Ghost in the Machine [Hardcover]

Caroline Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

Every man should have a hobby. It keeps them out of mischeif and from under their wives' feet. A nice bit of DIY, gardening, bowls or snooker, mysterious activities in the potting shed - fine. But killing machines, Dennis Brinkley's hobby - something else. Not what you'd call a nice hobby at all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its focus on a dozen or so richly diverting characters, British author Graham's well-plotted ninth novel featuring Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby (The Killings at Badger's Drift, etc.) has more in common with Dickens than with Conan Doyle. After old Carey Lawson's natural death, her nephew Mallory Lawson, whose idealism has trapped him in a teaching job he can't tolerate; his wife, Kate, who nurses a dream of publishing good books; and their willful, spoiled daughter Polly share in a legacy that will transform their lives. Carey's amiable, competent financial consultant and executor, Dennis Brinkley, collects huge and ancient weapons of war. The indecisive, diffident manner of the late woman's companion, Benny Frayle, hides a steely core of determination. Other striking characters include a medium who's a frustrated actress and her strange, abused daughter; a fortune hunter whose rich wife turns out to be no bargain; and a childless woman who finds an unusual answer for her longings. The first unnatural death occurs well into the book and doesn't become a murder investigation till halfway through. Those impatient with the initial lack of action will be well rewarded when the redoubtable Barnaby finally starts to sort things out. FYI: This series inspired the Midsommer Murders series starring Inspector Barnaby on A&E Television.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* If Agatha Christie, Stephen King, and Maeve Binchy decided to collaborate, this might be the book they would write--a sort of police procedural, murder mystery, horror story, and English-village melodrama all in a single cover. It's an engaging, beguiling, surprising story with wonderfully drawn characters, laugh-aloud humor, sinister twists, and a splendidly multifaceted plot. Mallory Lawson has little hope of escaping his miserable teaching job at a London public school. Then his aunt Carey dies, leaving him a generous inheritance along with her lovely house in quaint Forbes Abbot. Mallory is delighted--he can finally flee his teaching job, and his wife, Kate, can fulfill her dream of starting her own publishing house. Life will be sweet, right? Wrong. The Lawsons haven't even settled into their new home when Aunt Carey's financial advisor is brutally murdered, and shortly afterward, a local medium dies in mysterious circumstances. Enter caustic police inspector Barnaby, who has experienced plenty of strange cases in his career but none so strange as this one. Before the case is solved, readers have been introduced not only to the victims, the heroes, and the bad guys but also to an entire village full of delightfully eccentric characters whose stories are nearly as enthralling as the murder itself. No surprise that Graham's Inspector Barnaby series has been made into a TV series in the UK. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Headline Library Hardbacks; First Edition edition (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755307704
• ISBN-13: 978-0755307708
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,410,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and funny!, July 29, 2005

By 

Bradley Friedman (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A Ghost in the Machine: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Mystery (Hardcover)

What a marvelous book this was! The cover of the novel likens Caroline Graham to Agatha Christie - a comparison given to all the finer female British mystery authors, even when their books are nothing like Christie's. The small village settings here do resemble those in the Miss Marple stories, but there is a modern sensibility and a fine nasty streak in Graham's work that is anything but cozy. In a way, this latest in the Barnaby/Troy series is more Dickensian to me than Christie-like. In some ways, it's barely even a mystery. Yes, there is a murder - two, in fact - and yes, there are a small group of suspects, one of whom is definitely responsible for those murders. But the mystery is secondary to the wonderful depiction of these characters and to the charmingly creepy village life in Forbes Abbot. The first murder doesn't occur till late, and yet I never once felt impatient. The second victim and her family are not introduced until the middle of the book, but Graham's marvelous way with characterization made them so compelling that I accepted them into the circle immediately. I consider it high praise indeed that I could have enjoyed this story without the murders...as a comedy of manners, in and of itself.

One could almost do without Barnaby and Troy here as they appear very late in the story. (Christie used to do this occasionally with Poirot and Miss Marple, as in THE MOVING FINGER and THE CLOCKS.) But I'm so glad when they arrive because their relationship is hysterical. They are a bit different than their counterparts on the TV series (which, by the way is, in my opinion, the best detective series to come out of Great Britain!), but they have a wonderfully, sort of snarky affection for each other. Their investigation this time around isn't particularly clever, but then A GHOST IN THE MACHINE is more about the effects of events on the characters themselves than on the parceling together of clues and alibis. Watching these people change and grow as a result of their own actions and the actions of others was compelling. I particularly loved the Lawsons and their horrible daughter Polly, whose metamorphosis is highly dramatic but inherently realistic. Even the smallest of characters never gets short shrift. You feel as if you know every one of these people and have spent a wonderful time in their presence.

