Stuart Pawson, The Mushroom Man (1995)

This novel is the second in the D.I. Charlie Priest series. I bought the book because I wanted to combine my taste for mysteries with my need to know more about Yorkshire.

The book opens when Father Tudor Harcourt pedals along in a very pensive mood. He is going to retire after fifty years in the service of the Roman Catholic Church, and now he considers proposing to dear Miss Felicity Jonas who ´does for him´ three days a week and has become a very close friend over the years.

But sadly we will never know if the Pope would have granted him this pleasure; Father Harcourt has an encounter with a self-centered, drink-driving sales manager on his way to Miss Jonas´ isolated cottage. (Very unfair, Stuart Pawson).

Next, someone burgles the home of Mr Dewhurt. Not very efficiently, it seems, but the same morning his eight-year-old daughter Georgina vanishes into thin air. Are the two events related, or is Mr Dewhurst just unusually unlucky? And are the Yorkshire priests and vicars just extremely accident-prone or is there some human hand behind the many sudden deaths?

Even though I didn´t learn much about Yorkshire which I didn´t know already, there are many things to like in this novel. D.I. Charlie Priest is a likeable protagonist and the plot is good. The tone is very humorous, but now and then a bit crude, and if crime against children is too much for you, don´t read this one.