ROBERT BARNARD  1936
- 2013
Robert
Barnard, who, with his wife Louise, his cat
Durdles and his dog Peggotty, lives in
Leeds, was born in Essex on 23 November,
1936. Educated at the Royal Grammar School
in Colchester and at Balliol College,
Oxford, taking his Ph.D. from the University
of Bergen, Norway, in 1972, he spent many
years as a distinguished academic while
establishing himself as one of today's most
distinguished crime writers. His fascination
with the pure detective story is evident in
his many novels and short stories, as is his
remarkable catholicity of tastes. The Guest
of Honor at 1998's Malice Domestic mystery
conference, recipient of the CWA's Golden
Handcuffs Award, several times nominated for
the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Barnard maintains
he writes only to entertain. It is hardly
fair that a man so gifted as a writer should
be equally skilled as a speaker, but so it
is. Barnard has graced many literary events,
delivered many fine lectures, and generously
boosted the works of authors he admires.
Nowhere is his won talent to deceive better
showcased than in his 1991 classic, A Scandal in
Belgravia. |
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| YEAR |
TITLE |
DETECTIVE (if applicable) |
|
| 1974 |  |
DEATH OF AN OLD GOAT:
Professor Belville-Smith had bored university
audiences in England with the same lecture for
fifty years. Now he was crossing the Australian
continent, doing precisely the same. Never before
had the reaction been so extreme however, for
shortly after an undistinguished appearance at
Drummondale University, the doddering old
professor is found brutally murdered. As Police
Inspector Royle (who had never actually had to
solve a crime before) probes the possible motives
of the motley crew of academics who drink their
way through the dreary days at Drummondale and as
he investigates the bizarre behaviour of some
worthy locals, a hilarious, highly satirical
portrait of down under emerges. O-R10/11 |
Bert
Royle |
| 1976 |  |
A LITTLE LOCAL
MURDER: It was the worst possible time
for murder. Radio Broadwich had come to do a
documentary on Twytching's local charm. Mrs.
Withens, self-appointed arbiter of community
affairs, was determined to see the town put its
best foot forward – a
Herculean task, what with Reverend
Tamville-Bence practising exorcisms and holding
seances ... with Mrs. Buller's voluptuous
daughter clearly in the family way without her
husband's help...with tall, elegant Alison
Mailer using all her wiles to get interviewed on
the air... and with handsome schoolmaster Jack
Edgar making eyes at flamboyant Harold Thring,
Radio Broadwich's assistant producer. But when
violent death tarnished little Twytching's snug
image, it was up to Police Inspector George
Parrish to let the skeletons out of the cottage
closets and sweep the scandals out from under
the beds... and to use what old Amos Chipweather
saw to catch a killer. R10/11
|
George
Parrish |
| 1977 |  |
BLOOD BROTHERHOOD: The Anglican
Community of St Botolph's was very peaceful, high
on the Yorkshire moors. Even its role of host to a
small symposium on the role of the Church in the
modern world was unlikely to disturb it, thought
Father Anselm, head of the Community, as he
gravely received his guests. They included a
bishop who was a well-known TV personality;
another from Africa who was black; three vicars,
ranging from trendy to traditional; a non-
denominational American with an interest in
fund-raising; and – here
the Father's gravity faltered a little –
two Norwegian lady divines. His composure was
further shattered when he discovered one of his
own community brutally murdered in his cell. Had
the intrusion of the world so far upset the
Community as to release some pent-up love or hate?
Or was it possible that one of the reverend
visitors was handy with a knife? How could one
conduct a murder enquiry in such a way that the
image of Church and community was –
well, not enhanced exactly –
but at least decently preserved? R09/11 |
DCI
Plunkett |
| 1977 |
 |
DEATH ON THE HIGH
C's: Opera singers are often described
as being larger than life, and certainly this is
true of Gaylene Ffrench. Her appetites – for
men, for booze, for attention – are gargantuan,
and her ability to irritate is similarly
outsized. So when someone electrocutes the
bombastic Australian contralto, few tears are
shed at the Northern Opera Company (though it’s
a pity her understudy’s so lousy). In fact, most
of the company members are dancing a jig, and it
falls on Superintendent Nichols to determine
which of them might have helped Gaylene along to
her just reward. The black tenor tired of being
the butt of Gaylene’s bigotry? The soprano weary
of jealous whispers in her ears? Gaylene’s many
bedroom conquests, all anxious to avoid a repeat
performance? With so many potential suspects,
Nichols has his hands full. O-R01/12
|
Superintendent Nichols |
| 1978 |
 |
UNRULY
SON (aka DEATH OF A MYSTERY WRITER): Sir
Oliver Fairleigh-Stubbs – a writer with a vast
public that loved his best-selling mystery novels,
and a small circle of family and friends who
despised him as an obese, overbearing bully – died
with distinction while sipping a special liqueur
in his luxurious library on the occasion of his
sixty-fifth birthday.What a surprise to discover
that the son who hated him most had been
bequeathed the lion’s share of his father’s
fortune…that Sir Oliver’s final manuscript,
possibly worth millions, had vanished… and that
the demise of a famous mystery writer was clearly
a case of murder. O-R12/11 |
Idwal Meredith |
| 1979 |  |
POSTHUMOUS PAPERS
(aka DEATH OF A
LITERARY WIDOW): There were two Mrs
Machins, relicts of the talented working-class
writer Walter Machin, who was just about to be
immortalised by the literary establishment. Viola
was large, overbearing and, even in her seventies,
still voluptuous. Hilda, the first (and divorced)
Mrs Machin, was perky, sharp and the guardian of
the deceased Walter's literary papers. For ten
years the two 'widows' had lived together in the
same house, not speaking to each other, but
jealously guarding his memory and literary
reputation. But before the Machin legend could
really take off, there was a fire –
and a murder. One of the Mrs Machins was silenced
for good, and slowly, from the past, emerged a
fascinating and intriguing assortment of
characters. Somewhere, in their memories of Walter
Machin, lay the catastrophic secret that had led
to murder. O-R08/94 R10/11 |
|
| 1980 |  |
DEATH IN A COLD
CLIMATE: It was midday on December 21st
in the city of Tromso when the boy was last
seen – a tall, blond boy
swathed in anorak and scarf against the Arctic
noon. After that he wasn't seen again, not until
three months later, when Professor Mackenzie's dog
started sniffing around in the snow and uncovered
a human ear – attached to a
naked corpse. Nobody knew who he was, or where he
had come from. And after three months it was
almost impossible to track down the identity of
the corpse. But Inspector Fagermo refused to give
up – and as he probed
deeper into the Arctic city he began to discover a
dangerous conspiracy of blackmail, espionage, and
cold-blooded murder. O-R03/95
R04/12 |
Jostein
Fagermo |
| 1981 |  |
SHEER TORTURE (aka DEATH BY SHEER
TORTURE): It can be a bit of an
embarrassment when your old man is done in.
