Andy Charman- Crow Court|@RandomTTours|@AndyCWriter|@unbounders|#randomttours #CrowCourt #BookReview #BookBlogger

I’m thrilled to be part of Crow Court blog tour by Andy Charman for Random Things Tours. Thanks to both Anne Cater and the author for the gifted copy of the book

Nominated for the Desmond Elliot Prize

Spring, 1840. In the Dorset market town of Wimborne Minster, a young choirboy drowns himself. Soon after, the choirmaster – a belligerent man with a vicious reputation – is found murdered, in a discovery tainted as much by relief as it is by suspicion. The gaze of the magistrates falls on four local men, whose decisions will reverberate through the community for years to come.

So begins the chronicle of Crow Court, unravelling over 14 delicately interwoven episodes, the town of Wimborne their backdrop: a young gentleman and his groom run off to join the army; a sleepwalking cordwainer wakes on his wife’s grave; desperate farmhands emigrate.

We meet the composer with writer’s block, the smuggler, a troupe of actors down from London and old Art Pugh, whose impoverished life has made him hard to amuse. Meanwhile, justice waits.

A debut novel that is set in Wimbourne from 1840 and spans the years until 1863. A historical fiction novel that revolves around the murder of a choirmaster, Matthew Mills. The form this book takes is with fourteen interlinked but different chapters. These are akin to a short story in each chapter. I enjoyed the way Andy Charman has set the book out.

We begin with the suicide of a young boy and the subsequent murder of the man thought to be responsible. Andy Charman brings the moral question, Is it ever the correct decision to take justice in your hands?

There are four men who found the choirmaster are suspected of his murder Charles Ellis, Jack Street, Bill Brown and his brother Cornelius. Charles Ellis the younger half brother of Matthew, is a merchant and pillar of the community. Charles didn’t get on with Matthew and spent as little time with him as possible.

Every single man has a reason to kill the choirmaster and the ensuing stories take us through the next 23 years. We discover how the ripples of this reverberate through the years.

One place I love is Dorset, and it may be Dorset of Queen Victoria’s reign, but it’s still Dorset. I was easily whisked through the years and down the country as well.

The characters all held my attention as the chapters rolled by. The mystery is spread over so many years by the stories. The only link at times with the separate stories is the mystery of the murder and the suicide; we see how it has changed or affected everyone down the years.

Crows Court has been written very skilfully and in a way that each of these separate stories do connect with each other to make one whole story that gave me a feel of a Thomas Hardy novel,maybe the use of the language of the time, or the sense of place.

A refreshing change of pace for a murder mystery novel. I will be waiting to read Andy Charman’s next book.