The Killings at Badger's Drift: A Midsomer Murders Mystery 1 (Inspector Barnaby, #1) (Midsomer Murders)

by Caroline Graham

'Simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie' The Sunday Times

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 by Caroline Graham, 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.

If you love Agatha Christie, M C Beaton and James Runcie's The Grantchester Mysteries, you won't be able to get enough of the Midsomer Murders mysteries.

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

• ISBN10: 147224365X
• ISBN13: 9781472243652
• Publish Date: 20 October 2016 (first published 5 November 1987)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Imprint: Headline Book Publishing
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Cameron Trost]

So many years after first discovering The Killings at Badger's Drift on TV, I decided to give the original novel a go. The long and short of it is that the book misses out on matching the spellbinding atmosphere and quirkiness of the Midsomer Murders series by a country mile. We have Barnaby and Troy, whose personalities are quite different from those of their onscreen incarnations, and that was an aspect I quite liked; Barnaby is more caustic and overweight and our redheaded Troy more abrupt and "common". The atmosphere is there, with great descriptions of village life, cottages, and flowers in rural England, and the characters are delightfully stereotypical, which really is the point, isn't it? The unravelling of the mystery, however, ought to have been more developed in the book. There are three murders solved at the end of the book. The identity of the culprit/s wasn't surprising and the solution wasn't particularly clever; it was rather convoluted in fact.

In summary, as is often the case with well-known mysteries since the Golden Age, the story was interesting but the mystery itself weak. I probably won't go out of my way to read more of Caroline Graham's work. Do you know of other authors with similar settings but a strong fair-play mystery at the centre of the plot? Do let me know.

[nitzan_schwarz]

I found out about this book series when I started watching Midsomer Murders on Netflix (which, by the way, is an excellent show!).

And you know what? I think the book is just as good as the series. The things I like more about the series balance out with the things I like better in the book and it's just kinda fun. Although I kind of wish I had read the book first, just so I'd have the urgency of figuring out who'd dun it.

Things I like better in the series:
> No focus on outer appearance. In that regard, this book feels old. The narrative really fixates on how people look, kind of designating the ugly folks to be alone, used and unloved, and I was kind of over how the book lamented on Katherine's beauty. I got it, she's gorgeous, move on. On the other hand, the book DOES do a good job of making it pretty clear that outer beauty does not equal the inner one, and that some of the ugliest people are also the prettiest. Still, I much preferred the way the series didn't really dwell on that matter.

Thins I am CONFUSED about (in terms of my feelings)
> Barnaby and Troy.
Here's the thing. I really like the Barnaby and Troy of the series. I love how Barnaby likes to torture Troy with tasks and snipes because Troy can be a right jerk (of the homophobic verity) but also they balance each other and allow each other to grow. I like how sympathetic Barnaby is and what not.
BUT... Barnaby and Troy of the books are much more nuanced. You get to kind of see what background Troy is coming from and what leads to his thoughts, which makes me excited to see him grow. We get to see that Barnaby wasn't always the person he is today, and he still occasionally fights with it. We get to see him get really ANGRY, and we get to see him makes mistakes and even though I like the Barnaby and Troy of the show better, I have no doubt THESE Barnaby and Troy are much rounder, fuller, more fleshed out characters. Does it make sense? No.