Particularly, when you are a rising inspector with
CID, and hated his guts. Particularly, when your
old man was at the time subjecting himself to a
do-it-yourself version of a Spanish Inquisition
torture. And wearing spangled tights. What it
meant was that Perry Trethowan had to go back to
the home of his ancestors and do a bit of
semi-official sleuthing. Like the Sitwells and the
Mitfords, the Trethowans proved that Birth and
Artistic Talent could go together. The Trethowans,
though, made one hope it didn't happen too often.
Perry's father had been a dilettante composer so
minor that he stopped composing long before he
started decomposing. His Uncle Lawrence, head of
the family, was a poet of sorts, one of his aunts
a stage designer, another an overgrown schoolgirl
who had never grown out of her Thirties crush on
Adolf Hitler. And that's only the older
generation. Perry goes with fear and trembling
back into the lions' den, and finds that his worst
forebodings are mere shadows of the grisly
reality. R90 R11/11 |
Perry Trethowan |
| 1981 |  |
MOTHER'S BOYS
(aka DEATH OF
A PERFECT MOTHER): Lill Hodsden is a
monster. She humiliates her husband, blackmails
her lovers, browbeats her teenaged daughter, and
smothers her grown sons with a mother love that
leaves them inwardly screaming for freedom.
Vulgar and flashy herself, Lill has a way of
zeroing in on everybody else's weaknesses and
ridiculing them. She is just asking to be
murdered. And her two sons are ready to oblige.
In fact, they have it all worked out for
Saturday night. A creature of habit, Lill always
stops by the local pub on Saturday evenings
between 7:15 and 9:30 for a few pints and a
giggle. What could be easier than lying in wait
for her in a darkened alley? And who would
suspect that Lill’s supposedly devoted sons
could contemplate murder? But when Lill is found
strangled on Thursday on her way home from a
lover’s house, nobody is more surprised than her
sons. And since half the town regards the
unknown murderer as a civic hero, Chief
Inspector Dominic McHale, on his first murder
case, has more suspects than he can handle. He
also has more vanity than sense, which doesn’t
help the investigation. O-R01/12
R0/21
|
Dominic
McHale |
| 1982 |  |
DEATH AND THE
PRINCESS: Superintendent Perry Trethowan
was used to cases that involved people in high
places - but never before had he been called in to
investigate something sinister at the highest
level of all – at
Kensington Palace. A Princess –
albeit only a minuscule royal offshoot –
had been threatened, but by whom, why, and exactly
what, was uncertain. Her circle consisted mostly
of a motley set of boyfriends drawn from politics,
the stage, and sport – but
were they endangered too –
or were they part of the threat? The Princess –
fresh as morning dew and twice as treacherous –
tripped daintily through the minefield
while corpses proliferated around her. By the time
Perry Trethowan got to the bottom of the case, not
only had a murderer been unmasked but several
highly placed reputations trembled in the balance.
O-R08/94 R12/11 |
Perry Trethowan |
| 1983 |  |
THE MISSING BRONTE (aka THE CASE OF THE
MISSING BRONTE): Meeting an elderly
spinster in a cozy Yorkshire pub seemed a harmless
bit of serendipity for vacationing Scotland Yard
Superintendent Perry Trethowan. But what Miss
Edith Wing carried about in her large blue leather
handbag turned out to be nearly dangerous enough
to get them both killed. For the fragile yellowing
papers that Miss Wing showed Perry were either a
clever forgery or an unpublished Bronte. To a
scholar, an authentic manuscript would be a
priceless discovery. To a policeman like Perry, it
was an interesting opportunity for some literary
detection. But for a vicious criminal, it had
already become a powerful motive for theft,
torture... and even murder. O-R12/11 |
Perry Trethowan |
| 1983 |  |
LITTLE VICTIMS (aka SCHOOL FOR MURDER): Things
were not going well at The Burleigh School.
Under the inept headmastership of Mr Crumwallis,
the cynical and disillusioned staff attempted,
with little success, to educate the dwindling
band of boys unfortunate enough to attend this
rundown establishment. One of the brighter hopes
of the school, however, appeared to be Hilary
Frome, the headboy designate and the
headmaster’s favourite. But other members of
staff were not inclined to be taken in by this
handsome, knowing youth.Practical jokes, some
stupid, some dangerous, started to occur. And
then murder struck the fast-disintegrating
school, bringing in Superintendent Mike Pumfrey
to unravel an unedifying nest of secrets. O-R01/12
|
Mike
Pumfrey |
| 1984 |  |
A CORPSE IN A GILDED CAGE: Chetton Hall was one of the glories of Jacobean domestic architecture, and the Spenders had lived in Chetton ever since their founder had peculated the money to build it while he was the King’s Secretary of Monopolies. Over the years they had accumulated accrustations of dignity to say nothing of wealth. Which made it doubly shocking when the Earldom descended to Percy Spender, who was 'not quite', not to mention his family, who were not at all. When the family descends on Chetton for his sixtieth birthday, accompanied by various hangers-on, their main obsession is to discover his intentions for the future of the place. Hardly less interested is his man of business, and his neighbours, who feel sadly the diminished glory of the house. The Spenders, in fact have always felt like birds in a gilded cage at Chetton. Before the celebrations are over, one of the birds is a very dead duck indeed. O-R01/12 | Chief
Superintendent Hickory |
| 1984 |  |
OUT OF THE BLACKOUT: England 1941.
