Sunday, October 6, 2013

An English Country House Weekend, A Disfunctional Family, and Murder: Ten Lords a Leaping by C.C. Benison

Tom Christmas, Vicar at Thornford Regis, has arranged a fund raiser for his church that he fears may end his life and that of several parishioners. He has agreed to parachute out of an airplane as part of the Leaping Lords display. The lords jump from much higher and do stunts on the way down, but no one expects to see two of the lords start to fight like schoolboys.

Although not killed in the jump, Tom sprains his ankle badly and so becomes a weekend guest at Eggescombe Hall, the site of the fund raiser. The two lords who engaged in fisticuffs are also members of the party and before the weekend is over one of them is found dead in the labyrinth, one of the attractions at Eggescombe Hall.

Ten Lords a Leaping is a very English mystery. There is much more talk than action, so if you're a fan of thrillers, this is not your book. The characters, however, are delightful from Max, the rather pompous ten year old heir, to Margarite, the dowager countess.


I enjoyed the book. The setting is wonderful and very well described. The plot has many twists and a myriad of relationships among the characters. However, it is a very leisurely read, don't expect to whiz through it. 

I reviewed this book for Amazon Vi
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