Ten Lords A-Leaping

Father Christmas Mystery #3

by C.C. Benison

Although Father Tom Christmas serves his little church in enchanting Thornford Regis with a glad and faithful heart, he never expects to find himself skydiving to raise money for it. Nor, safely back on the ground, to see two of the other divers leap from the plane, then tangle in a midair punch-up and begin falling to the earth.
 
To say that there is tension between the men in question—Oliver, the 7th Marquess of Morborne, and his brother-in-law Hector, the 10th Earl of Fairhaven—would be an understatement. But the trouble among this ancient landed family really began a generation ago, when a marquess divorced his first spouse to marry his brother’s wife, fathering in his two marriages a viper’s nest of arrogant young aristocrats. Now they have all turned up for the show to witness this shocking event in the sky.
 
Thankfully the men land safely, but death will not be slighted. Much to Father Tom’s dismay, he later discovers Lord Morborne lying deceased on castle grounds. Rumors of bigamy, art forgeries, and upstairs/downstairs intrigue fly. So do whispers of unvicarly behavior between Tom and Oliver’s beautiful half-sister, Lady Lucinda. In fact, the vicar may be headed for a very hard landing of his own.
 
C. C. Benison gives a virtuoso performance in this gripping new puzzle, a compelling and wise holiday mystery with the irresistible allure of hot tea and warm scones on a cold winter’s day.
 

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Christmas, Audiobook, Contemporary, Holiday

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

C.C. Benison is the pen name of Douglas Whiteway, a journalist and author who lives in Winnipeg, Canada. He has a degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa and has worked for the Winnipeg Tribune and the Winnipeg Free Press.

He is most recently the author of The Unpleasantness at the Battle of Thornford, a Father Christmas novella, published in November 2020. This follows his last work of fiction, Paul is Dead: A Novel, published in 2018, which is a literary thriller set in an isolated lakeside cottage.

He is also the author of a series of murder mysteries set on the estates of Queen Elizabeth II where the crimes are solved by housemaid Jane Bee, with the Queen's help. Titles include Death at Buckingham Palace, Death at Sandringham House, and Death at Windsor Castle. He is, as well, the author of Death in Cold Type, a murder mystery set in Winnipeg.

In 2011, the first of the Father Christmas mysteries, Twelve Drummers Drumming, was published. The novels feature Tom Christmas, Anglican priest, widower and single father, solving crimes in and around the village of Thornford Regis in Devon, England. Eleven Pipers Piping followed in 2012. Ten Drummers Drumming was published in autumn 2013.

Awards:
Arthur Ellis Award
◊ Best First Novel (1997): Death at Buckingham Palace

Reviews

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten Lords A-LeapingThere's nothing like a golden-age style mystery with all the components Agatha Christie has taught us to love: a country house, intriguing guests with eventful pasts and secrets they want to keep, a convoluted plot, and a less-than-first-rate detective (in fact we have two of them, DI Blessing and DS Bliss.) Extras include a labyrinth and topiary garden, hidden passageways, and a secret staircase. Also a Church of England vicar, a precocious child (or two), and a housekeeper who writes daily letters to her mum. There's a list of characters and a family tree. There's even a butler.

Titles to the contrary notwithstanding, C C Benison's 12 days of Christmas mysteries are not "Christmas books." This one, in fact, takes place in mid-summer. The titles are tied to the name of the series' amateur detective malgre lui, Father Tom Christmas of St Nicholas Church in Thornford Regis. He prefers, needless to say, to be called Mr Christmas or just Tom.

Ten Lords A-Leaping concerns a fairly routine church activity: raising money for roof repairs. There's a committee, a money goal, a plywood sign with a thermometer to record progress (or lack of it), and plans for the usual bake sales, raffles, and other nickel-and-dime fund-raising events. Until somebody suggests St Nicholas should do something different, something that will raise a lot of money in one go. Members of the Parochial Church Council, Tom, and various prominent church members will takes pledges from parishioners and townspeople. In return they will agree to parachute from an airplane. Topping off this event will be The Lords A-Leaping, a group of titled men who do aeronautical gymnastics.

