Rating: 5/5
Review:
A very enjoyable read
I have enjoyed all of the books in this series very much –
and far more than I expected to. I grew tired of the Midsomer Murders TV series
a long time ago, but the books are actually very different in tone and
character from what the series became. They are very good novels of character
with crime as their plot drivers.
In Death of a Hollow Man, Barnaby is dragged along to an amateur dramatic performance and ends up investigating a dramatic death. However, at least the first third of the book is scene-setting and the establishing of characters, and it is this which makes the books such a pleasure for me. She writes very well with a fine understanding of her characters and their motivations and there is genuine psychological insight here. She paints them with insight and a penetrating wit, making this far more than the collection of rather hollow stereotypes which sometimes go to make up the characters in the TV programmes. It is this which makes the books so worthwhile; she paints some scathing (and sometimes very funny) portraits but others with genuine compassion and depictions of goodness, all of which I found very realistic.
In Death of a Hollow Man, Barnaby is dragged along to an amateur dramatic performance and ends up investigating a dramatic death. However, at least the first third of the book is scene-setting and the establishing of characters, and it is this which makes the books such a pleasure for me. She writes very well with a fine understanding of her characters and their motivations and there is genuine psychological insight here. She paints them with insight and a penetrating wit, making this far more than the collection of rather hollow stereotypes which sometimes go to make up the characters in the TV programmes. It is this which makes the books so worthwhile; she paints some scathing (and sometimes very funny) portraits but others with genuine compassion and depictions of goodness, all of which I found very realistic.
As always with Caroline Graham, the plotting is very good
and she weaves a beguiling spell which hooked me in. It's quite a long way from
the slightly twee whodunit feel of the TV series – especially in the character
of Sergeant Troy who is no loveable sidekick but a lecherous, ignorant bigot
with a strong line in unfunny, unpleasant jokes.
The prose is a pleasure to read, with plenty of pithy phrases; it carries you along very nicely without ever getting in the way of the story. I can recommend this very warmly as a very good, involving novel of character as well as being a very enjoyable crime mystery.
The prose is a pleasure to read, with plenty of pithy phrases; it carries you along very nicely without ever getting in the way of the story. I can recommend this very warmly as a very good, involving novel of character as well as being a very enjoyable crime mystery.
No comments:
Post a Comment