For reasons of security, many children from London
are evacuated to new homes in the countryside. A
group of twenty children arrives at Yeasdon
Station and among them there is an unlisted Simon
Thorn instead of a certain Terence Stope. After
much discussing and reflecting, Simon is taken to
the Cutheridge family who adopt him so that at the
age of eighteen, Cutheridge becomes Simon's
official last name. Some years later, having
studied zoology at Oxford university, Simon
returns to London and is determined to find out
the truth about his origins. After much
painstaking research and with the help of birth
announcements in newspapers and a large portion of
luck, Simon focuses his attention on a Leonard
Simmeter of 25 Miswell Terrace, EC1, London. And
so the door to a re-discovery suddenly opens for
Simon and will eventually lead him to unravel a
vicious crime that had never been detected. O-R08/95
RR11/11 RR08/18 |
|
| 1985 |  |
FETE FATALE (aka THE DISPOSAL OF THE LIVING): When Father Battersby, the Bishop's appointee to the newly vacant post of vicar in Hexton-on-Weir, turns out to be professionally celibate, the town's female population unites to force him out. As the local veterinarian's wife, Helen Kitteredge, observes, "It's the women who rule in Hexton." A vicar without a wife is unthinkable, and certainly unacceptable. Helen and her husband agree that Battersby's appearance at the upcoming church fete will put the boycott to the ultimate test. When the event, however, is halted by a most alarming murder, mere intrigue is eclipsed by genuine tragedy. O-R02/12 | |
| 1986 |  |
BODIES: Police superintendent
Perry Trethowan found London’s Soho as colourful
and full of life as ever – except for the four
corpses in a seedy photography studio. Shot
doing a layout for Bodies, a soft-porn “health and
fitness” magazine, the photographer, his
assistant, and two models had left a camera loaded
with film but no clues. Then one victim’s
obsession with pumping iron sent Trethowan into
the erotic world of body-building, where an
out-of-shape policeman would learn that bulging
biceps were beautiful and the temptations to star
in the buff in the bluest of movies could really
be murder. O-R05/95 R12/11 |
Perry
Trethowan (First appearance of Charlie Peace, not yet a policeman) |
| 1986 |  |
POLITICAL SUICIDE: When the MP for
Bootham East was fished out of the Thames, it
looked like a clear case of suicide. But as
the by-election for his successor got under way,
some very murky political waters were stirred
up. The local Labour party had been hijacked
by the Looney Left, the Tory Party had a most
unpleasant young candidate (with dubious City
connections) foisted upon it, and the Alliance
candidate had something nasty in his past he was
trying to conceal. By polling day it was very
obvious that the political suicide was no suicide
– but murder.
O-R09/95 R10/11 R08/18 |
John Sutcliffe |
| 1987 |   |
DEATH IN PURPLE
PROSE : Norway in cherry blossom time
seemed exactly the right place to hold a
conference of the World Association of Romantic
Novelists (WARN for short). Superintendent
Perry Trethowan wondered at times how he had
allowed his sister to con him into accompanying
her to the conference but he finally decided
that his role was to be one of amused detachment
and observation, most especially of the two
Queens of the Conference –
frothy, gushy, lethal Amanda Fairchild, the
British challenger, and the vast, malevolent
Lorelei Zukerman from America. What Perry had
not been prepared for was a body –
one clothed in billowing pink, with a bough of
cerry blossom carefully placed on the
corpse. It was a most unusual murder, in a
most unusual place.
aka THE CHERRY BLOSSOM CORPSE: Passionate, inflamed, searing - the vocabulary of the trade. But the words also described the irritation felt by Scotland Yard's Perry Trethowan when he was persuaded to attend the World Association of Romantic Novelists' convention in Norway. And it certainly wasn't love in the chilly Nordic air when the world's most famous purveyors of pounding hearts got together: it was jealousy, backbiting ... and homicide. The ageing but amorous queen of romance, Amanda Fairchild, had arranged a romantic tryst by the fjord only to find herself in a fatal tete-a-tete with a killer. Now the dauntless Trethowan had to discover the author whose desire was no affair of the heart ... but a more sinister matter of murder. O-R01/12 |
Perry
Trethowan (Charlie Peace, now a
policeman, appears in the final chapter) |
| 1987 |  |
THE SKELETON IN THE GRASS: It was 1936 when Sarah Causley arrived at Hallam to take up an appointment as nursery governess. The Hallams – glamorous, public spirited, generous, were to dazzle Sarah as they had so many others, bewitching her into an instant loyalty to the exciting and intellectual family. But not everyone loved the Hallams – and a cruel campaign of unpleasant practical jokes began to occur round the lovely old house, finally culminating in a bizarre and apparently senseless murder. Sarah’s bewitchment began to fade as she saw things about the Hallams she hadnt seen before. An unpleasant suspicion of hidden crime and motives came unbidden into her mind. It was not until 1941 – in the middle of the London blitz – that Sarah finally learned the truth of the muder at Hallam. O-R01/12 | Inspector
Minchip |
| 1988 |  |
AT DEATH'S DOOR: The king of novelists, Benedict Cotterel, was in his bedroom, dictating how to leave his money. The queen of the theater, Dame Myra Mason, was in the local inn, eating crow and honey. Years ago their brief affair had resulted in a daughter, Cordelia. Now she was writing a tell-all biography. Cordelia had never known her father or the half-brother who reluctantly let her into the mansion where the aged writer lived. She was, after all, planning a character assassination. But a murder? Dame Myra's presence at the inn with a new husband in tow was part of an effort to stop Cordelia's dramatic expose. No one guessed that the right cast had been assembled to play out a tragedy ... of desperate secrets and sudden death. O- R01/12 | Idwal Meredith |
| 1989 |  |
DEATH AND THE
CHASTE APPRENTICE: The Saracen’s Head
was a genuine Jacobean inn - and therefore the
perfect setting for an Arts Festival featuring a
Jacobean play (authorship a matter for dispute)
and a little-known Donizetti opera. Actors,
singers, and general hangers-on gathered
together for the joyous festivities - and
recoiled in shock when they met Des Capper,
loathsome new landlord of the Saracen's Head.
