She was such a poster child for the twisted result of clinging to a joyless, punitive religion, a religion that sapped all the joy from life and led, in its final stages, to the extremism that poisoned the well of sane discourse.

For it was a truth universally acknowledged that a single vicar must be in want of a wife.

A lot of nonsense is spoken at funerals, especially when the deceased had not been well liked in life. Many euphemisms are called into play: "vital," "energetic," and (repetitively) "full of life".

The man liked doing magic tricks. He was an IT type, a techie, their minds work that way. Never the straight path, oh no, not when some circuitous route will do.

...every year for decades there had been great excitement over the Largest Vegetable competition ("That would be my husband", was the standard comment).

Oh please tell me we're not doing the Poirot thing again — the suspects in the library with the candlestick or whatever'.Max looked at him [DCI Cotton]. 'Fruitcake in this case. And what would you prefer? A car chase? It’s the most efficient way to flush out a killer, as Dame Agatha Christie well knew.