The Reaper

The Reaper is a ripping good yarn with a couple of wicked plot twists. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it for cosy fans who don't mind a little surprise at the end.

In addition to his Inspector Peter Diamond series, Lovesey writes other equally literate crime novels. This one reminds me of those written by James Cain in the fifties. Its truly despicable villain is the Reverend Otis Joy, Rector of St. Bartholomew’s in Wiltshire. Joy likes to have a good time, and to do so requires a steady source of money. Where better to find it than the church coffers? That he is popular with the parishioners does not hurt to allay suspicions, but finally the bishop makes the mistake of confronting Joy about the very strange discrepancies at Joy’s previous assignment. Joy, naturally wishing to remain at his post with ready access to his extraordinary income, bashes in the head of the bishop, throws him over a show more cliff, makes calls to a famous sex phone service using the bishop’s credit card, and leaves a remorseful note to explain the suicide. When the elderly treasurer, with whom he had a nice little arrangement to keep his slush fund secret, wants to resign, Joy manages to poison the old man so that it looks like a heart attack.
Accountant Bernard Sands, miffed at being passed over as the church treasurer and a detail freak, is suspicious and begins to wonder why and how the rector’s first wife had died. An investigation reveals that she died of a freakish bee sting while in the shower, something Sands finds hard to believe (ironic, because we learn later, she is the only one of several wives Otis had not killed).
In the meantime, Otis enlists Rachel Jordan, unhappily married, and desperately infatuated with the good reverend. And he really is a great parish priest. Everyone loves him; he has a great sense of humor, and really enjoys being a parish priest. He just has this problem of killing people who might reveal any one of several secrets he has. He kills Rachel’s friend Cynthia when she follows him on his day off and discovers that Otis owns a magnificent forty-foot yacht. Rachel, in the meantime, despairing over her relationship with her husband, poisons his spicy curry with monkshood, a plant that grows wild and was used decoratively in gardens. It contains aconite, a virulent toxin called “stepmothers’ poison” in the Middle Ages. It was so commonly used to eliminate the unwelcome and unwanted during Roman times that the Emperor Trajan forbad its cultivation. It eventually fell out of favor because the vicious neuropathic symptoms were so obvious, but it could also be confused with a heart attack.
If you are looking for a Hollywood ending, this book is not for you, unless you like rooting for the bad guys. Lots of fun. show less

Fantastic noire-esque thriller from the ever-dependable Peter Lovesey. Dark humour, used to brilliant effect, helps drive a real page-turning narrative. Lovesey has fun taunting his readers with his sardonic humour and larger-than-life characters. One of my very favourite Lovesey books.

© Koplowitz 2009

If the title in the context of crime fiction makes you think "grim reaper" then you are on the right track.
This is a macabre cosy if there is such a thing. A rompingly entertaining read, but not one of Lovesey's best.

Otis Joy, the rector of St. Bartholomew's in the Wiltshire village of Foxford, a young man in his late 20s, is a dynamic relative newcomer to the village. He seems everything a vicar needs to be, even if he is unmarried. Underneath though he is a very nasty bit of work indeed. Nobody believes lugubrious old Owen Cumberbatch when he says that the Rev. Joy's last parish is without its Sexton/bellringer because he crossed Otis Joy. Snooping old Skidmore simply disappeared.

But we do know from almost the first page of the story show more that Otis Joy is responsible for the death of the bishop, Marcus Glastonbury, who had found out that he had been embezzling funds at his previous parish (where the Sexton disappeared).

We learn also that he has come to an "arrangement" with his current Parish treasurer, Stanley Burrows, ex-headmaster, to have a private contingency fund which appears nowhere in the church's accounts. And then Stanley says he would like to hand the job over to a younger person, that he is getting too old, and the responsibility of the parish books is too great...

I think Peter Lovesey, one of my favourite authors, had great fun in writing this book. It is almost as if he decided to write a spoof on the village cosy. There are some really sardonic descriptions, almost cruel, of village personalities. One that comes to mind readily is Cynthia Haydenhall, Chair of the Women's Institute - my mental vision of her is of a dark haired strident Penelope Keith - who sees herself as the social hub of the village. And there are others..

This isn't going to exercise your little grey cells too much. But if you enjoy the occasional cosy, then hunt it down. In style it reminds me a bit of M.C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin series.

I've been a Peter Lovesey since he published his first novel WOBBLE TO DEATH. You may be familiar with his Peter Diamond series. Fantastic Fiction lists his novels. show less

A most superior read with a delightfully odd plot and main character. One of the best mysteries I've read in a long, long time. The black humor is laugh-out-loud funny. I can’t reveal any plot details without spoiling the book, really; I will say, however, that there are several deaths in this book. This is a stand-alone mystery.
Lovesey is one my new favorite authors.

SPOILER ALERT (I SUPPOSE): Not so much a who-done-it, as a "will-he-get-away-with-it." A little personal story: When I read this book several years ago, we had just hired a new pastor; a charismatic young man who liked to shake up some of the old timers, for our own goods, of course. Just like the central character in this book. Oddly enough, one of the character's victims was the long time church treasurer, who, at that time in our congregational history, I was. I mentioned this to our pastor. He just leered at me and said, "I'll have to read that book." I resigned as treasurer not long after that. I'm still here.

A slightly odd and uncomfortable book, macabre and yet also charming. The character studies of several of the village personalities are quite cutting. The overall story line seems a bit disjointed but individual episodes are well told and gripping. Although it is an; an odd twist on a village cozy, the writing carried me along..