Candle for a Corpse

By Ann Granger

Book Overview

Secrets won't stay buried...

Only now, twelve years after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl, will Mitchell & Markby begin to unravel the mystery in Candle for a Corpse, Ann Granger's eighth cosy Cotwolds crime novel in the Mitchell & Markby series. The perfect read for fans of Hamish McBeth, Agatha Christie and ITV's Midsomer Murders.

'Enjoyable crime featuring credible characters in a recognisably real world' - Belfast Telegraph

On an unseasonably chilly summer's day a macabre discovery is made in Bamford's ancient churchyard. A body, dead some twelve years, is unearthed in the Gresham family plot, too shallowly buried to be a legitimate interment, too recent to be the last Gresham officially laid to rest.

Superintendent Alan Markby cannot resist the challenge to solve this twelve-year-old crime and suddenly his long-planned canal-barge holiday with Meredith Mitchell is in serious jeopardy. When the remains are identified as those of a local teenager, Kimberley Oates, reported missing at the time of the mysterious burial, his mind is made up.

Her holiday postponed, to her secret relief, Meredith finds herself with more time than usual for village chat - and for a dinner party with the local MP that reveals more than either he or his formidable mother would like about his connection with the dead girl...

What readers are saying about Candle for a Corpse:

'If you like low key crime with plenty of humourand interesting charactersand plot then you will enjoy this series '

'Brilliant writer and a brilliant book'

'I feel like I know the heroine personally'

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0747249083
• ISBN13: 9780747249085
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Headline
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.4" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Good English Village Mystery!

Ann Granger is one of the best modern English village mystery writers out there as far as I'm concerned. I love the Mitchell and Markby series. There are plenty of spills and chills, and many surprises along the way. In this book a skeleton of a young pregnant girl is found buried in a very old grave. Markby feels haunted by this corpse and feels he must do his best for this young girl since she'd been laying forgotten for 12 years. Of course Meredith has to help because she knows how much this case means to Alan. They uncover some old village secrets that have lain undisturbed for many years. And a lot of people that want to keep the past buried at any cost. There are lots of wonderful characters in this book. I particularly like the old grave digger Nat Bullen. I am really enjoying this very entertaining series!

Candle for a Corpse by Ann Granger

I have read eight of the Markby/Mitchell series. I would place this one in the top three. The suspenseful plot builds at a wonderful pace and the full mystery is not solved until the last page. This series is glorious either in book form or in audio when the magnificent Judith Bond reads. Granger's books place you square in the middle of an English village and you don't leave it until the final pages.

A completely winsome and capitaving book;worthy of your time

This was my first (but definitely not my last) experience with Meredith and Markby. I completely enjoyed this story, and my only complaint was that the style was so easy to read I was through the book long before I was ready for it to end. I felt like a child following a trail of jelly beans as the clues and red herrings turned up. Just an awfully lot of fun with a couple of sharp plot turns in the end that sends you into worlds of thought and conjecture when you lay the book down finished. I highly recommend it.