Dr
Tobias Campion receives a visit from his archdeacon requesting
him to cover for a local vicar who has gone abroad to take
the cure. Clavercote is nothing like Tobias’s own parish,
the villagers being surly and hostile as well as desperately
poor and living in squalor. Returning home on Easter morning
after giving his service, Tobias comes upon the strange and
horrific sight of an unrecognizable man who has been nailed
to a tree. Soon it is obvious the villagers want no part of
his efforts to discover who the dead man was and who killed
him, and his life is in danger.
Set during the Regency, this is the third in the series about
Duke’s son, Campion, and his rural parish. If you are
used to “Regencies” being largely romantic and/or
set in a fashionable city or stately home, then this a change
from the usual. Clavercote is the village from hell with its
desperate denizens starving in their hovels, ignored by their
uninterested masters. The plot itself is easy to guess and
could have been a lot more involved: narrator Tobias spends
his time getting set upon, staying with friends, visiting
his father, and it all gets somewhat repetitive. There is
much in the book that is appealing despite the thin plot.
Tobias makes a good narrator, and reading about life in unfashionable
rural locations at this time is interesting. I don’t
know enough about the period to be able to comment on its
accuracy, but the author is adept at descriptions. Even when
there is nothing much happening, I was entertained enough
to keep the pages turning. One to read if you want to see
the other side of Regency life.
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