The story begins with a bang. Or rather with a series of pops, as the parachutes of these first-time jumpers open one by one. But when the lords do their jump (ten of the members are present at St Nicholas' fund raising fair) two of them get into a brawl, 10,000 ft up. When a parachute fails to open the closed circuit TV broadcast becomes a horror show. Will the back up parachute deploy?

I'll leave you to read the book to find out the answer to that and to explain the malfunction in equipment (it turned out not to be what I thought.) Tom has his own problem with his jump. The two-way radio that was to bring him a friendly voice to talk him through his landing malfunctions and he sprains his ankle. He and his daughter, Miranda, are invited to stay at Eggescombe until he can drive (it was his right ankle he injured) at the invitation of the Dowager Countess of Fairhaven who lives there and manages the estate.

Most of the other guests are family, members of the fforde-Beckett family. These people are at swords drawn because of supposed mismanagement of the family trust, the suspected selling of the family impressionist paintings (and their replacement with copies), the take-over of the family house (all the locks are changed), and behind it all the irking suspicion of some that a bigamous marriage makes certain family members, well, not entirely legitimate.

One of the characters is Jane, Vicountess Kirkbride, who is a friend of Tom and Miranda. And we, the readers, know her as well, having met her when she was single (nee Bee) and working as a chambermaid in the Benison mystery series Her Majesty Investigates. This frees her from being a suspect and she is helpful to Tom as he delves into the reasons for the primary murder. Which takes place in the middle of the estate's labyrinth (not to be confused with a maze) where a thoroughly unlikeable character is garroted early one morning. Clues include an old school tie, an ephemeral path through the dewy grass, and the sound of whistling.

But this is not the only murder that needs explaining and Tom goes to work using family history, the sighting of a ghost, and even a little magic to solve the crimes.

This is the third of the Father Christmas mysteries and it does help - although it's not necessary - to have read the first two. It doesn't hurt if you've read the Jane Bee mysteries, which take place in the late 90s and are also very clever and amusing.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Father Christmas series and it's not a bout Christmas. Apparently after seeing Sue Grafton's success with the Alphabet series, the author has set out to do his own series. The protagonist is Father Tom Christmas of St. Nicholas Church in a small village in England. The story starts out with ten Lords of England parachuting out of an airplane in a fund raising event for St. Nicholas' church. Father Christmas also jumps, injures his ankle and is forced to become a houseguest at the Eggescombe estate.

A murder happens the first night of his stay and he finds the dead body. Things get very confusing here. There is a family house party going on and I never got the family straightened out. There is a family history chart which is not that helpful. The family has one woman marrying two different brothers so some of the guests are half siblings and cousins at the same time. There is no reason to have this complicated relationship. It doesn't figure into the mystery and is just frustrating to the reader. Another murder occurs. Two detectives, wait for this, Bliss and Blessing, are investigating.

Confusing yet? Just wait. Besides the two new murders there is a rape and murder over 20 year ago that gets a story line. There is a fairly recent hit and run death of a disabled adult that figures in. Then there is another murder of a houseguest's brother ten years ago that also develops an investigation. Are you confused yet? There were just too many things happening and it showed in a too long story of 500 pages. This book would have benefitted from a good copy editor.

There were parts of this book that were likable and I think with good editing, it could be a good series. There are so many good cozy mystery series out there that I think you could find a more enjoyable less confusing one.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I see I gave book one a 4, book two a 3 and book three is barely a 2. I only finished it as there were no more in series and I hoped unfinished story lines would be resolved. Weren’t. Book does hint at a play called Nine Ladies in future, but that was 7 years ago. Reason for the low review was way too many story lines past and current. References to past events that I didn’t really remember kept coming up. IF book four ever appears I most likely would read.

[writer...]

An odd audio listen and I'm not sure where the problem lies. The audio discs would begin on the final couple tracks, then go back to the beginning or bounce a couple tracks prior before carrying on. I grasped information, but it wasn't coherent and not 'storytelling' .
Will discuss it with the providing library to see if others have had this issue or if it was my laptop doing its own thing!
12 actual story discs, the 13th disc was a credit which created a 'huh'? when I expected there to be more story revelation. Still unsure of how it ended and mystery's resolution...

