There are now 30 Chronicles of Brother Hermitage, can you believe it? Perhaps appropriately, the title is How Many Monks? Could the answer be 30? Since 2010 the Chronicles have dribbled from the scriptorium with increasing regularity and increasing confusion. If Brother Hermitage is supposed to get better at this business, there’s no obvious sign of it yet…

Only Brother Hermitage could go to an entertainment for the murder. Strange people in town, strange ideas and strange behaviour. And then the inevitable. Volume 29 is on the cusp and already a No 1

Murder Can Be Murder has been released upon the world, and instantly became a No 1 around the globe. (Well, nearly instantly in some bits of the globe). Read about the defeat of the Normans in 1066. Hear about the sheriff of London. Oh, and there’s a murder; hence the title.

It shouldn’t be difficult. It’s quite straightforward. There’s even a King’s Investigator to deal with this sort of thing. So why does it take an inordinate length of time, a surfeit of confusion, a cast of characters who, frankly, deserve one another, and a secret that really does need unearthing? Probably because the investigator in question is Brother Hermitage.

Brother Hermitage’s Christmas Gift has now been read out loud. I managed the narration and Mr Callum Hale plays all the voices. Click Here.