Alan Kemister

A Body in the Sacristy Alan Kemister

A carpenter discovers a baby girl's carefully preserved body in the Anglican Church of a small coastal community on Nova Scotia's South Shore. Who was she? Was she murdered? If so, by whom? And how did her body end up in a sealed cabinet?In his first case, newly recruited Barrettsport police detective Simon Goodyear tackles these questions. Simon has traded his job as an undercover cop on a big city vice squad for a simpler life in a small town where he can help his friends and neighbors. As he works on the puzzle, he discovers that his new stomping ground isn't as bucolic as he hoped. During the investigation, the church secretary provides Simon with important lessons on the political and social structure of his new hometown. He discovers that the quirky nature of the town and its most prominent citizens are key factors leading to the mystery's solution. One could classify this book as a soft-boiled mystery, a locked-room whodunit without the graphic sex, violence, and tough guy hero of the hard-boiled genre. It resembles in some ways a cozy mystery with elements of police procedural. Or, one could argue it's a traditional British mystery set in Nova Scotia (New Scotland). The focus is on a basically nice guy small-town cop interacting with the town's unusual characters as he pursues the solution to his puzzle.