It would be easy to assume that Wicked Autumn is yet another cosy crime, set in an idyllic chocolate-box English village. I was pleasantly surprised to instead find a clever plot, with well drawn characters with unexpected depths.

Max Tudor is a former M15 agent, who had an epiphany,

‘his road-to-Damascus experience, and it came not with a blinding light, or a parting of the clouds by an unseen hand, but with a calm certainty. He thought: Life was running out like water cupped in his hands. What was he doing with his time?’

He trained for the ministry at Oxford and after being ordained, found himself ensconced as the vicar of St Edwolds in Nether Monkslip.

However, his tranquil and serene world is shattered by the death of the unpopular president of the Women’s Institute. Wanda Batton-Smythe was feared by all - which means there is no shortage of suspects. DCI Cotton is more than happy to have Max help him with his investigation.

Petty grievances, idle gossip and carefully guarded secrets are all revealed, showing that ‘people were always a combination of good and bad, of wisdom and foolishness. It was a question of the extremes of good and evil, not a question of whether either existed. Max knew both did.’

This may be a plot-driven murder-mystery, but Malliet elevates the novel with wonderful descriptive passages that add a real sense of place. You can understand why Max wants to preserve his little piece of heaven after reading the following:

‘He saw a sky still and clear, bright with stars. A hint of approaching autumn hung in the air, giving the garden the smell of something just washed with cold rain. Beyond his range of vision, outside the village of Nether Monkslip, were green fields turning yellow as the earth continued its slow tilt away from the sun.’

Wicked Autumn is the first in the Max Tudor series; at this time there are six more books to enjoy, which I am very much looking forward to!