Customer Reviews

A Ghost in the Machine: A Chief Inspector Barnaby Novel (Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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."

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.

This is yet another fine murder mystery featuring DCI Barnaby and his off-sider, Sgt.Troy.In the small village of Forbes Abbot, Dennis Brinkley, a quiet,unassuming financier, pursues his rather bizarre hobby of drawing up plans for and constructing medieval war machines, massive structures used for breaching fortress and castle walls and for hurling huge rocks and boiling oil on hapless citizenry. Dennis' old friend, Benny Fayle lives nearby with Mallory and Kate Lawson, the new owners of a large house, left to them by Bennys' late employer, and is happy to be about to introduce them to Dennis at a dinner party. When Dennis doesn't arrive, his body is subsequently discovered in his studio with his head crushed by a ball from one of his war machines. Another dimension to the plot is added by the Lawsons' daughter Polly, badly spoiled from childhood by her father and overly cocky about her abilities as an investment advisor. Add yet another fascinating character in the person of Ava Garrett, a theatrical psychic fake who capitalises on her small daughters' abilities, to con gullible people out of money, and you have a totally absorbing read and one which I can really recommend, especially to lovers of crime and mayhem in small English villages.

In the village of Forbes Abbot, Dennis Brinkley is the subject of much local gossip as he collects replicas of old war-weapons and torture devices of varying sizes. Paradoxically, one of the collector's war machines crushes him to death. The villagers believe that a freak accident occurred, but his best friend Benny thinks someone is getting away with a homicide.

The locals believe that Benny's contention is substantiated when psychic Ava Garrett insists she will ask Dennis to identify his killer at a séance she is hosting. However, before she can call on Dennis, an unknown assailant kills the psychic. Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby and Detective Sergeant Gavin Troy investigate the two homicides.

No one does the English village police procedural better than Caroline Graham consistently accomplishes them. Her latest Barnaby and Troy triumph is a fabulous tale that ironically uses newcomers (Mallory and Kate Lawson and their daughter Polly) expecting a serene quiet change from London to introduce readers to Forbes Abbott and its eccentric residents that includes the late Dennis. The action is limited and the dynamic law enforcement duo does not appear until half way through the book as the oddball local characters take center stage with their goings on. The investigation is top rate, but it is the eccentricity of the villagers that make for a fantastic cozy-like tale with some profanity and one of the dead being a mangled bloody corpse.

Harriet Klausner

The traditional British who-done-it is still alive. It's complete with totally unexpected events (He got done in with his own authentic torture device.), amazing characters, and above all the quaint British tiny, tiny little towns. I don't suppose you'd be reading this if you weren't familiar with Caroline Graham's Chief Inspector Barnaby Mysteries. But if you are a fan of them like so many others, they you won't be dissappointed. It's easy to see why the Sunday Times of London called her, "Simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christe."

The story, you know it already: a gruesome murder, a wild set of characters done with depth and humor, the Chief Inspector and his trusty sidekick chasing down conflicting leads. The real question: Winter's coming, and the snow, the fireplace is ready. Do you wait to snuggle down with a book you know will be good, or do you gobble it down immediately.

As a long-time fan of the Midsomer Murders television series, I purchased this book on a trip to the U.K. just after its publication. In comparison to Ms. Graham's other DCI Barnaby books and the stories that screenwriters have put together for the series, this is a departure. As other reviewers have noted, the clearest difference is that the murder does not occur until well into the novel and DCI Barnaby plays a less significant role than he usually does, at least in terms of the number of pages on which he is an active character. Graham so thoroughly develops the characters, though, that the structure works, and it works beautifully. It seems almost as if the author deliberately went against the conventional structure of her earliest Barnaby books and the television series -- a risky move, to be sure. However, the character development and the attention to detail is so strong that, as a stand-alone mystery novel, A Ghost in the Machine works beautifully. Perhaps because the popular Chief Inspector does not appear until well into the book, A Ghost in the Machine has not been made into an episode in the decade-and-a-half-long Midsomer Murders series. Just a thought, though: with John Nettles ending his stint as DCI Barnaby in the series, maybe A Ghost in the Machine would be an appropriate last episode for him... Caroline Graham breaks the Midsomer Murders "rules" and this novel is all the stronger for it -- a must-have British police procedural.

Caroline Graham again hits the spot with this classic English whodunit. The book is set in the village of Forbes Abbot in fictional Midsomer county and has a great cast of characters all of which are fully developed in the first half of the book. The author sets a cracking pace and the book is spiced with a rather cruel line in wit.
A first gruesome death, possibly accidental, followed by a definite murder brings Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy into the mix and as the plot is unravelled it keeps you guessing right up until the end.
This may not be Caroline Graham's very best but it is still a mighty good read.

I'm a big fan of both Caroline Graham's Inspector Barnaby mysteries, and the TV series that spun off--although the books and the show could not be more different. A Ghost in the Machine, the seventh (and last, to date) of the Barnaby novels, is the book that's most unlike the on-screen version, and my favorite.

After Carey Lawson dies and leaves a large sum of money to her nephew Mallory and his family, everything starts to change for the Lawsons; their arrival in the village sets off a chain of events that results in the death of their neighbor and financial advisor, Dennis Brinkley. Dennis' timid friend Benny tries to convince the Causton CID that the death was a murder, but there's no proof...until a medium of questionable talents and equally questionable morals gets involved.

Barnaby and Troy don't put in an appearance until halfway through the story and solve the crime relatively quickly, but the murders are a small part of the bigger picture (which includes embezzlement, fraud, more murders, and child abuse).

Graham's dry sense of humor and clear-eyed descriptions of English village life have never been better, but what sets A Ghost in the Machine apart is the complexity of the characters, and the creepy ending.

"A Ghost in the Machine" is as much an engrossing meditation on the always complicated relationships between parents and their children as it is a traditional village murder mystery. While Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby and his much-put upon sidekick, Sergeant Troy, are on the scene to be sure, author Caroline Graham seems much more interested in exploring the equations of good parents with good intentions and their bad children versus bad parents with bad intentions and their good children. And so we have, in more than 500 pages, the day by day chronicling of two (three?) such families who will be traumatized by egotism, greed and betrayal and changed forever by murder.

The writing is witty and thoughtful, full of wisdom and humor and ultimately makes you wonder where (and how) the author was able to draw on the insights into family drama that abound in this novel. The murder storyline, which seems secondary at times to this tale, is well enough constructed and logically springs from the same personal vices (egotism, greed, etc.) The two murder victims--a collector of medieval arms and a medium with an eye for the main chance--are wonderfully described and ably servee as exemplars of vice and virtue.

As always, author Graham has a keen eye for setting--life in the English village of Forbes Abbot is persuasively laid out in great and usually interesting detail. Ultimately though, the reader will take to this book for its fine characters and the clever telling of their relationships, eccentricities, crises and ambitions. A good read.