Having Christmas Book Club dinner at the library with the author . Should be insightful...

I obviously didn't get to this audio earlier though I did
Add this locally authored mystery to my #BIGBookSummer 2018 + #ChristmasinJuly 2018 reading

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining little series. A bit "camp" (with the Christmas themes throughout without it actually being a Christmas series) but in an enjoyable way. Titles of each book are drawn from the "12 Days of Christmas" song working downward from 12 Drummers Drumming to this one, third in the series: 10 Lords a Leaping, the name of the main protagonist and crime solver is Father Christmas and the two police detectives featured in the series are DI Bliss and DS Blessing. These liberties with the Christmas theme and the additional element of key portions of the tale being told through letters written by the priest's housekeeper Madrun, to her mother add a charm and a quaintness to the stories which make them a pleasure to read. Father Christmas or Tom as he prefers to be called is not your textbook Anglican priest. Touched by significant tragedy in his recent past he's fallible, human and not immune to the pull of worldly temptations and poorly thought out actions. Left widowed with the violent death of his much loved Jewish wife (Lisbeth) and now solely responsible for the upbringing of his preteen daughter Miranda also in the Jewish faith, Tom's natural curiosity, ability to keep confidences and warm and trustworthy nature make him a magnet to people holding secrets and needing advice or the relief of "getting something off their chest". In effect, when confronted with a violent crime in the pleasant and pretty little English village he's moved to, Tom finds ample opportunity to explore means, motive and opportunity with witnesses and potential suspects through conversations, observations and sometimes confessions of other past wrongs. This particular story is set away from Tom's village of Thorncliffe Regis. Tom and some of his church council colleagues are out of town participating in a church fundraising event: skydiving. Also present at this charity event is a well-known act of trick skydivers, the Ten Lords a Leaping. Tom injures his ankle so he, Miranda and Madrun are forced to remain overnight at the nearby estate of Eggscombe. Present here for the weekend are a number of family members, few to none who actually like each other. Events unfold and murder ensues and all of a sudden, Tom is enmeshed in another intricate murder case and stuck in Eggscombe for the investigation. The plot provides motives and red herrings galore making this not an easy mystery to solve. It falls back in its rating a little bit because of it's slow start, somewhat confusing cast of characters (difficult to know who's related to who and how) and by almost too many possible motives and therefore, possible suspects. However, still an entertaining read and an engaging series. Looking forward to the next instalment: Nine Ladies Dancing.

[Joy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gosh, I wanted to like this book. When I read the descriptions of the plot and characters it sounded so much like something that would be right down my street. But I really struggled to finish it; I found myself skimming large chunks of it here and there, and that's always a bad sign. First of all, it's much too long -- cutting it in half might have helped the author tell a tighter and more interesting tale. Also, there is seemingly a cast of thousands -- OK, dozens. And none of them -- including the main character, "Father" Tom Christmas -- is particularly memorable (or in some cases, even distinguishable from all the others). I kept having to refer back to the list of characters and the family tree provided by the author, trying to figure out who was who and how they were related to all the others. And by the time I got that all straightened out, I'd completely lost interest again. A few of the main characters do an awful lot of talking about all the other characters and how they figure into the action, but we don't really get to see much of the action. So by the end, I just felt confused and a little sorry I'd wasted so much time on a book that delivered such a small amount of entertainment. I haven't read any of the other books in the series, and I'm told that "Ten Lords" is something of a departure from the other novels; so it might be worthwhile backtracking and taking a look at the earlier works before condemning the whole series. But after nearly 500 pages of disappointment, I'm really reluctant to take a chance.

(Note: My copy of this book was provided by the publisher, free of charge, through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. No other compensation was received.)

