Meet Lady Lupin Lorrimer Hastings, the young, lovely, scatterbrained and kindhearted newlywed wife to the vicar of St. Marks Parish in Glanville, Sussex. When it comes to matters clerical, she literally doesn’t know Jews from Jesuits and she’s hopelessly at sea at the meetings of the Mothers’ Union, Girl Guides, or Temperance Society. Nonetheless, she’s determined to make husband Andrew proud of her—or, at least, not to embarrass him too badly. So when Andrew’s curate is poisoned, Loops, as her friends call her, enlists old society pals, Duds and Tommy Lethbridge, as well as Andrew’s nephew, a British secret service agent, to get at the truth. Lupin refuses to believe Diana Lloyd, the 38-year-old author of children’s and detective stories, could have done the deed, and casts her net out over the other parishioners. But all the suspects seem so nice, much more so than the victim, and Lupin announces she’ll help the killer escape if only he or she confesses. Imagine Gracie Allen of Burns and Allen or Pauline Collins of No, Honestly as a sleuth and you might get a tiny idea of what Lupin is like. Set at Christmas 1937 and first published in England in 1944, this is the first American appearance of Who Killed the Curate? Since our edition has been published, Who Killed the Curate? and Loops have been featured as favorite reading of characters in Katherine Hall Page’s The Body in the Lighthouse and Carolyn Hart’s Murder Walks the Plank.

Reviews

“Marvelous”
—Deadly Pleasures

“A complete delight.”
—Reviewing the Evidence

“If this isn’t one of the best Christmas mysteries ever…”
—Aunt Agatha’s Newsletter

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