A Ghost in the Machine

The latest entry to date in Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murder series featuring the bilious Chief Inspector Barnaby and the hapless Sergeant Troy might be more aptly titled 'Inheritance of Loss' for the sweeping way in which it examines the sinister consequences of a windfall.

Mallory Lawson is just about at wits' end -- financially and psychically -- as principal of a failing inner-city comprehensive, when his favourite aunt dies and leaves behind a sizable legacy of property and cash. Mallory's wife, Kate, sees an opportunity to pursue her dream of rescuing undiscovered but truly literary novelists from the maw of obscurity. Their daughter, Polly, sees her chance to get out of crippling debt, and perhaps even to profit at the other end.   

But the given name, A Ghost in the Machine (2004),  isn't bad, either. In this case, it comes from the bizarre collection of instruments of ancient warfare assembled and put on display in the home of Dennis Brinkley, the Lawson's otherwise uneccentric solicitor and accountant. When the massive catapult goes wobbly and winds up killing Dennis, more than one resident of Forbes Abbot is called to explain.

Fans of Caroline Graham will find many familiar features to admire in A Ghost in the Machine, including an unflinching realism of both setting and character studded with elements of the bizarre: Forbes Abbot's own Church of the Near at Hand, in which one medium claims she's communed with Dennis's killer is only one small example. The naked greed of the Lawson's daughter, Polly, will also make the reader sit up and take note.

Miss Lemon must report, however, a few small flaws that mar the perfection of this mystery. The narrative is quite bloated, and the reader finds herself more than 150 pages in before the first murder occurs. It isn't until page 250 or so that Inspector Barnaby makes his (now long awaited) appearance. And more than one character is a bit overdrawn in her human frailty. Carey's bereaved companion, Benny, for example, is hardly more complex than the village idiot of yore. And Kate, while wholly believable, is a bit too sanctimonious for Miss Lemon's taste.

But these are small quibbles and in no way prevent Miss Lemon from recommending A Ghost in the Machine as a thoroughly entertaining summer read.

The Killings at Badger's Drfit

Miss Lemon was pleasantly surprised at how much she recently enjoyed reading two entries in Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders series, which feature the worldly Chief Inspector Barnaby and his sometimes surly partner, Sergeant Troy.

The duo from Causton CID make their debut in The Killings at Badger's Drift, with Badger's Drift being a quaint little English village not so unlike another fictional scene of murder among the tea-sipping set: Flaxborough.

In Badger's Drift, a spinster English teacher on the trail of a ghost orchid spots something among the flora that's far more sensual -- and scandalous.

And more than one resident of Badger's Drift proves willing to go to any length to keep Miss Simpson's find a secret.

In Written in Blood, the fourth entry in the Midsomer series, the Midsomer Worthy writer's group gets more material than it ever could have hoped for after one of its founding members is found bludgeoned to death after a key meeting.

What binds both of these novels together, beyond the recurring characters, is Ms. Graham's clever way of revealing the dank and twisted recesses that accompany the human condition. Everyone in these stories, it seems, has something to hide -- if not something of which to be outright ashamed.

Ms. Graham also has an exceptional sense of humor, and quite frankly, a gift for delicious satire. Whether she's skewering the absurdities of post-modern theatre (viz, Brian Clapton's "Slanghwang for Five Mute Voices" in Written in Blood) or Mrs. Barnaby's complete and total lack of culinary skill, Miss Lemon promises you that you will laugh, aloud and often, while reading her work.

Cats and dogs also make excellent characters in the Midsomer series. The author makes an Irish wolfhound and a stray cat called Kilmowsky come more vividly to life than entire casts of characters featured in weaker novels that Miss Lemon has read.

In sum, she thinks that if her readers enjoy a cracking good murder with their afternoon tea, then they will enjoy just about anything by Caroline Graham.