Des's hobby was ferreting in the undergrowth of
other people's lives, discovering unpleasant
secrets, and fomenting friction wherever he
could. There were quite a few artistes at the
Festival who felt an overpowering urge to kill
Des Capper, and finally someone did. But who,
and why, was one of the best kept secrets of the
Festival. O-R04/95 R02/12 |
Iain
Dundy Sgt Nettles Charlie Peace |
| 1989 |  |
DEATH OF A SALESPERSON:16 mystery stories including the office cleaning woman's revenge on the pompous professor, the insurance man's wife's one-night-stand with a hell-raising film star, the widower who finds proof of a secret life at the back of his wife's wardrobe, the ménage à trois which is nothing like it seems, and the delightful kidnap of an Italian banker. Contents: The Woman in the Wardrobe (5) , A Business Partnership (4), Little Terror (3), Breakfast Television (4+), What's in a Name? (3), Sisters (3), The Injured Party (3), Just Another Kidnap (4), Blown Up (3), A Process of Rehabilitiation (4+), Holy Living and Holy Dying (2), The Oxford Way of Death (2), Daylight Robbery (2), Happy Release (4+), Death of a Salesperson (4), My Last Girlfriend (3). *Ratings (1-5) O-R02/12 | John
Sutcliffe is mentioned in the title story |
| 1990 |  |
A CITY OF STRANGERS: The Phelans were without doubt the most unpleasant family living in Sleate. Jack Phelan was a fat, aggressive bully with a criminal record. His wife was a greasy slattern, and his children ranged from the meanly vicious to the downright loathsome. Only 12-year-old Michael Phelan seemed to have escaped the miasma of evil that affected the rest of the family. Michael might have been a changeling. When the respectable inhabitants of Wynton Lane hear that Jack Phelan has won a fortune on the pools and is planning to become their neighbour, panic sets in. At all costs the Phelans must be prevented from buying Dr Pickering's old house. The fire that rages through their council house that night is started by an oily rag pushed through the letter box. Only Jack Phelan is killed - but was the intention to kill all of them, even Michael? And as the investigation grows, all kinds of sinister facts begin to emerge about the respectable householders of Wynton Lane. O-R04/95 R03/12 | Mike
Oddie |
| 1991 |  |
A SCANDAL IN
BELGRAVIA: It was an unusual friendship –
two young men on the lowest rung of the Foreign
Office ladder. Timothy Wycliffe was grandson of a
marquis, and son of a man tipped to be the next
Foreign Secretary. Peter Proctor was a dullish,
respectable middle-aged young man from Dulwich
College. On the face of it they had little in
common, but when Timothy was bludgeoned to death
it left a life-lasting impression on 'Plod'
Proctor. Many years later the murder came back to
haunt him. For there were things unsolved,
unexplained about it, not least that although
everyone knew the murderer's name, he had never
been caught. At first idly, then with a greater
compulsion, Peter Proctor began to dig into the
old tragedy, uncovering anomalies, family
scandals, and a whole train of events that finally
led him to the murderer. O-R09/11
R10/11 |
John Sutcliffe |
| 1992 |  |
A FATAL ATTACHMENT:
Lydia Perceval was –
apparently – a charming and
gifted woman. As a successful biographer, she led
a privileged and comfortable life in her
well-ordered, luxurious country cottage. She felt
terribly sorry for her sister, married to an
unemployed drunk, mother of two sons, both of whom
had loved their adorable Aunt Lydia much more than
their parents. Lydia had a way with young people,
particularly boys. She knew how to bring out the
best in them. As it happened, her sister's two
boys had proved something of a disappointment –
Maurice had demeaned himself by going to
work in television, and Gavin, the best, had died
a hero in the Falklands War. Lydia felt a little
lost without some young people to groom into
greatness. And then she met the Bellingham boys.
It was like a replay of the past; two bright young
boys, one dark, one fair, just waiting for Lydia
to take over their lives. But before she could do
so, Lydia was strangled. The motives were subtle,
obscure. And there were very few clues. But as
Superintendent Mike Oddie started his
investigations, he began to suspect that quite a
few people hadn't liked the charming Lydia
Perceval at all. O-R06/94 R10/11 |
Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 1993 |  |
A HOVERING OF
VULTURES: What better victim in a
Robert Barnard novel than the literary poseur?
And what better place to find such a person than
in a society set up to honour the dubious
talents of Susannah and Joshua Sneddon? Not
quite in the league of the Brontes, Susannah and
Joshua toiled at their creative tasks in a
remote cottage in a tiny Yorkshire village in
the early years of this century. Neither wrote
great literature, but Susannah’s work was always
the more popular. Perhaps that's why Joshua one
day killed his sister with an axe and shot
himself in the head. Now, many years later,
there's a surprising new interest in the
Sneddons, seemingly inspired by entrepreneur
Gerald Suzman. Suzman has bought the Sneddon
home, with plans to open it as a museum and to
found a literary society known as the Sneddon
Fellowship. Sneddon fans from as far away as
America, Norway, and Japan have gathered at
Suzman's invitation for the inaugural Sneddon
Weekend. Detective Constable Charlie Peace has
come, too, intrigued by Suzman's sudden literary
interest in the obscure Yorkshire siblings.
