Customer Reviews

Written in Blood (Felony & Mayhem Mysteries) (Inspctr Barnaby)

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Caroline Graham may be the most underrated of the British mystery writers. In "Written in Blood" as well as "Death in Disguise," she has produced good puzzles and some of the best internal monologues of some of the most interesting and diagnosable characters ever to grace the pages of a whodunit. As a writer, she is comparable to Iris Murdoch in her ability to see the primordial ooze underlying all drawing room comedies. Her characters teeter on the edge of civilization and threaten to topple over through pure narcissism. What a delight: there we all are, the good, the bad, and the irrascible. That includes the good guys and the bad guys, though the bad guys are a bit worse than the others. I recommend her books to anyone who likes the British mystery genre and to anyone who enjoys a well-written comedy of manners...

What's better than a mystery that unravels slowly and saves a major punch (as well as its resolution) for the last few pages? "Written in Blood" by Caroline Graham is certainly one of those books. The reader just doesn't see the ending coming as it does after being presented with a grand assortment of possibilities for some 350 pages. Along the way, author Graham gives us some of the best-drawn characters imaginable. This is a murder mystery to be sure, but there is also wonderful humor and irony crammed into its pages. It is full of good-hearted souls, tragic figures, crass bullies, eccentrics and classic English police inspectors. The author leans heavily toward retribution for the bad and rebirth for the good. The formula works very well in this well-constructed novel.

"Written in Blood" tells the story of the murder of one of the members of a village writing group. The victim is someone who has been intensely private since arriving in the neighborhood and has remained an intriguing enigma to his neighbors and group acquaintences. It is the unwinding of his personal history that more or less drives the novel forward. The author is in no hurry here and takes good time along the way to resolving the murder to spinout the stories the other members of the group and their families and neighbors. This sometimes takes an almost Dickensian tone. A description of one of the minor characters was a favorite of mine: "Mr. Jocelyne, a short man with a markedly pouty chest and tiny hands and feet, came towards them. (Inspector) Barnaby was reminded of a pigeon. Everything about the solicitor was grey--his pin-striped arms and legs, the soft, sparsely distributed curls of hair upon his head and the more wiry tufts spring from his ears. Even his nails had a blue-grey tinge. He looked bone dry, as if all his essential juices had recently been drained off, and rustled as he walked."

This is a fun read that will probably lead you to other Caroline Graham books. It has done that for me, at least.

Written in Blood lives up to all the books in Caroline Graham's Inspector Barnaby series. Well worth the money. An enjoyable read from start to finish.

Caroline Graham is a wonderful author and makes the English countryside come to life. Or death as it is for someone in all her books. She's a great read!

I love the books by Caroline Graham. I like all the books on which the Midsomer Murder series are based.

I am a big fan of Caroline Graham, and I love her characters - Barnaby and Troy. This book has a pretty good puzzle. Some of the characters were quite well drawn, but I found the book faintly depressing. I wonder if the whole side bar with Brian was really necessary to the story? I found that part of the book quite distasteful actually. There comes a time when storylines like that one can be thought of as sensationalizing since they do not really add to the story. But other than that I enjoyed this book. The dust jacket says that Caroline Graham shows humour and pathos in her stories, and I think that is really true. Barnaby is a really appealing main character, and I want to continue to read in order to get to know him better.

The book came in good condition, in a timely manner, as the seller had promised.