Originally published in 1987
Inspector Barnaby #1
Followed by Death of a Hollow Man
Badger’s Drift is the ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster with a nice line in homemade cookies. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up an unseemly fuss, loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. And when Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy start poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething below the picture-postcard prettiness. In the grand English tradition of the quietly intelligent copper, Barnaby has both an irresistibly dry sense of humor and a keen insight into what makes people tick.
When it comes to the Midsomer Murders TV show, I somehow missed the boat and it is a little hard to understand why. It was not a case of me being too young for the show, as I had just become a teenager when it started, nor is it disinterest – I was probably at the height of my interest in the genre at that point, watching Poirot, Morse and A Touch of Frost. I just never got around to it.
That is not to say that I am oblivious to the show’s popularity. Several years after it started I finally watched its pilot, which was adapted from the book I am writing about today, and I recall finding it fairly entertaining. Indeed, I have rather strong memories of at least a few aspects of the plot which all came flooding back to me as I started reading nearly two decades later which suggests I must have been paying attention! Other than an occasional episode watched with my in-laws however, I never got around to investigating Inspector Barnaby more closely. Clearly that deserved rectifying, so when I found a copy of the 2005 Felony & Mayhem reprint, I decided to give it a try…
The Killings at Badger’s Drift opens with Emily Simpson, an older resident of the village, stumbling upon something that she finds distressing. Unsure what to do or who to turn to, she begins to place a call to the Samaritans when there is a knock at her door and she ends the call. Shortly afterwards she is found dead, having collapsed on her kitchen floor.
Her doctor signs her death certificate saying that she died of natural causes but her friend, Miss Bellringer, insists that she must have been murdered. Chief Inspector Barnaby listens to her complaints and while he is not initially convinced, he soon finds sufficient evidence to suggest that an autopsy is in order. When that autopsy turns up evidence of poisoning, Barnaby begins an investigation that proves that this village is anything but sleepy.
What struck me most as I was reading was the way Graham plays with the disconnect between appearances and reality within the context of that English village setting. Without being too specific about the nature of those reveals, there are multiple examples of characters who appear outwardly respectable, yet who are living and experiencing very different lives. For the most part these reveals do feel like they tie into what we know already about the characters, and do help to reinforce the notion that this setting, while it may appear quaint and charming, is actually quite dangerous and threatening.
Graham’s colorful characters, while sometimes quite broadly drawn, do feel recognizable as types. I was particularly taken with Miss Bellringer, as well as our brief time with the victim in the opening chapter. The latter is particularly striking because of how short a time we get to spend with her, yet the author does an excellent job of quickly conveying a lot of information to us about her character and values.
Much of the cast of characters could be described as eccentric, adding to the sense of oddness that surrounds this story. While we ultimately get a sense of who most of them are and what factors have led to them being that way, there is one relationship that feels under-explained as presented in the book. While this pairing of characters is certainly effective at behaving in unsettling ways, I think the author never really presents a solid explanation of how they came to be as they are. This has the unfortunate effect of making this aspect of the plot feel designed purely for the effect on the reader, and I think it needed to be worked into the story and the characterization of the pair to feel convincing to me.
What I did like however was the character of Chief Inspector Barnaby. It is not simply that he is established as an extremely decent man, although we do see how kind he can be when he agrees to listen to Miss Bellringer’s story over Troy’s objection. I think what drew me most to him and surprised me was how amusing I found following his internal chain of thoughts to be, particularly in relation to his domestic arrangements with both his wife and daughter. I appreciated though that Graham balances the portrayal of his wife, allowing not only for some humor in relation to her terrible cooking, but also genuine moments of warmth and friendship. This provides a counterbalance to the more sordid goings on in Badger’s Hollow, while helping to humanize him and make him more relatable.
In contrast, Sergeant Troy is truly obnoxious. Openly homophobic, aggressive, and with little time for the people he is supposed to serve, he makes for unpleasant company. I don’t doubt that the realism of this sort of character and I accept there would be men like Troy within the police force, particularly at this time of change, but it isn’t much fun spending time with him. While I am not particularly familiar with the TV adaptation, I have to imagine that this character would have been considerably softened to be more palatable for audiences.
The heart of the novel though has to be the mystery and I am disappointed to say that in this respect I found the book a little lacking. It is not an issue with the concept. As I will have no doubt said before, I rather like stories in which it isn’t obvious that a murder has taken place. Graham takes that idea and sets it up well, creating a crime that could well have been utterly invisible and enabled the criminal to avoid detection. I enjoyed the early chapters in which we track the steps Barnaby will have to take to demonstrate murder has happened, and felt interested to learn more about what had happened and why Emily Simpson had to die.
Once the murder is confirmed and the investigation proper begins, I felt that the story became rather less interesting. While Graham includes a second murder to up the stakes, I felt that the questioning seemed to drag on in the middle of the book. Though a couple of the facts we learn through those questions are interesting, I was struck by how flat that investigation feels. Too much hinges on discoveries about personal lives, while our understanding of the case itself felt a little static.
Overall then, I am in somewhat mixed minds about what to make of this book and whether I will continue with the series. There are certainly some things I liked about it, not least the character of Barnaby, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed with it as a case, given the potential of the setup. In the end, the strength and the weakness of the book lies in the attention to character. Graham creates compelling, colorful characters, but I think she gets a little lost in them to the detriment of her plot.
The Verdict: Those who like vibrant, colorful characters will probably vibe with this, but I found the mystery plot a little underbaked.
Mysteries Ahoy! 
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