This was a quick and easy read but also very enjoyable and a real page turner. The writing is excellent and I feel the author has a real 'of the period' style. The main characters are all very likeable and the villans all very villanous. There is also some pithy social comment. I will be searching out more books by Judith Cutler. ( )

This book manages to start with one of my biggest mystery bug-bears - a Prologue that gives away half the ****ing plot! Parson Campion spots a warbler, gos in search of its nest and finds it lined with auburn hair. It is clear he recognises from whose head they have come, and so we know that when an auburn haired lady appears, she'll shortly be leaving us. And so it doesn't take may chapters for the said lady to appear - being rescued from rape by a guest at the big house at which she is a servant. Her rescuer is non-other than the parson, who is clearly from an honourable family, but has chosen to make his own way in the world and is about to take up a post in a Warwickshire village. We meet a cast of village characters, and experience some of the hardships exerienced by the rural poor at the beginning of the 19th century. The parson and the doctor are both down to earth men, with the doctor having seen more of thr world than our young Parson, but between them they make a formidable team, aided and abetted by Jem and the housekeeper at the big house, Mrs Beccles.
And you're left wondering what the mystery might be and when the red head will meet her untimely end, and in the mean time make do with other incidents that probably deserve more attention than they are granted. The red head's demise duly occurs and the pace really picks up. Parson & Doctor hare across the country in search of the lady of the house and a potential murderer and find more than the bargained for. Actually, I thought this went really well, excellent characters, both the leads and the supporting cast. A fraction unlikely in its resolution, but just deserts were had, so I can't complain. - I just wish that writers wouldn't feel the need to trail the murder as the very first lines. ( )