmas novella, published in November 2020. This follows his last work of fiction, Paul is Dead: A Novel, published in 2018, which is a literary thriller set in an isolated lakeside cottage.He is also the author of a series of murder mysteries set on the estates of Queen Elizabeth II where the crimes are solved by housemaid Jane Bee, with the Queen's help. Titles include Death at Buckingham Palace, Death at Sandringham House, and Death at Windsor Castle. He is, as well, the author of Death in Cold Type, a murder mystery set in Winnipeg.In 2011, the first of the Father Christmas mysteries, Twelve Drummers Drumming, was published. The novels feature Tom Christmas, Anglican priest, widower and single father, solving crimes in and around the village of Thornford Regis in Devon, England. Eleven Pipers Piping followed in 2012. Ten Drummers Drumming was published in autumn 2013.Awards:Arthur Ellis Award◊ Best First Novel (1997): Death at Buckingham Palace