Suzman's history indicates a far greater
affinity for wealth than for literature, so he
must have discovered an unlikely source of
profit in the Fellowship. But where? Charlie
fears that elderly American Lettie Farraday may
know too much for her own good. Lettie, who has
returned to the village of her birth for the
first time in more than fifty years, is the only
attendee who personally knew the Sneddons and
too much knowledge may be dangerous. O-R03/12
|
Charlie Peace Mike Oddie Perry Trethowan is mentioned |
| 1993 |
 |
TO DIE LIKE A
GENTLEMAN: In 1842 the young
Queen Victoria is on the throne, Robert Peel is
Prime Minister, and the landed gentry is in its
prime. At Elmstead Court, Sir Richard Hudson
rules his household with subtle tyranny. But
appearances can be deceptive, and when Miss
Frances Weyland arrives to take up her position
as Governess to the Hudson daughters, she is
impressed by the warmth of the welcome - and
flattered by the attentions of Mr Worsley,
personal tutor to Sir Richard's son and heir.
Only one person unsettles her, Sir Richard's
manservant, Joseph, who seems to wield a
sinister influence at Elmstead Court. In her
innocence, Frances cannot know that Mr Worsley's
intentions are anything but honourable. Keen to
prove herself in her duties, she lives in
ignorance of the secret plots being hatched by
those around her. But soon the deep-seated
rivalries and bitter tensions harboured by the
occupants of the house begin to surface. For the
situation is sliding rapidly towards murder as
the Hudson family and all those in their inner
circle edge towards terrible disaster. Told with
an abundant use of secret diaries and
confessional letters, To Die Like a Gentleman is
a completely original historical whodunnit.
Writing as Bernard Bastable. O-R03/12
|
|
| 1994 |  |
MASTERS OF THE HOUSE: The death of
Ellen Heenan in childbirth wasn't a complete
shock. Her doctor had warned her of the danger,
and although her older children had half expected
it, they could never have predicted that her death
would drive their father over the brink into
madness. Nor could they have known that this would
force them into the first steps in a dangerous
game – a game where his
madness must be hidden at all costs. At first
their efforts succeed beyond all expectation and
his descent into insanity is interpreted as
desperate grief. But before long the prying
begins, and the children fear the scrutiny of
Carmen O'Keefe, who seems to have her own special
reasons for wanting to penetrate through the
smoke-screen the children have set up around their
father. As her attentions become more aggressive
and insistent, they begin to wonder whether they
have grasped the full circumstances behind their
father's madness. Especially when they find a
body. O-R12/11 |
|
| 1994 |
 |
DEAD, MR MOZART: It is 1820 and
George IV has just assumed the throne. An ageing
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is intrigued by the
coronation, scenting rich pickings. As a child he
had visited England with his family in 1764, but
instead of returning to Austria and an early death
(as orthodox history relates), they stayed on,
deluded by a piece of royal generosity - the
result of a misunderstanding of guttural royal
English. Now Mozart conducts his own meretricious
rubbish at a London theatre, but dreams of having
one more 'real' opera staged before he dies.
However, the trial of George IV's wayward Queen
for adultery, before the Lords, leads Mozart into
dangerous - and indeed murderous - waters.
Insulted (most graciously) by the King, the
composer finds himself involved in disposing of an
inconvenient corpse and initiating enquiries to
uncover the murderer. Writing as
Bernard Bastable. O-R03/12 |
|
| 1995 |  |
THE BAD SAMARITAN:
When Rosemary Sheffield suddenly loses her
religious faith, it is not merely a personal
matter for she is the wife of a vicar. And when,
on a brief holiday to think things through, she
forms a sad but affectionate relationship with a
young refugee from the former Yugoslavia, she
ensures that the knives will be out for her in
her husband's parish back home in Leeds. For
charity is not the order of the day amongst the
parishioners of St Saviour's. When a
body is found after a church fete it is up to
Detective Constable Charlie Peace and his boss
Mike Oddie, to discover whether Rosemary's
spiritual crisis has led to murder, or is it
more worldly concerns that lie as the root of
the crime? O-R03/12
|
Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 1995 |
 |
TOO MANY NOTES, MR MOZART: Cursing
the luck that has made him a despised hack in a
foreign country, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - who,
contrary to established music history, stayed on
in England after his visit in 1764 - is asked to
give piano lessons to the young Princess Victoria.
