After a mysterious death occurs, Mr. Rainbow the church organist, is found to have met his demise by falling from the church's bell tower. The question is ... was the tragedy intentional, or accidental? And what was he doing in the bell tower to begin with? When upon further investigation evidence is found to suggest he was pushed the story goes into full swing ... leading one to suspect his wife, her admirer (lover?), a choirboy, among others. I wasn't seriously drawn into the story, but as with all mysteries compelled to read on and see the outcome. I thought the motive was lame, and the plot revolving around Rainbow's conceitedness about his musical talent unbelievable. The valuable musical manuscripts hardly seemed worth killing over. ( )

Not bad, but not very satisfying or memorable. I know I've read it before but I didn't remember any of it - not even the tour of the Abbey, which was amusing mostly because I've been Bossie on such tours. Rainbow is pretty much a non-entity. even when he's being most annoying, so it's no big deal when he's killed (not a spoiler, or not more of one than the title!). Barbara gets more interesting once he's dead, but she remains more or less incomprehensible; Bossie is mildly interesting at best and mildly annoying at worst. I like Toby, but he doesn't play much of a part. And like that. Nothing wrong with the story, but nothing particularly attractive about it either. Hmm, should check dates - is this an early effort? Also, no mention of Dominic at all, despite a lot of school-kid characters and parental concerns. Only two mentions of Bunty, for that matter. But it's really not a police procedural, either. ( )