Death Stops The Frolic by George Bellairs

This is a little different from the Inspector Littlejohn series that I love. It is an earlier book of Bellairs, first published under the name Turmoil in Zion, 1943. However, it still has the flair toward unusual names and the tendency to allow us to peek into English village life during the war years. Bellairs will always be one of my favorite Writers from the period because of his characters and the satire he sprinkles generously throughout the plot.

Start with another Bellairs though if this is your first read with the Author. I found the Story enjoyable but different from his later work. Still, a good "who dunnit" and much better than many of today's mysteries which is why I enjoy Bellairs. This Mystery is worth having in your collection as one of his stand-alone works.

Blurb:
On a joyous afternoon filled with tea and cake, something strange happens at Zion Chapel’s Anniversary Tea Party. The infamous Alderman Harbuttle is behaving uncharacteristically playful – laughing with the assembly, singing rhymes, and leading people in a rousing game of Follow-My-Leader throughout the chapel’s winding halls.

But his jubilee is cut short when the revellers find the Alderman’s murdered body in the dark recesses of the chapel, a bread knife buried to the hilt in his chest.

Superintendent Nankivell of the local police force takes up the case, and his investigation quickly stirs up sinister secrets lurking within the walls of Zion Chapel. His suspect list soon proves massive, as he learns there are many people who would be happier without the sanctimonious Alderman Harbuttle around…