By C. C. Benison (Delacorte: 2011)

You’d think this would be a Christmas book. It’s not, but the main character is Father Tom Christmas, a priest at the Episcopalian church in Thornford Regis, Great Britain. The town is getting

ready for a celebration, part of which will be a demonstration of Japanese drumming. One of the drums is really large, and on the morning of the event it is found maliciously slashed and the body of a girl stuffed inside. Tom had sought the post  in Thornford Regis because he had wanted a quiet place to raise his 9 year old daughter after his wife was murdered.
There are some solid, colorful characters in the book who will undoubtedly appear in later volumes of the series, the second of which is going to be “Eleven Pipers Piping.” You can see where the author is going with this theme.
Benison does a good job of keeping you interested and not giving away the culprit until the very end. The book has won the “Good Clean Book” award of excellence.