Chief Inspector Barnaby

A quaint English village is home to a murderer in the Macavity Award-wining mystery series debut that launched the British crime drama Midsomer Murders. Badger's Drift is the ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up a fuss loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. And when Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy start poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething below the picture-postcard prettiness. In the grand English tradition of the quietly intelligent copper, Barnaby has both an irresistibly dry sense of humor and a keen insight into what makes people tick. The Killings at Badger's Drift marks Inspector Barnaby's debut, and offers ample proof that Caroline Graham may indeed be "simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie" (Sunday Times of London). "Murder most pleasing . . . a corking good mystery." -Los Angeles Times

An onstage murder in a small English village draws the beloved detective into "a theatrical whodunit worthy of a deep bow" (The New York Times). Actors do love their dramas, and the members of the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society are no exception. However, even the most theatrically minded have to admit that murdering the leading man in full view of the audience is a bit over the top. Luckily, Inspector Barnaby is in that audience, and while he may lack certain skills as a theater critic, he's just the man to catch a killer. In this second Barnaby mystery, the inspector is in his element, and so is author Caroline Graham, a former actress, who tweaks her collection of community-theater artistes and small-town drama queens with merciless delight. Death of a Hollow Man was the basis for the second episode in season one of the acclaimed ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.

The English inspector confronts a cultist enclave where mysticism meets murder in the series that inspired the ITV crime drama Midsummer Murders. The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse has provided the citizens of Compton Dando with splendid fodder for gossip, prompting speculation of arcane rituals and bizarre sexual practices. But with the murder of the commune's leaders, the rumor-mill goes into overdrive. Now Chief Inspector Barnaby must separate rumor from reality in a case where the facts are often stranger than fiction. The residents of the Windhorse commune may have been seeking the simple life, but they're all concealing complicated pasts-or past lives.

When a visiting author is suspected of murder, the case is hardly open and shut in this English village mystery novel by the author of Death in Disguise. The Midsomer Worthy's Writers' Circle has never had much luck in attracting guest speakers. Consequently, there is much surprise when best-selling novelist Max Jennings accepts their invitation. But the members are even more surprised by their secretary, Gerald Hadleigh, who furiously objects to hosting Jennings-and offers no explanation. Surprise turns into a variety of responses when Hadleigh is found dead the morning after Jennings' visitation. Chief Inspector Barnaby soon determines that the key to solving the murder will lie with the illustrious Jennings. There's only one problem: the famous author has disappeared.

The first three Chief Inspector Barnaby mysteries, the basis for the British crime drama Midsomer Murders. The Killing at Badger's Drift: After a spinster is murdered in the seemingly quaint village of Badger's Drift, her best friend kicks up a fuss, attracting attention from Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. When Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy begin poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething below the picture-postcard prettiness . . .  "Murder most pleasing . . . a corking good mystery." -Los Angeles Times  Death of a Hollow Man: A leading man is murdered during a performance in a small English village, and Inspector Barnaby and his deputy are on the case. While Barnaby may lack certain skills as a theater critic, he is just the man to catch a killer . . . "A theatrical whodunit worthy of a deep bow."-The New York Times Death in Disguise: The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse has provided the citizens of Compton Dando with splendid fodder for gossip, prompting speculation of arcane rituals and bizarre sexual practices. But with the murder of the commune's leaders, the rumor-mill goes into overdrive. Now Chief Inspector Barnaby must separate rumor from reality in a case where the facts are often stranger than fiction . . . "Wonderfully funny, with such solid, traditional underpinnings as good plotting, judiciously dropped clues, and a luminescent turn of phrase: a likely-to-be New Age classic."-Kirkus Reviews