Faithful Unto Death (Misomer Murders - Featuring Inspector Barnaby) [Paperback]

Caroline Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 1997 | Series: Misomer Murders - Featuring Inspector Barnaby

When Simone, the pleasant, vague wife of businessman Alan Hollingsworth, vanishes from the village of Fawcett Green, her ever-vigilant neighbours, the Brockleys, suspect the worst. The discovery of a body draws Chief Inspector Barnaby to the village, testing his powers of deduction to the full.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Can you name a mystery about bell ringing? Of course--The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L. Sayers. How about another? Well, this book about small-town British coppers Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy might qualify: it begins when a young female campanologist in the village of Fawcett Green fails to show up for practice. Was Simone Hollingsworth kidnapped for ransom? Was her doting new husband involved? Or does her disappearance have something to do with her snooping neighbors--especially the neighbor's obsessive daughter? As she did so well in Written in Blood, Caroline Graham captures the inwardly seething inhabitants of a supposedly placid village with the skill of an expert entomologist observing an anthill. And Barnaby and Troy are once again the perfect pair: the chief inspector's calm introspection is a fine match for the younger, brasher officer's occasional outbursts and blunders. Not the least of Graham's accomplishments is keeping the subgenre of the traditional British village mystery fresh and meaningful. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Witty characterizations coupled with some astute reflections on life in a remote English village more than make up for a dearth of solid suspects in Graham's latest addition to the Inspector Barnaby series (Written in Blood, 1995). Pampered housewife Simone Hollingsworth vanishes. Her workaholic hubby, Alan, hides out, hits the bottle hard and subsequently dies of poisoning. Timid next-door neighbor Brenda Brockley also disappears, as does local artist Sarah Lawson, beloved of Gray Patterson, a financially ruined software designer and onetime business partner of Alan Hollingsworth. Since Alan once ripped poor Gray off to buy a fancy piece of jewelry for the vapid, if decorous Simone, Gray's looking more than a wee bit guilty. Eventually, a ransom message is delivered for Simone, and Brenda is revealed to have been involved in a secret romance. Series copper Barnaby is an unobtrusive detective who plods for the most part and is aided by surly subordinate Sergeant Troy, a ladies' man and chronic snob. What distinguishes this series from run-of-the-mill English country fare is Graham's dry wit, which is especially smooth when turned on the banality of English middle-class repression: "Now, as she slid the little aluminum tray from its temptingly illustrated sleeve, she thought how very reassuring frozen comestibles were. Constrained beneath a glittery crust of sterile crystals, they did not leak or smell or ask to be in any way humanly dealt with."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Headline; New Ed edition (March 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747249709
• ISBN-13: 978-0747249702
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a doozy, not a cozy, September 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Faithful Unto Death: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Novel (Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Despite the cover artwork (inspired no doubt by the success of the Rosamunde Pilcher Bookshelf series) this is an excellent mystery on many levels--but cozy this little village kidnapping?suicide?murder most foul? is not. First, Caroline Graham is an intelligent and graceful writer (P.D. James readers take note). Second, she's plotted an unexpected, but not unfair solution (no deux ex machina, thank you). And third, she's made the off-duty Inspector Barnaby an ambitious and imaginative cook (though it must have been the fault of spell check--where are copy editors when you need them--that he tossed "garlicky croissants," not croutons, in a salad) as well as an intuitive detective who somehow is able to overlook his aide's rampantly lascivious and asocial nature. Fourth, it's perceptive and funny. Even the minor characters, who could so easily be stereotypical stick figures, are sharply individuated, from the village bobby to the aged coquette. Thanks, Amazon for flagging this one as of interest. "Faithful Unto Death" was so satisfying in every way that I plan to reread instead of donating to the library.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Most Wonderful Depiction!, February 19, 2003

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Faithful Unto Death: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Novel (Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Caroline Graham is often referred to as a modern-day Agatha Christie. Certainly her characters, humour and carefully crafted mystery story lines are reminiscent of the great Christie. But her books are also quite different. We don't see the detail in Christie's books that we see in Graham's. This particular book is funny and complex. It is also one of the best descriptions of a psycopathic personality that I have ever read. And it's done with so much class! Barnaby seems to have finally met his match with this villain, and you will have to read it to find out how.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incisive portrait of English life wrapped around mystery, September 11, 1998

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faithful Unto Death (Hardcover)

Caroline Graham's England consists of close-packed villages surrounded by miles and miles of nothing worth seeing, of hard-working city businessmen and urban coppers looking down their slim trim noses at country people and their insular ways, of village bobbies who know the villagers and the cycles of the seasons but naught about investigative work, and of quaint self-assured English eccentrics and villagers whose lives rarely extend beyond the boundary line. I don't know if they exist in Cool Britannica today, but in Graham's world, their constricted lives, hidden passions and occasionally murderous impulses make fascinating reading.