Damn His Blood, what a great title. I wanted to read the book before I’d seen it
or even knew what it was about on the strength of the title alone. Fortunately, once I did have it in my hands
the subject matter was just my thing too.
What’s not to like about an early nineteenth-century true murder mystery
featuring a vicar, a retired military man and a cast of rural village folk. Except perhaps the brutal murder part,
obviously.
Picture the scene. Oddingley,
a village near Worcester that the Reverend George Parker called home. His tenure was not without controversy, and
his relationships with the villagers were not entirely peaceful. Still, he cannot have imagined it coming to
an abrupt and violent end one fine midsummer evening in his own glebe
meadows. Parker was shot and brutally
beaten, murdered at close range. Who
would want the Vicar dead? Well, who wouldn't, as it turns out.
Oddingley had become horribly split, with the residents
forced to choose between Parker and Captain Evans. The sticking point was the tithe. Parker wanted to increase it, and
controversially began collecting it in kind to ensure he got his due. Evans and his cohorts were aggrieved to the
point of murder. Literally. Parker gained the nicknamed Bonaparte of
Oddingley, a tyrant in his demands, although he was deeply reactionary rather than
revolutionary. A man out of time is the apt phrase Moore uses.
He was also stubborn and ungracious in victory. His was always unlikely to be a good end.
Moore captures the atmosphere of menace that developed in
the village. Left-handed, literally
sinister, toasts were drunk to the vicar.
Oaths were sworn against him, and in the opinion of some killing him
would be no worse than killing a dog. A
tavern plot was forged. And so, the poor
man met his violent end. It was clear
from the start that this was a premeditated murder, and one with no shortage of
suspects. But it took two decades to
establish some approximation of the truth about what happened and even then no
one ever paid the judicial price for the deed.
Moore uses his sources well, gleaning every last drop of
information to construct a compelling and entertaining narrative. The characters are larger than life. One of the prime suspects, Heming, is a
shifty chap and no mistake. He lurks
around, appearing and disappearing in an instant. Despite having a wife and family he has the
aspect of a vagrant milling around to take opportunities wherever they can be
found. Captain Evans, retired from the army and now head of his household, is a huge figure, commanding respect and fear, a natural ringleader.
Moore sets this sensational and singular event in context. The local politics of this traditional rural village are essential for understanding the event, but wider social and political factors were also at play. This was a time when the implications of the French Revolution were still resonating, the country was at war with France, and taxes and inflation were rampant. Anxiety over the threats to their livelihood both big and small made it a bad time for Parker to challenge social norms.
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