The Devil in Bellminster

by David Holland and Nancy Jooyoun Kim

It is 1833, and you are invited to enter the quaint, quiet world of Bellminster, a pretty cathedral town in the English countryside with secrets and shadows around every corner. Venture into a world... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312279981
• ISBN13: 9780312279981
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent beginning to what I hope will be a long series!

The 1830s was when what we now think of as "modern" Britain first came together, a mix of reform on one hand and rapacious capitalism on the other. Bellminster is a fictitious small city in the Midlands with both an ancient, deeply affecting cathedral and a new mill turning out the cheapest cloth possible at the cheapest wages possible. Rev. Tuckworth, the vicar, is retiring after some thirty years of service to the community, but he's secretly glad to be going because he's largely lost his faith (I won't reveal why). Then a particularly brutal murder takes place and becomes a "wonder" for quiet Bellminster. But then there's another murder, and another. Pretty soon, Detective Inspector Myles is sent up from London (from Bow Street, not Scotland Yard, not yet), but his interpretation of how he can best do his job is jarring. Justice doesn't enter into it, nor very much truth, either. Tuckworth finds himself drawn more and more deeply, and very reluctantly, into the investigation -- but he's not a "Father Brown" sort of amateur sleuth. He's just an aging priest who's trying to look after his flock, and especially his somewhat naive daughter. Holland has a real ear for proto-Victorian dialogue and (though he tends to wax over-lyrical in describing clouds and forests and such) and he's obviously very knowledgeable about the period. This is one of the best mystery series debuts I've read in quite some time.

Crises of faith and murder

Though the mystery part of this Dean Tuckworth Victorian novel is soon solved, the why takes a bit longer and the hunt carries through to the satisfying conclusion.Dean Tuckworth, an honest, introverted man who has lost his faith, but still loves his Bellminster Cathedral, goes up to London to lobby a philanthropist - Hamlin Price - for money to rebuild the burnt-out building. Invited to a strange dinner of supplicants at Price's underfurnished house, Tuckworth hears a shot and rushes to find the body of a murdered man. Though dressed in Price's servant's clothes, Tuckworth, with time-honored Holmesian observation, sees he is not the servant.Though Tuckworth soon suspects Price, and, with a likable journalist-assistant, burgles the man's house, he is forced to return to Bellminster without proof. But crime has followed him to his bucolic town and Tuckworth must find his proof before a fate worse than murder befalls its innocent inhabitants.Tuckworth's depths and talents are nicely portrayed as is London and the darker corners of Victorian life.

an engrossing read

A lifetime ago (while I was supposed to be mugging for my 'O' level prelims) I became addicted to Victorian horror stories. These novellas didn't always deal with ghost stories, they sometimes dealt with the inability of ordinary 'good' people (esp during prosperous times) to deal with horrors of madness, malice, greed ... the baser qualities of the human condition. "The Devil of Bellminster" reminded me strongly of those novellas I used to read. David Holland did a truly brilliant job of evoking the feel and the ambiance of those books. And his choice of a hero, a tired vicar who has lost his faith, both in God and humanity, and who is nearing retirement, was a truly masterly choice. Because, Reverend Tuckworth, who happens to be good and kindly man, and who struggles daily with the guilt he feels over his loss of faith, adds further to the dark and somber tone of this novel.It's 1833, and a madman seems to have made the quiet but prosperous town of Bellminster, his current killing ground. The town authorities, headed by Bellminster's most prosperous citizen, mill owner McWhirter, wants a quick arrest -- never mind if the unfortunate suspect is guilty of the murders or not! And when Detective Inspector Myles of Bow Street, arrests one of Tuckworth's simpleminded parishioners, Adam Black, on circumstantial evidence, Tuckworth finds himself drawn into the grisly investigation so as to protect Adam and to discover who the real murderer is before he kills again. But will Tuckworth be able to uncover new evidence that would save Adam from a town eager to be rid of it's current horror, and before the killer strikes again? This book's greatest strengths are the pacing and Holland's characterizations of Reverend Tuckworth, and the London detective, Paul Myles. Myles, a hard and ruthless man, finds himself reluctantly drawn into Tuckworth's to discover the truth. And it is Myles's determination to catch the killer that fuels the quick pace at which the novel unfolds. These are the facets that makes this novel such smooth and riveting reading. The other characters, on the other hand, do suffer a bit from being a little superficial in depiction. But since they were merely padding for the story at hand, this was not too important a detraction. As for the murderer, while Holland does a really good job of depicting his madness, he remains a little of an enigma. And even at the end, while we finally do discover who the madman is, we're still left in the dark as to roots of his dementia. But perhaps it is a purely 20th century TV/Hollywood culture that has made us demand for everything to be explained away satisfactorily, and that by allowing the madman to remain an unexplained aberration, that makes "The Devil of Bellminster" a somewhat compelling read.

engaging nineteenth century English village mystery t

In 1833 Bellminster, England, Vicar Tuckworth finds the beheaded corpse of the local sexton Will. Lord Granby sends to Bow St. to assign a cop to investigate the repugnant murder. Detective Inspector Myles arrives and almost immediately interrogates Tuckworth leaving the soon to retire vicar with the impression that he is a suspect. Not long after Granby offers Tuckworth the job of caretaker to the renovated Bellminster Cathedral, a second homicide occurs. However, the medical evidence leads to the conclusion that this killing occurred before the Will murder, confusing the previous data collected while struggling with uncovering the identity of the wrongdoer. Tuckworth accompanies Myles as they investigate two murders in a town not used to any violent crime. THE DEVIL IN BELLMINSTER is an engaging nineteenth century English village mystery that provides the audience with an insightful look at the times outside of London. The story line is cleverly developed so that the reader feels fully engaged, especially with Tuckworth, a likable lead protagonist. Fans will understand his doubts enhanced by his wife's death a few years earlier, his pending retirement, and what is best for his beloved adult daughter. David Holland furnishes an interesting historical so cozy that those readers who enjoy a well-written Regency - Victorian bridge era tale will want to peruse it.Harriet Klausner