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of Eleven Pipers Piping, Vicar Tom Christmas and the Thornfeld Parish Council were preparing for an upcoming charitable event to raise monies to fix the church roof: a group styling themselves The Leaping Lords would put on an event part of which had Tom and others makinge their first parachute jump onto the lawns of Eggscombe Manor in Abbotswicke, followed by a sychronized parachute jumb by the Leaping Lords (who indeed numbered ten). This book starts with Tom making his first jump and managing to sprain his ankle badly on landing, thus setting it up for him to have to stay as a guest at Eggscombe Manor rather than head off on vacation with his daughter. It thus made him present when one of the Leaping Lord's is done in just before dawn the next day in the Eggscombe Labyrinth (think hedge maze). Eggscombe is locked down by our favorite police Blessing and Bliss, leaving Tom to start unravelling the complicated realtionships of the hosts and the extended family (It's quite the challenging family tree), as he investigates the murder and ultimately reveals many dark doings, scandalous secrets, and skulduggery. As always, there are letters from his cook Madrun to her mother to provide a 2nd (and very amusing) POV to the events, as Madrun is also on vacation, visiting the housekeeper at Eggscombe who is a friend from Culinary School.

This was a bit more complicated than the first couple in the series but still hones to the traditions of the classic Golden Age Detective stories while giving them a distinctly modern touch. The author really writes mysteries - plot, setting, characters - reminiscent of Agatha Christie. Unfortunately, his publisher decided to drop this series and there will be no more featuring Father Christmas. However, a character in this one who helps out with solving the murder apparently has her own series set among the British royals. I will hunt that down - it's an older series so may have me heading to the used bookstores.

Happily though the Leaping Lords event did raise a significant amount for the church roof if not enough to set the cardboard red thermometer ablaze (Tom's wish above all) that sits on the church lawn.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Father Tom Christmas joins a group of the peerage for a sky diving trip in order to raise funds for his Church of England parish. After he injures his ankle he is invited to spend time at a local estate to recover since he is on vacation with his daughter. He encounters family hatred and division as well as murder. As a widower he encounters a woman that he can not resist.

[Russell Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this read. Again a complicated family tree reference was needed to sort out the characters.

[Bant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little whodunnit.

[Janet Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic country home mystery--moves a little slow, but with interesting characters is still a good listen.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give a rating for the first half and a rating for the second half.

Ten Lords A-Leaping is the third book in the Father Christmas series. In Eleven Pipers Piping, Father Christmas brings up a fund raiser idea to help pay for repairs on the church building. It involves sky diving. Ten Lords A-Leaping sees the event through. It is NOT set in Thornford Regis, unfortunately. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had been.

So. The novel opens with the sky diving. In his jump, Tom has a little accident in the landing with his ankle, an accident that changes his plans and prolongs his visit in that part of the country. He is asked to stay over at Eggescombe Park. First, he's stuck there because of his own injury, then, he's stuck there because of a murder.

I really found myself hating the first half of the book. The series has never been squeaky clean, previous titles in the series have had a few words now and then that keep it from being perfectly clean. Still, it wasn't enough to keep me from reading, from wanting to read on in the series. But Ten Lords A-Leaping turns smutty. And smut in a creepy, inappropriate way. To the book's credit, Tom ends up feeling disgusted by the end of the novel with his own experience. But still.

Even though I really disliked much of the beginning and middle, I kept reading. And the mystery aspects of the novel began to grow on me a bit. I can't say that I "liked" it better than the first two in the series. I can't even say that I "liked" the majority of the characters. There were plenty of despicable characters. I'd say there were more despicable characters than nice ones. But. That is part of the genre, I suppose.

I enjoyed this one enough by the end, but, honestly I was a bit disappointed with this one.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jumping from a plane as a fund-raiser for his church goes well for Tom Christmas until the landing when he badly injures his ankle. His injury leaves him stuck at a country home with his daughter over his birthday. When he tries to find some peace by walking the estate's outdoor labyrinth, he instead finds the body of Lord Oliver. As a young boy states quite frankly, nobody liked Oliver, and that leaves plenty of suspects.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and though the narration was fantastic, I suspect I would have enjoyed it more had I read it. By the end of the book I still hadn't figured out all of the family connections because somewhere along the line a man had married his brother's wife which really messed up the family tree. This book felt like it went on about 100 pages too long; editing could have tightened up the story line a good deal. Plus, I just don't really like Tom Christmas; there's nothing really wrong with him. I just don't find him a terribly sympathetic character. I do however adore his daughter, his maid, and in this book, the little boy, Max, and also, Lady Jane. I believe Lady Jane appears in other C.C. Benison books, and I do plan to look in to those. Also, this was a great setting for a mystery - English country house, complete with stables, secret passages, and elaborate grounds.

