Customer Reviews

Death of a Hollow Man: The 2nd Inspector Barnaby Mystery

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Death of a Hollow Man" shows off author Caroline Graham's wit and snarky sense of humor at their clever best. This being the second of the Inspector Barnaby series, the wise village cop and his semi-clueless sidekick, Sergeant Troy, are part and parcel of the plot as Barnaby moonlights with a local theater production to help out his sometime-thespian wife Joyce. This episode also puts the focus on Barnaby's daughter Cully, another aspiring actor, who provides an ascerbic commentary on the local production of "Amadeus" and meets the man who will star in her own future.

No need to get into plot details other than to observe that the crime that is central to the story (an onstage killing), is secondary to the interaction of wonderful characters that author Graham has assembled here. Drawing on her own experience in the theater, she constructs some terrific dialogues between her string of aspiring actors, theater staffers and secondary characters that provide chuckles and out-and-out belly laughs.

This is a very entertaining little book that is best read straight through in a sitting. Recommended.

Yes, Graham is an enjoyable read, there are certainly similarities to Ngaio Marsh, it is an entertaining, professional mystery -- but what I'm really taken with is the publisher. Felony & Mayhem have gone back to the past and rediscovered/republished a whole list of books & categorized them into "traditional" "hard-boiled" "espionage" etc. -- This is like the good old days when you could just buy ANYTHING with a picture of a dog or a penguin on the spine and it would be a really good read.

(I'm not employed or friends with anyone at this publishing house; I feel the same way about COUNTRYMAN press mysteries; they only bother publishing pros).

When are Tom Barnaby and Inspector Troy going to make their appearance?

This is one of those books that is hard to get into at first, page after page of introducing the soon-to-be suspects as actors and stage assistants in the play "Amadeus." I began to consider putting the book down. However, I started getting interested in spite of myself, trying to figure out what was going to happen and whose fault was it going to be! After the murder, on the stage in full view of Barnaby and Troy, the pace really picked up. The intrigue was so strong, I found myself reading until 4:00 a.m. one morning in order to see who the murderer was!

Another Caroline Graham winner!!

Caroline Graham's Inspector Barnaby mysteries are always readable. I liked this one very much. It's British; it has a classic plot; and it is written by a woman -- in other words, it's bound to be good!

It is so much fun to read Graham's novels. The writting is so well done and Inspector Barneby and his family
are consistently entertaining , plus the mystery is intriging and has just the right amount of twist and turns to keep you on edge until the last page. I LOVE THIS AUTHOR.

I enjoy Caroline Graham's books, as much for their English characters as anything. This is not one of her better books. It drags on, is disjointed, and the conclusion one could not have guessed (usually mystery writers put some clues as to the outcome somewhere earlier).
I made it thru the book but it was not easy.

Fair. At least in comparison to Graham's later books. Worth reading, however, if you're interested in character progression and the writerly process.

I thoroughly enjoy any "Midsumer Murders"books or DVD and the same goes for "Touch of Frost"