It is 1830, and it seems things are looking up for
Wolfgang, still remarkably spry for his age. As
soon as the princess makes a most unusual demand
of him during her first lesson, however, he is
less sure of his good fortune. And things go from
bad to dangerous when she becomes Heir Apparent to
the throne, and seems destined to be the victim of
a tug-of-love between the new King, William IV,
and her unwise mother, the Duchess of Kent. When
the FitzClarences, the King's brood of
illegitimate children, enter the fray, and one of
the guests at a Windsor Castle reception finds
that drinking out of other people's glasses can
have fatal consequences, Mr Mozart has to face up
to the fact that someone may have designs on his
rather delightful new pupil. O-R03/12 |
|
| 1996 |  |
THE HABIT OF
WIDOWHOOD AND OTHER MURDEROUS
PROCLIVITIES:17
mystery stories ranging from the
hilarious to the heart-stopping, concerning
characters who slide unwittingly into murder as
well as those for whom it is second nature. A
young girl is brought up in seclusion by her
elderly parents who are obsessed with isolating
her from the sinfulness of life in the wicked
world. When, to secure her future, they marry
her off to an elderly widower, they set in
motion events more terrible than the most
hateful of parents could have foreseen. A woman
with an enticing sexual secret marries an
elderly gentleman - and then another and
another. It is all too easy, it seems, to get
into the habit of widowhood. A young soldier,
home from World War I, is determined to live and
love not just for himself, but for all his
fallen comrades. But in doing so he enrages a
number of husbands. A man going through a
midlife crisis meets the bully who made his life
hell at school. Some things never change, he
discovers, including the taste for inflicting
pain. And Albert Edward, Prince of Wales,
marooned in the drafty gloom of Queen Victoria's
Balmoral Castle, decides that adultery and
gambling can be almost as troubling as how to
spell words of more than one syllable. Contents:
Cupid's
Dart (4), The Habit
of Widowhood (3),
Post Mortem (4),
Soldier from the Wars Returning (3),
My Son My Son (2),
The Stuff of Nightmares (4),
Balmoralty (1),
Living with Jimmy (3),
If Looks Could Kill (3),
Happy Christmas (3),
Reader I Strangled Him (1),
The Gentleman in the Lake (3),
Dog Television (3),
The Woman at the Funeral (2),
Perfect Honeymoon (3),
Called to Judgement (3),
More Final Than Divorce (3)
*Ratings (1-5) O-R04/12
|
|
| 1997 |  |
NO PLACE OF SAFETY: When two teenagers go missing from the same school, Detective Constable Charlie Peace is puzzled, because none of their friends seem to know of any connection between them. The mystery soon solves itself: they are not homeless street kids, but they are working at a hostel for them. Charlie knows the life and crimes of such people as these two are trying to help, but he decides that, for the moment, they are safe. But will Charlie have cause to regret his decision? After all, who is the man running the hostel? What is his past and what is his motivation? And just how nasty is the local opposition to the project likely to become? As the pair continue their good work, the situation at the hostel becomes even more fraught with the appearance of an Asian girl fleeing an arranged marriage. And it isnt long before a murderous attack seems about to put an end to the whole project. O-R04/12 | Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 1998 |
 |
A MANSION AND ITS MURDER: Sarah
Jane Fearing, the sole offspring of a father who
desperately wants a male heir, has grown up in the
imposing rural mansion of one of England's most
influential banking families. At the centre of
Sarah's world stands her charming, generous uncle
Frank, the only relative who seems to have escaped
the straitjacket of ponderous respectability that
so effectively stifles the Fearing family. Frank's
rebellions afford Sarah delight and hope, until
his extravagant lifestyle leads him deeper into
debt and manoeuvres him into a disastrous
marriage. Frank's wedding to a coldly ambitious
woman produces the family's longed-for male scion,
but the parents fall to quarrels, and then to
murder. And Sarah is drawn inexorably into a
morass that threatens the survival of the entire
family. From the Belle Epoque at the end of the
nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth,
A Mansion and its Murder holds its secrets to its
last suspenseful moment, and proves again the
author's mettle as a mastermind of the traditional
mystery. Originally published writing
as Bernard Bastable. R10/11 |
|
| 1998 |  |
THE CORPSE AT THE HAWORTH TANDOORI:
The body of a young man, almost naked, in the car
park behind one of Haworths many eating
establishments marks the beginning of the case,
and it is his identity that is the first puzzle
for DC Charlie Peace and his superior, Detective
Superintendent Oddie. But before long the puzzle
that most concerns them is the nature of the
close-knit artistic community where Decland OHearn
had acted as odd-job boy. The little knot of
people seem to be united less by their ability as
painters than by a common worship of the
distinguished painter Ranulph Byatt, who seems to
prefer the adulation of his inferiors to the
judgement of his equals. Peace, searching for
clues, soon starts to wonder if there isn't a
sinister reason for this. And as the search for
the killer gathers pace, Peace and Oddie uncover a
series of dark secrets on the harsh Haworth
landscape. O-R04/12 |
Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 1999 |  |
A MURDER IN MAYFAIR (aka TOUCHED BY THE DEAD):
When Colin Pinnock becomes a junior minister in
the new Prime Minister's government, he's
understandably thrilled. Still a youngish man,
with a shining reputation among his colleagues,
he's clearly being groomed for even higher office.
Messages of congratulations flow in from near and
far. Basking in the greetings and the praise,
Colin picks one soiled postcard out of the stack
of congratulatory missives. "Who Do You Think You
Are?" it asks. Who wrote the card? How did the
person know his home address? Does the writer
think Colin is getting a big head, or do the words
carry a more profound meaning? And, taking the
question literally, who, indeed, is Colin? Who
were his real parents? What were the circumstances
of his birth? He had a happy childhood in the
north of England, but he now recalls some clues
that he might have been adopted. His mother is
dead and his father is too senile to offer any
help on family history. He'll have to find his
answers on his own. Even more puzzling, perhaps,
than Colin's origins, is a top civil servant's
shocked response when she first encounters him.
Whose image does she see in Colin's face, and what
possible link does Colin have to an infamous crime
of the past? Faced with additional threatening
messages that seem to come from somebody who knows
his every movement, Colin begins an urgent
investigation into his past and a dangerous search
for his tormentor. O-R11/11 |
|
| 2000 |  |
UNHOLY DYING (aka THE TURBULENT PRIEST): Cosmo Horrocks was over the moon. This was the juiciest story he'd had in years. In his job as an investigative journalist he spent his working days grubbing through the garbage bins of other people's lives (undeterred by the fact that his own wouldn't bear too much investigation), but this one seemed to have everything: religion – the man was a Catholic priest; sex – he was accused of impropriety with a teenage unmarried mother; money – he was thought to have channelled parish funds in her direction. All the story lacked was mystery, but when it acquired that too, Cosmo soon found himself out of his depth. The parish of St Catherine's in Shipley is torn apart by the scandal, and by the secretive processes of its investigation. The men, cynically, assume Father Pardoe is guilty, while the women mount a campaign to have his side of the story heard. The investigation, which becomes a police one, reveals dysfunctional families, shady goings-on in high places, and the brittle shell that respectability hides itself behind. When the truth is finally learned about Pardoe's supposed sins, and about the murder which they have brought in their wake, both parish and town have the wraps whipped away from their apparently happy and respectable existence. O-R04/12 | Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 2001 |  |
THE BONES IN THE ATTIC: Moving
into an upmarket new home in Leeds, rising radio
star Matt Harper is shocked to find the skeleton
of a small child in the attic. His grisly
discovery takes him back to the summer of 1969,
when he lived with his aunt only a few streets
away, reawakening dim, disquieting memories from
his childhood. While Detective Charlie Peace heads
up the nominal police investigation into the
bones, Matt's unease leads him to revisit the past
in an attempt to solve the mystery himself.
