The Killings at Badger's Drift
A Midsomer Murders Mystery 1
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4.3 • 23 Ratings
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- $0.99
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Publisher Description
'Simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie' The Sunday Times
A book that will glue you from beginning to end. If you love Agatha Christie, you'll adore Caroline Graham, with characters who charm and murderers who terrorise. Named by the CWAs as one of 'The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time', The Killings at Badger's Drift is the first spectacular novel in the Midsomer Murders series, the novel that inspired the ITV hit drama, now featuring an exclusive foreword by John Nettles who played best-loved TV detective and star of Midsomer Murders, DCI Tom Barnaby.
The village of Badger's Drift is the essence of tranquillity. But when resident and well-loved spinster Miss Simpson takes a stroll in the nearby woods, she stumbles across something she was never meant to see, and there's only one way to keep her quiet.
Miss Simpson's death is not suspicious, say the villagers. But Miss Lucy Bellringer refuses to rest: her friend has been murdered. She is sure of it.
She calls on Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby to investigate, and it isn't long until the previously unseen seamy side of Badger's Drift is brought to light.
But as old rivalries, past loves and new scandals surface, the next murder is not far away.
Praise for Caroline Graham's novels:
'One to savour' Val McDermid
'A mystery of which Agatha Christie would have been proud. . . A beautifully written crime novel' The Times
'Tension builds, bitchery flares, resentment seethes . . . lots of atmosphere' Mail on Sunday
'A witty, well-plotted, absolute joy of a book' Yorkshire Post
'Swift, tense and highly alarming' TLS
'Lots of excellent character sketches . . . and the dialogue is lively and convincing' Independent
'Read her and you'll be astonished . . . very sexy, very hip and very funny' Scotsman
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The British author makes her debut here in an uncommonly appealing mystery, set in a tranquil village, Badger's Drift. Learned Chief Inspector Barnaby and callow Sergeant Troy go to work when importunate, elderly Miss Bellringer insists that her friend, Emily Simpson, did not die of a heart attack as her doctor claimed, but was murdered. An autopsy proves Miss Bellringer right; Emily had imbibed a Socratic mix of wine and hemlock. Spreading alarm throughout the community, an unseen murderer strikes again, leaving sly Mrs. Rainbird's bloody corpse to be found by her son, the local undertaker. As Barnaby and Troy investigate, they turn up evidence of another crime years earlier, and several suspects. Among them are the doctor's promiscuous wife, a young woman whose brother objects to her marriage to a rich widower and a Lady Chatterley-type gamekeeper. Diligent detecting brings the chief and his bumbling assistant to a sensational expose. Graham makes the characters humanly believable in her witty and tragic novel, a real winner.
