The Warden by Anthony Trollope is the first of the Barchester Novels and is Amusing, Character-Driven and Short. Characters have names like Septimus Harding and Sir Abraham Haphazard!
Clergyman, Mr Harding is accused of being Paid Too Much for his cushy job. He subsequently has a Crisis of Conscience (and plays an invisible cello when particularly moved or distressed – hence the picture). Pretty much every character is appealing or very funny.
I was reminded of this book by a recent church history lecture on the church in pre-Reformation England. Although this novel is Victorian it illustrates what our lecturer said repeatedly: it takes a long time to reform abuses when powerful people have a vested interest in maintaining them…