Tracking down the other members of a gang of local
children he'd once belonged to, he gradually
unearths a shared secret that has laid buried ever
since. Everyone remembers little Lily Fitch's
meetings with her older friend, and the hippie
couple's baby she wanted to resuce, but Matt can't
help feeling there's something else they're
holding back. Were the bones in the attic the
result of a tragic accident, or has time concealed
a more sinister truth? R11/11 |
Charlie Peace |
| 2002 |  |
THE MISTRESS OF ALDERLEY: Actress
Caroline Fawley is thoroughly enjoying life. Her
wealthy lover, supermarket owner Marius Fleetwood,
has set her and her children up in a grand house
in the Yorkshire village of Marsham. Carolines
frequent television work has made her relatively
famous and she is something of a celebrity in the
village – not to mention
the romantic weekend visits from Marius, which
provide something for the locals to gossip about.
She is gradually becoming accepted in the village
and has even agreed to host the annual fête. Her
youngest children are both happy at their school,
and her eldest daughter is about to take the
starring role in Verdis La Forza del Destino at
the Leeds Playhouse. Everything about her life
seems perfect and she has taken to her new role at
the mistress of Alderley with relish. But
Carolines idyllic life is shattered when a young
man looking remarkably like Marcus unexpectedly
turns up on her doorstep. Within a few weeks
Marius has gone missing and it isnt much longer
before a body turns up. R11/11 |
Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 2003 |  |
A CRY FROM THE DARK:
Bettina Whitelaw is a grand dame of the English
literary scene. Approaching eighty, with a
beautiful flat in Holland Park and a comfortable
income, her life is not dissimilar to that of her
wealthy elegant neighbours. But her background
most certainly is. Brought up in Bundaroo, a small
town in the Australian outback, Bettina’s
childhood was dominated by the relentlessly
blazing sun, by the long daily walk to school, and
the simmering animosities of small-town life. Aged
sixteen, Bettina managed to escape to begin her
literary career in Europe. But now, more than
sixty years later, her past is coming back to
haunt her. As she embarks upon the painful process
of writing her memoirs, images from her childhood
begin to resurface. And when her former
housekeeper is the victim of a violent attack,
Bettina begins to realise that she herself is in
serious danger – a
danger that has its roots in a dusty outback town.
R09/11 |
|
| 2004 |  |
THE GRAVEYARD
POSITION: After a twenty-year absence,
Merlyn Cantelo returns to Leeds to attend his late
aunt Clarissa's funeral. Far from being welcomed
back into the fold of his large and quarrelsome
family, he is viewed by many with suspicion and
distrust especially since his timely reappearance
has thwarted the prospect of a tidy inheritance.
However, all is more complex than it seems. The
teenage Merlyn only fled his home at the vehement
insistence of his sometimes clairvoyant aunt, who
foresaw for him a life blighted by violence and
death. Moreover, the root of this danger
supposedly lies somewhere within the family.
Merlyn knows that if he is to discover whether his
aunt’s fears were justified, he must come to terms
with his tragic past and delve into the murky
history of the Cantelo family. R08/11 |
|
| 2005 |
WAITING
FOR NEMESIS: Short Story
O-R08/12 |
||
| 2005 |  |
DYING FLAMES:
Graham Broadbent is a successful novelist, enjoys
a quiet life of writing and occasionally meeting
up with old friends. On the evening of one such
occasion, when he is due to be special guest at
his elderly ex-teacher’s reunion dinner, a rather
intriguing surprise arrives at his door in the
form of Christabel, a pretty blonde 19-year old.
“Hello, Dad” are her first words as he opens the
door to her. To his knowledge, Graham has no
children and he is certain that he can’t be the
girl’s father, even though her mother – the
small-time actress Peggy Somers, whom he briefly
knew at school – has filled her head since
childhood with the ridiculous notion. There is
every reason why Graham should do nothing about
this strange intrusion in his life. He knows he
should just send the girl away and forget all
about the incident. And yet all sorts of
irrational urges make him act against his own
common sense and he simply can’t stop himself
getting involved. As he becomes ever more
embroiled in the lives of Christabel, her brother
and her fantasist mother, Graham is forced to take
a trip down memory lane. And when Peggy is found
strangled on Brightlingsea mud flats, Graham knows
he must look into the dying flames of their past
life and find her killer. R08/11 |
|
| 2007 |  |
A FALL FROM GRACE: When Detective
Charlie Peace attains the rank of inspector, he
decides to relocate to the sleepy town of Slepton
Edge, along with his pregnant wife, Felicity, and
daughter, Carola. His dream of moving, however,
can only become reality with the financial
assistance of his stubborn father-in-law, Rupert
Coggenhoe, a mid-selling novelist and the
district's most popular widower. Unfortunately for
Charlie, Rupert agrees to provide the money but on
the strict condition that he moves in with them,
or to a house nearby. With a heavy heart, Charlie
accepts the offer and purchases two neighbouring
houses, hoping that the cosy village community
will warm his somewhat frosty family. However, a
short time after arriving, whilst taking a walk in
the neighbourhood, Charlie and Felicity encounter
a group of children chanting and jeering outside a
home. Strangely, the residents are a retired
elderly couple who have just recently moved to
Slepton Edge and cannot explain the children's
reactions. Stranger still, the children are well
organised, and the basis of some of their chants
are lines from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". Then a
mysterious death disturbs the village calm and the
network of neighbourhood gossip emerges as both
Charlie's greatest ally and the biggest obstacle
as he seeks to uncover secrets buried deep within
the tightly knit community. R09/11 |
Charlie
Peace Mike Oddie |
| 2008 |  |
LAST POST: May
McNabb lived for only a few months after her
retirement. She died of the breast cancer which
she'd kept secret from Eve, her daughter. Her life
had been devoted to her job – she was the
much-respected headmistress of a local school and
it was obvious from the flood of condolence
letters that she would be greatly missed. Eve had
hoped that they'd have time together once May
retired – time for her to get to know her mother,
the private person, rather than the headmistress.