This book does contain more sex than the others in the series and though none of it is very graphically described some of it felt gratuitous. There are consenting adults, a nudist, rape of a young girl, and creepy sexual behavior with a statue.

This has been my least favorite in the Father Christmas series, but I would be willing to give the next book a try should another book be released.

[Larraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

he third in the Father Tom Christmas books continues to delight, but please be aware that the books do NOT take place at Christmas in particular despite the title. This is the third in the series that started with 12 Drummers Drumming and then Eleven Pipers Piping. The writer, in addition to the narrative, uses an interesting narrative that consists of Tom's housekeeper's letters to her mother. There are always little tidbits that the writer conceals in those letters, and the very last one always refers to the next in the series: in this case we know,at the end, that the next book will be Nine Ladies Dancing! Tom has managed to engage a well known parachute troop called the Ten Lords A-Leaping to do a jump for charity at the Eggescombe Park, which is open to public viewing as well as being the ancestral home of the Fairhavens - in this case for his church which needs major construction. The old Christie/Jane Austen conceit of the injured/ill guest comes next as Tom injures his ankle and is invited to stay the weekend. Of course there is a murder. It's nearly Tom's 40th birthday, and he had hoped to spend some time with his mothers (He's a thoroughly modern vicar!). Instead he becomes enmeshed in yet another murder, followed by yet another murder. This is an enjoyable series. Tom Christmas is an interesting figure - an Anglican vicar who was once a magician on a cruise ship, was married to a Jewish doctor who was murdered by persons unknown and who is raising his daughter as a Jew. I'll be waiting patiently for the next one!

[Tonje · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful! Somehow manages to keep the rhythm of a Golden age mystery with random peers, servants and huge estates with thoroughly modern sensibilities. The main character, Mr. Tom Christmas, reminds me a bit of the Vicar in Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, but I freely admit it might be nothing more than them both being likable vicars involved in a murder. The crime was suitably complicated, with many having both motive and opportunity, and all the characters were vividly drawn.

I've been on a cozy mystery binge lately, and this was truly perfect for me.

I am definitely going to be reading the other books in this series!

Mine was a review copy provided through netgalley, and read on a kindle app on a Samsung tablet.

[Jane Shibilski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very long and twisty tale, however, the author absolutely keeps your interest until the very end. I was so sad to learn this is the last of this series as I think combining the song titles with the plot of the books really caught my eye and makes for quite the fascinating cozy mystery. At first it seemed the author was prepping us for the nine ladies dancing mystery, but then I remembered reading his publisher opted out of more in the series. I still think the author should continue this series as I have come quite attached to the vicar, his daughter Miranda and all the villagers. Perhaps some day all will work out and we will have the pleasure of continuing to read this enjoyable series.

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third Father Christmas mystery (he's working backwards). I found this one to be a bit tedious. It was very long and involved. It would have been helpful to have had a whiteboard with all the characters and their interactions on it. A book shouldn't be that difficult to track with. Another complaint: it's not fair to the reader to remember a plot line from a prior book and how those minor characters interrelate to Tom Christmas. My favorite part of these books are the letters to mum that Madrun the housekeeper writes periodically to keep mum as well as the rest of us up to date.

[Ronni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat of a departure from earlier books in the series - a bit grittier. I think this series, despite the titles and the name of its protagonist, tends to feel more serious than other cozies, and I am certainly not opposed to darker mysteries, but it feels out of place in this particular novel.

I would not recommend starting with this as your first book as it doesn't match the overall feel of the series. I am looking forward to returning to Thornford Regis in the next book.