I would never attach a spoiler to a mystery review (or to any novel, for that matter), but I must say a word about the ending. For the final page to this book contains one of the most startling surprises I have ever read in a book of this type, and it made me put down the novel with a chill and a smile. Let's just say that Graham stretches and switches around the concept of genre here. Otherwise, my lips are sealed.

I suppose I'm preaching to the choir here, but if one stranger happens upon this review and thereafter decides to read the Barnaby mysteries, then I will be satisfied. I fear that Graham will retire from writing, and we will be without new adventures. At least the TV shows are continuing and are being made available to those of us in the States on DVD. I highly recommend them as well.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fantastic read, October 7, 2004

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Ghost in the Machine: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Mystery (Hardcover)

Lovers of old fashioned British police procedurals (the ones where there is plenty of character development, and where the novel dwells more on the personal stories of the characters involved rather than on the police detectives and the sometimes too gruesome investigation at hand) can rejoice: Caroline Graham has penned, after an absence of a few years, another Chief Inspector Barnaby mystery novel. I loved the Chief Inspector Barnaby mysteries when I first started devouring them almost a decade ago, and I loved the TV dramatizations of the series (alas only available on A&E now and then), so I was truly excited when I noticed "A Ghost in the Machine" sitting on the shelving cart. "A reprint?" I wondered, only to realize that it was a brand new mystery novel that I had yet to read! My excitement paid off: once I started the book, I found it difficult to put down. This, in spite of the fact that I had gotten used to the more streamlined police procedurals, where the crime is committed in chapter one, and the police investigation starts off almost at once. Caroline Graham's novels involve a different kind of approach: one in which the village life and the quiet and intimate lives of the denizens of that village are examined, and where a small event or arrival of a new person to the village signals the onslaught of devious and more sinister happenings. DCI Barnaby and his trusty sidekick, DS Troy only really came into the picture almost halfway through the book. Not that one ever feels impatient with the slowness at which the police investigation part of the mystery at hand gets off the ground. On the contrary: how on earth could you feel impatient when there are all these village characters and their own personal stories and worries to get involved with? Intriguing, suspenseful and simply chockfull of characters that suspiciously, "A Ghost in the Machine" was a compelling and absorbing read. So, if you're a lover of a more old fashioned approach to the mystery novel, the one where the village and the villagers are the stars, and where the author really gets into the personalities and motivations of characters involved, you're in for a treat, and really should not miss "A Ghost in the Machine."

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, December 3, 2005

By 

John R. Lindermuth "J. R. Lindermuth, author ... (Coal Township PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Ghost in the Machine: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Novel (Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Caroline Graham's novels are always character-driven and more in the vein of suspense than the mysteries they purport to be. Her latest, "A Ghost in the Machine," is typical of the fare and a good read.
I've always liked the cozy, though Graham has updated the genre to conform to more modern times and made it a bit more gritty than some of her predecessors.
As in the past, she has lain her story in a small English village flush with diverse and eccentric people.
A stressed out teacher inherits the property of his beloved aunt. This offers the opportunity to escape the city and follow his wife's long-cherished dream of becoming a publisher of literary novels. Their spoiled-rotten daughter remains in London to become involve in a matter which will later impact on them and their plans.
Their financial consultant, who seems to be well-liked by everyone in the village, has the odd habit of collecting ancient war machines. He is the first murder victim, though at first his death seems to be accidental. Other notable characters include Brinkley's friend, the former companion/housekeeper of the aunt; an assortment of odd neighbors, spiritualists and pathetic children.
It is sometime in this novel before the pragmatic Chief Inspector Barnaby and the all too human Sergeant Troy make their first appearance and even longer before they agree a murder has been committed. After that, the action picks up.
Some have compared Graham to Dickens because of her reliance on characters to carry her plots. I would not go so far as that since her style is as eccentric as some of her characters. Still, that is part of her charm. The reader (this reader, at least) is willing to forgive her variance from accepted style because it is just so entertaining.