Amongst the pile of letters is one from someone
who obviously doesn't know that May is dead and
when Eve reads it she's shocked to find that her
mother has been hiding a secret which would have
rocked the local community had it become known.
Eve decides that she must find the writer. R09/11 |
|
| 2009 |  |
THE KILLINGS ON
JUBILEE TERRACE: Meet the cast of Jubilee Terrace,
one of the most popular soap operas on British
television; from the archaic Lady Wharton to hot
young thing Dawn Kerridge, the show is a favourite
for the whole family. Recently, however, Vernon
Watts, aka Bert Porter (one of the
longest-standing members of the cast), died
suddenly of a heart attack. Terrible as his death
was, it wasn't without its benefits, and those in
the production team were quick to make the most of
the opportunity. As news of Vernon's untimely
demise spread, bringing vacant spots to fill in
the soap's scripts, the show's bosses decide to
bring back an old character for a major plotline.
The notorious Cyril Wharton, played by the equally
infamous Hamish Fawley, is all set to return,
despite the disapproval of the remaining cast. But
when a suspicious letter emerges raising questions
about Vernon's supposed 'natural death' and an
arson attack kills two more of the cast, it would
appear something more sinister is afoot. The
script-writers are clearly not the only ones
capable of killing off characters ... The lines
between fact and fiction become hard to define in
the latest gripping mystery from the ever-popular,
award-winning Robert Barnard. R09/11 |
Charlie Peace |
| 2010 |  |
A STRANGER IN THE
FAMILY: At the age of three, Kit
Philipson was abducted whilst on holiday with his
family in Italy. He grew up adored by his adopted
parents but as his mother lay dying she told him
her terrible secret and gave him the name and
address of his real mother. Isla Novello is
thrilled to have her long-lost son back but not
all of the family are happy to welcome Kit back
into the fold. They’re concerned about their
inheritance now their brother is back on the
scene. And why are they all so reluctant for him
to investigate his disappearance all those years
ago? Kit is determined to find out the truth about
his abduction and the murky motives that lay
behind it. His search for the truth will see him
questioning the morality of all those near and
dear to him and take him on an epic journey across
Europe and back in time to the horrors of Nazi
Germany. R09/11 |
|
| 2011 |  |
THE ROGUE'S GALLERY: How far would a child go to rid himself of a despised parent? Or a man of the cloth to be elected pope? From murderous ministers and conniving cardinals to the dark imagination of a schoolboy and the suspicions of an ageing Mr Mozart, this unique collection of Robert Barnard's highly acclaimed short stories takes the reader on a journey of murder, mystery and intrigue with some of his finest - and darkest - literary creations. Including the Crime Writers Award winner Sins of Scarlet, a story of sudden death in the Vatican, this compelling collection proves that, whether re-imagining the life of cultural icons or spying an opportunity for morbid crimes amidst events grand and domestic, novelist Robert Barnard is the master of the short mystery story. Contents: Rogue's Gallery (2)*, The New Slavery (3), Sins of the Scarlet (1), Family Values (4+), Mother Dear (4+), The Fall of the House of Oldenborg (1-), Where Mongrels Fear to Tread (1), The Path to the Shroud (2+), Lovely Requiem Mr Mozart (3), Incompatibles (3), Time for a Change (4+), A Slow Way to Di (3), Last Days of the Hols (4), A Political Necessity (4+). *Ratings (1-5). R01/12 | |
| 2012 |  |
A CHARITABLE BODY: What an
honour - to become trustee of an English stately
home museum. Yorkshire Detective Inspector
Charlie Peace's wife, Felicity, is initially
thrilled when she's asked to join the board that
oversees Walbrook Manor, an eighteenth-century
mansion that's now part of a charitable trust.
She's in for some surprises. With its shabby
salons and drafty hallways, Walbrook shows signs
of the financial burden it caused its recent
owners, members of the related Quarles and
Fiennes families, known more for feuds than for
affectionate familial ties. They are known also
for shadowy intrigues, great and small, some of
which may emerge now that Walbrook and its
archives are open to the public. The revelations
could be devastating ... and dangerous. Rupert
Fiennes and Sir Stafford Quarles represent two
lines of Walbrook's lords of the manor. Rupert
seems relieved to have relinquished the estate
to charitable hands, while Sir Stafford clings
with perhaps unseemly pride to his position as
chairman of the Walbrook Manor Trust Board. A
tentative peace reigns, but when the wreck of a
car and the remains of a body turn up in a
nearby lake, it soon becomes clear that one of
Walbrook's grimmest secrets may date to the
years between the two world wars and may involve
something much worse than mere malice. With
police resources focused on more timely cases,
Charlie and Felicity are left to discover that
old sins are never forgotten, that “family”
means more than a slot on an ancestral tree, and
that sometimes there can be a good reason for
murder. R06/12
|
Charlie Peace |
| Home Page
Authors Menu Email-me@chaseside.org.uk |
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