Customer Reviews

Fete Fatale

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If you like a good mystery and a good comedy but have a difficuly time finding the two together, then this is the book for you! Barnard is an expert and combining a very intriguing mystery with the highest (and sometimes lowest) comedy i have ever read. He is truly and artist. This book is rich in intrigue, laughs, and suspense until the very last sentence (and I do mean the VERY last sentence so don't read it first or everything will be ruined!!) Anyway, I highly recommend this book to anyone with a love of mystery and a great sense of humor!

It's always flattering to stumble across a writer who shares one's views of the strengths and weaknesses of another writer, as Barnard shares mine of Agatha Christie. In reading his own mysteries since, I've come to the conclusion that, unlike Christie, Barnard is at his best in short fiction, rather than the novel. But he does very well in this novel. It's a little slow going at first, as he sets the scene in a sleepy English village, but sticking with it proves to be well worth the wait once the murder happens. Barnard leads the reader down a primrose path that's worthy of Christie at her best; I'd doubt anyone who claimed to have seen the solution coming. Nor is it a "cheat"; all the clues were there, the solution doesn't insult the reader's intelligence or sense of justice, and the summing up is emotionally satisfying.

Fans of British country mysteries will find a lot to enjoy here: a quaint village in the clutches of provincial attitudes, a quirky Anglican priest, ruins of a castle, a church fete on the village meadow, etc. Barnard's narrator is a feisty,opinionated teacher and it is a pleasure to see all of this through her cynical eye. But the plot is wanting and a mystery in this style without a delectable, twisty plot is just an Angela Thirkell novel.