On a side note, I was not familiar with the word moue before reading this book, but it does seem to be a particular favorite of the author.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm of two minds about this book. I really like the continuing characters, and I love Madrun's letters to Mum, but I found it a slog to get through. I thought Tom's incident with Lucinda really didn't seem true to his character, though there was a kind of explanation at the end. The family interconnections were hard to keep straight and half an hour after finishing it I had to think for a minute to remember "whodunnit". He sets things up for "Nine Ladies Dancing" as this one concludes; I hope it holds my attention better than this one did.

[Kathy Nealen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third entry in a good mystery series. Wish it would continue. The author took the “lords a leaping” quite literally! This episode featured more upper class characters than the others two previous ones. As a result, it had a more old fashioned Agatha Christie feel to it. We need at least one more. There are still unanswered questions like who murdered Father Christmas’ wife?

[Jammin Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this Father Christmas Mystery book. It is my first book with this sleuth but it won't be my last. I love the setting in posh UK and the fight and intrigue in the family drama over the castle was really well done. Fun Christmas read.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comparison: It took me several days to read the latest Father Christmas mystery (although to be fair, I started it during a period of pronounced national turmoil). As soon as I was done with it, on January 16th, I immediately started in on Christopher Fowler's latest Bryant and May novel, "Oranges and Lemons." I am already over halfway through it. What is the difference?

It cannot be familiarity. Although I have read only three books in the Father Christmas series, they are substantial, and the characters are layered and well developed. I feel as if I have been given ample opportunity to get to know Tom Christmas and the characters in his orbit. I know them well enough to know what I can expect out of them, which ordinarily makes the reading go much more smoothly. Neither can the difference be vocabulary. Christopher Fowler has a majestic vocabulary; I find it wise to keep an online dictionary at hand when reading his work, so I can look up words like "micturate," which I'd never seen before. But Benison can easily keep pace with Fowler, especially when he throws out words like "propinquity," which I actually did know, but it's still a hefty word. One more thing: It cannot be plots, because Benison's mysteries are complex and require attention, just like any paragraph from Fowler involving Arthur Bryant.

As near as I can tell, the problem I had with this latest Benison book was length. I do not object to lengthy novels at all. But I might say that Ten Lords a Leaping was unnecessarily long. In that respect, it bears a resemblance to another recent novel, Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith. Galbraith's latest work involved busloads of characters that ultimately had little to do with the resolution of the mystery. Ten Lords a Leaping involves a noble (in title, if not in deportment) family. Each member of the family has titles as well as names, and for a peasant such as myself, it was hard to discern which character was speaking; I would frequently have to backtrack to figure out who was in what scene, and attach their name to their title. With the exception of a delightful young boy named Max, whose throwback wardrobe and precocious language often made me laugh out loud, many of the secondary characters seemed superfluous to me. This particular installment also put to use a development I have come to despise: an unknown familial relationship that pops up late in the story. WHY CAN'T SOMEONE'S MOTHER BE THEIR ACTUAL MOTHER?!?!?

Ten Lords a Leaping is not a bad book, by any means. But regarding the latest Fowler novel, even as I write this review, I can hardly wait to get back to it. Finishing the Benison novel made me feel as if I had just finished a long put off chore. And that's not what I want out of a novel.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book #: 23
Title: Ten Lords A-Leaping
Author: C.C. Benison
Series: Father Christmas Mystery #3
Format: 512 pages, Hardcover, ILL
Pub Date: First published January 1, 2013
Started: 3/6/2024 Finished: 3/13/24
Awards: none
Categories:
PS1 A book with the word "leap" in the title; PS13 A book originally published under a pen name (C.C. Benison is a pseudonym of Doug Whiteway); GR26 A book by an author known by their initials; GR32 A book with a number in the title; GR37 A book that is part of a series; CCLS17 A Book with a Male Protagonist; CCLS20 A Book with a Number in the Title; CCLS35 A Mystery; CCLS37 A Book set in a Different Country (England); CCLS42 A Book with more than 200 Pages;
Rating: ****-1/2 four and a half out of five stars

The church needs a new roof. The local peerage sky-diving club, The Leaping Lords, agree to do a fund-raiser. Various members of the parish, including Father Tom, are invited to jump with them. When the amateurs are safely down, Father Tom sprains an ankle, the Lords leap so they can do free fall formations. There's a fist fight in mid-air, Oliver, the 7th Marquess of Morborne, and his brother-in-law Hector, the 10th Earl of Fairhaven, are fighting it out while free-falling. When they separate, Oliver's chute fails to open and he has to use his emergency chute to land safely. They refuse to say what started the fight. That night, Oliver is found dead in the center of the garden labyrinth.

