The curate was embarrassed in the middle of a funeral service by the ringing of his mobile phone and hurried away to the vestry, while the rector carried on alone, little knowing that next time he saw his curate he would be lying across the vestry threshold in a pool of his own blood... After studying Classics at London University, Rosemary Axe worked as a secretary and administrator in the Health Service, the Law and the Church, in both London and Devonshire, where she now lives.