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Charlie Leathers was not the most popular man in the charming English village of Ferne Basset, but few people seemed to hate him enough to murder him. Still, that was his fate one night, and it brings Inspector Barnaby to the scene to investigate. What Barnaby doesn't know is that before his death, Charlie witnessed what might have been the suicide--or murder--of a young woman whose troubles with the law have landed her in the home of a local retired minister and his none-too-pleased wife. Now a man is dead, a girl is missing, and a town is in chaos as long-kept secrets begin to unravel, with deadly repercussions.
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Actors do love their dramas, and the members of the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society are no exception. Passionate love scenes, fits of ego, jealous rages, operatic reconciliations--put together, they’re better than a paycheck, which is good thing, because no one in this production of Amadeus is getting one. However, even the most theatrically minded have to admit that murdering the leading man in full view of the audience is a bit over the top. Luckily, Inspector Tom Barnaby is in that audience, and while he may lack certain skills as a theater critic, he’s just the man to figure out who removed the tape from the “prop” straight-razor, causing the star to slit his own throat downstage-center. With so many dramas playing out, there’s no shortage of motives or suspects, including the star’s embittered ex-wife and faithless widow, plus secret lovers and jealous understudies galore. Ms. Graham, a former actress, tweaks her collection of community-theater artistes and small-town drama queens with merciless delight, and the reader’s only regret will be that, eventually, the curtain must come down on the final page. The 2nd Inspector Barnaby Mystery...

Simon Hannford is in need of some fast money, and murder seems the obvious solution. Specifically, a 1930s Murder Mystery Weekend, to be held at Madingly Grange, his aunt's superbly hideous gothic mansion. Simon and his sister are meant to be house-sitting, but surely Aunt Maude would not begrudge them the chance to earn a few nearly honest shekels. Ah, the confidence of youth! Simon's grand plans quickly go awry, beginning with the guess - each one dottier than the last - and moving on to the staff, hired on the cheap and with larcenous plans of their own. And when an actual body turns up, deprived of actual life, Simon's charade of detection is suddenly forced to begin in earnest....

Badger’s Drift is the ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster with a nice line in homemade cookies. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up an unseemly fuss, loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Tom 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. Badger’s Drift marks Barnaby’s debut....