In my review of the previous novel in the series, I mentioned you'd need a spread sheet to keep track of people and motives. You'll need it for this one as well. There's a peerage family tree in the front of the book. With multiple marriages and divorces and children, there's half-siblings, cousins, and lines of inheritance of succession twisting about each other. Throw in art forgery, theft, family quarrels, and it's a wonder even the author could keep track. The books just keep getting better, his characters are well rounded, not cardboard cutouts. Unfortunately, he took a break and stopped writing them nearly ten years ago and only recently came out with another title. The book breaks from the pattern and is not titled "Nine Ladies Dancing". I will still track it down.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those who chose this book while looking for a Christmas novel were doubtless disappointed. The only Christmases in this murder mystery are Father Tom Christmas, an Anglican vicar, and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" from which the title derives. This is the third in the series following "Twelve Drummers Drumming" in 2011 and "Eleven Pipers Piping" (2012). It looked like the series had ended with this volume until, in November of 2020, a novella was published: "The Unpleasantness of the Battle of Thornford: A Father Christmas Mystery." C.C. Benison is the pen-name of Douglas Whiteway, a Canadian with degrees in theology and journalism who writes lots of excellent British murder mysteries. Father Tom Christmas is the son of two lesbian mothers, a former magician, the single father of a teenage daughter, the widower of a murdered wife, and the vicar of Saint Nicholas Church, Thornford Regis in Devon, England. When the church needs a new roof, the Parochial Church Council falls upon a clever fund-raiser. Ten members of the peerage will parachute and do aerobatics along with the vicar; people will pledge for the pleasure of seeing it happen. Father Christmas jumps, injure his ankle, is put up at the country manor of Eggescombe, and discovers a body his first morning there. The mystery, comparable to Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, is afoot. The novel is complex in two senses. It begins with a list of characters and a family tree to which the reader needs to refer frequently. The mystery is convoluted, involves other crimes, and requires considerable reflection to solve. A extra pleasure is the occasional epistolary interlude in which Father Christmas' housekeeper Madrun writes to her mother affording a much different perspective on daily events. Reading this novel is like "Masterpiece Theatre" between hard boards.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book in the Father Christmas Mysteries.


The title of this book in the series comes from ten lords that I assume that they were all previously parachutists in the war.

It looks like the author C. C. Benison is counting down so we should not have to buy more than nine more books to finish the series.

This is a contemporary story at least in this century where they had cameras and leaped from airplanes.

Father Tom Christmas while tracking down the murderer, does all the things the police tell you not to do sort of like staying in the car. He’s not the only nosy person who goes where they should not be going and does what they should not be doing.

What could have been nice and cozy turns out to be a convoluted story with too many characters to keep track of and too many subplots. This may reflect real life but it makes it very difficult to enjoy the book.

I started with book 3 and realized this is one of the few series that would’ve been better off if I had started with book one. There are about 500 pages it takes forever to get through while keeping track of all the characters and subplots, and now I am contemplating whether I want to read the first two books are not.

To its advantage the book does have a cast of characters in genealogy in the front; you will find yourself constantly looking back at this to try to keep track of where who belongs to whom. You may also just find that not everybody is in this genealogy, sorry about that.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our local book group read the first book in this series several years ago, and I liked it enough to continue the series. Although there is one more short book remaining after this book, I probably won't read it. I'm not a fan of a story that ends just as you are getting into it and based on the blurb, I don't see how it can wrap up the series any better than Ten Lords did.

