With horror and fear twitching every feature Mr Ponderby Jonson backed away. “Don’t let him touch me!” he cried. “Keep him off! He’s a murderer – a murderer, I tell you! That poison… But I’ll not stand it… I won’t…”
Mrs Cliffe, the vicar’s wife, had asked the organist to ‘exhibit the old organ’s defects rather than its qualities’ to elicit a hoped-for donation from the wealthy visitor. This wasn't to be, as not only had a most inconsiderate virtuoso performance been provided but financier, Mr. Ponderby Jonson, was now sprawled on the churchyard walk in the crisp, sparkling sunlight - dead as a door-nail, after feeling unwell during the service.
Could the perpetrator really be Captain Richard Stoyner - the respected warden and Squire of Sutton Eachem? The previous evening there’d been a ferocious argument, overheard by the under-housemaid, between Jonson and Stoyner. The morning’s shocking death has the villagers in agreement that the Squire had perpetrated the deed - and was perhaps justified in doing so!
As they've a vested interest, the vicar and his family attempt to uncover the truth. It seems straightforward - especially with Stoyner having the motive, the means and the poison... It seems like an open-and-shut case - but is it?
Malapropisms a-plenty run rife through this delightfully humorous village mystery much praised by Dorothy L. Sayers, who said that 'I give Mr Gore full marks for atmosphere and entertainment value, with a special distinction for one quaint device which he has worked into his solution'.
Artists and writers, Cora Josephine Gordon (nee Turner) (1879-1950) and her husband, Godfrey Jervis ‘Jan’ Gordon (1882-1944), produced many books, including three detective stores written under the pseudonym of William Gore. Death in the Churchyard was published in 1934.
Mrs Cliffe, the vicar’s wife, had asked the organist to ‘exhibit the old organ’s defects rather than its qualities’ to elicit a hoped-for donation from the wealthy visitor. This wasn't to be, as not only had a most inconsiderate virtuoso performance been provided but financier, Mr. Ponderby Jonson, was now sprawled on the churchyard walk in the crisp, sparkling sunlight - dead as a door-nail, after feeling unwell during the service.
Could the perpetrator really be Captain Richard Stoyner - the respected warden and Squire of Sutton Eachem? The previous evening there’d been a ferocious argument, overheard by the under-housemaid, between Jonson and Stoyner. The morning’s shocking death has the villagers in agreement that the Squire had perpetrated the deed - and was perhaps justified in doing so!
As they've a vested interest, the vicar and his family attempt to uncover the truth. It seems straightforward - especially with Stoyner having the motive, the means and the poison... It seems like an open-and-shut case - but is it?
Malapropisms a-plenty run rife through this delightfully humorous village mystery much praised by Dorothy L. Sayers, who said that 'I give Mr Gore full marks for atmosphere and entertainment value, with a special distinction for one quaint device which he has worked into his solution'.
Artists and writers, Cora Josephine Gordon (nee Turner) (1879-1950) and her husband, Godfrey Jervis ‘Jan’ Gordon (1882-1944), produced many books, including three detective stores written under the pseudonym of William Gore. Death in the Churchyard was published in 1934.