The Killings at Badger's Drift
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4.2 • 99 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A quaint English village is home to a murderer in the Macavity Award-wining mystery series debut that launched the British crime drama Midsomer Murders.
Badger's Drift is the ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up a 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. The Killings at Badger's Drift marks Inspector Barnaby's debut, and offers ample proof that Caroline Graham may indeed be "simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie" (Sunday Times of London).
"Murder most pleasing . . . a corking good mystery." —Los Angeles Times
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.
Customer Reviews
Astonishing Talent
This is one of the most well
-written and cleverly plotted mysteries I have ever read! Graham’s way with words is astonishing, even to a lifelong wordsmith. I had to look up quite a few words, some of which were not even in my dictionary. That does not mean that this is a highbrow book, but is just an example of the author’s perfect choice of words. I deeply admire a brain that could come up with this twisted plot.
Exciting, vivid!
Hooks you on the series
This twisting tale keeps you guessing until the end. When you have finished, you can’t wait to start the next! Highly recommended!
Prefer the television Barnaby much better!
This is the first of the Midsomer books I’ve read, and thank goodness I’d seen the series on television first. I fell in love with all the characters and binge watched all the seasons and episodes. If I had read the book first, I never would have watched the series. I didn’t like the author’s portrayal of Barnaby or D.S. Troy at all! They were much more likable on the screen and complemented each other. In the book, they didn’t seem to like each other very much, and that was disappointing. Normally I always like the books better than the screen adaptation, but not in this case.