The readers who expected these books to be Christmas stories apparently didn't read the blurbs. I suppose the series name - Father Christmas Mystery - misled readers. The only thing Christmas-y about any of them is the MC's name, Father Tom Christmas, and in every book he asks to be called Father Tom rather than Father Christmas. I like Tom's character and adore his young daughter, Miranda. A few characters from earlier books appear in this one, but there were a lot of others to keep straight, and that got confusing at times.

There were a lot of contentious relationships in this book, and nobody was surprised when a body was discovered. The list of possible culprits included almost all the other characters, but one of them kept popping up at the top of my list after every new clue was uncovered. That person was the guilty party, but I didn't quite have the motive nailed down.

I enjoyed this series and am disappointed the author wasn't able to finish the countdown from nine to one. I would love to read more about Tom, Miranda, Madrun and the rest.

[Tristan Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I dearly loved the first two books in this series, and this book is no less well-written than its predecessors. The difficulty is that its 500 pages are difficult to get through. I'm ashamed to admit to a sense of "get on with it," as I have given credit to several long books in my checkered reading career. In this instance, however, it's rather a case of Mr. Benison biting off more than I could chew. I stopped at p.189, at the end of another of Madrun's letters. I couldn't keep going, although I'm mad to know why our vicar got to experience the delights of a certain lady who more or less took advantage of his pain-killer-induced stuporous state to get a little midnight nookie for herself. Yes, he remembers it, all too well!

I may return to this book one day. After all, I nearly stopped reading Harvest Home because the first 99 pages felt deadly dull. I was told to keep pressing on, as those pages were (essentially) the trudging of the roller-coaster car up that first hill; from then on, it was a thrill-ride of the first order, with those first hundred pages creating the background that made the ending inevitable.

Sorry, Mr. Benison; I fear I may be complaining of "too many notes."

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

To raise the funds to replace the roof of his little church in cozy Thornford Regis, vicar Tom Christmas enlists the aid of a group of gentry who hold skydiving fundraisers and even agrees to jump himself! When he sprains his leg, he and his daughter Miranda are forced to accept the hospitality of the hosting Lord and his complicated and titled extended family while he recovers. The family secrets run as deep as the castle's foundations, and Tom once again finds himself playing amateur sleuth when one of the leaping lords is found murdered on the grounds. Thankfully for readers, Tom's likable, housekeeper Madrun Prowse is also back, filling in details with her gossipy letters to her mother. Overall an enjoyable cozy mystery, although the solving of the mystery requires a bit of a stretch of the imagination. Hopefully we won't need to wait too many more years for Tom and company to return, and perhaps we could even get Nine Ladies Dancing to be set at Christmas, or at least in the winter.

[Child960801 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I wanted a) a book with 'leap' in the title and b) an audiobook and this was what was available now in my Libby app. This is the third book in the series (I haven't read the others) and you can tell this is a third book. They mention "That unpleasantness last year" and so on. I felt that this book didn't really fit in the genre the way I expected it too. It's pretty long for a cozy mystery, but the main character is a village priest, so it not a police procedural or anything. Also, the mystery is solved eventually, but it doesn't really feel like there is a lot of detective work being done by the main character. I really liked the narrator and will definitely look him up again.

There is a family in the centre of this book where everyone has a title as well as a name and there are cousins and half siblings and dead relatives and so on and I found all that really hard to keep track of and kind of wished I had a family tree.

Vicar Tom Christmas is at a charity event for his church that is being held at the estate of a local lord when violence erupts.

[Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

okay so first of all the title made me think I was going to be reading a Christmas-themed mystery, which this is not. second, I found the relationships and history of assorted sordid crimes convoluted and overwhelming. this is only #3 in the series and yet many of the characters have all kinds of background and connections from past investigations that ends up being a lot to keep track of. third, there are just too many characters. I couldn't keep them straight, none of them except Roberto Sica and "Marve" (is "Marve" a nickname for "Marguerite" in England? what the hell) were in any way compelling. fourth, "Father Christmas" was incredibly boring and unlikable, his dialogue made him seem like a judgy guy who interrupts people, and why did I have to keep reading about his midnight tryst. miss me with that. fifth, can a character make an expression other than a moue.

I'm being extra mean because I've had a long day but really.