'The Pulpit is Vacant' is a gentle crime novel with some quite explicit sexual content. It is set on the South side of Glasgow and is the first in a series of novels featuring DCI Charles Davenport and his team, DS Fiona Macdonald who has moved station because of a failed romance, Sergeant Salma Din recently arrived from the West End of Glasgow and constables Penny Price and Frank Selby, the latter sexist, racist and bigotted The new church minister, Robert Gentle is found dead in his study. He is not loved by his family, timid wife, Mary, feisty daughter Ruth and estranged son, Philip. The police team attempt to discover the identity of the murderer but before they are successful, a child is also killed. William Paterson was in the vicinity of the manse on the night of the murder and probably recognised the murderer. Was the killer a member of Gentle's family or could one of the youth workers, summoned to the manse and told in no uncertain terms that the minister is in command, have committed the crime? Perhaps Ruth Gentle's seemingly placid boyfriend was responsible. The plot wends its way towards the startling denouement with the police fearing another death before the case is solved.