A Ghost in the Machine

Badger's Drift is an 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.

Actors do love their dramas, and the members of the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society are no exception. Passionate love scenes, jealous rages? they?re better than a paycheck (not that anyone one in this production of Amadeus is getting one). But even the most theatrically minded must admit that murdering the leading man in full view of the audience is a bit over the top. Luckily, Inspector Tom Barnaby ? first seen in The Killings at Badger's Drift - is in that audience, and he's just the man to find the killer. With so many dramas playing out, there's no shortage of suspects, including secret lovers and jealous understudies galore. Ms. Graham tweaks her collection of community-theater artistes and small-town drama queens with merciless delight until the curtain falls on the final page.

The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse has provided the citizens of Compton Dando with splendid fodder for gossip, prompting speculation of arcane rituals and bizarre sexual practices. But with the murder of the commune's leaders, the rumor-mill goes into overdrive. It's the most exciting thing to happen in Compton Dando since three boys burned down the bus shelter. In trying to solve those murders, Chief Inspector Barnaby is less excited than exasperated. The residents of the Windhorse commune may have been seeking the simple life, but they're all concealing complicated pasts - or past lives.

It's clear to most members of Midsomer Worthy's Writers' Circle that asking bestselling author Max Jennings to talk to them is a little ambitious. Less clear are the reasons for secretary Gerald Hadleigh's fierce objections to seeing the man - a face from his past - again. Astonishingly, Jennings accepts the invitation but, before the night is out, Gerald is dead.

Summoned to investigate, Chief Inspector Barnaby finds that Gerald's life is as much of a mystery to his neighbours as his violent death. The key is surely their illustrious guest speaker - but where is he now?

When bored young housewife Simone Hollingsworth misses bell-ringing practice-her latest effort to find something to do-no one is surprised. In fact, if old Mrs. Molfrey, her neighbor, didn't report it to Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby, Simone's disappearance might have gone unrecorded in Fawcett Green. But ever Barnaby isn't concerned-until a body is found.

Soon Barnaby is uncovering the passionate entanglements beneath the placid surface of Fawcett Green-and perhaps jeopardizing his career. Now, if he misconstrues the clue buried in Simone's garden-and a subtlety of human behavior his experienced eye should spot-a brutal killer may go free...

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.

Buch

In dem kleinen englischen Dorf Compton Dando beäugt man die neuen Bewohner des Herrenhauses mit großem Mißtrauen. Einst residierte hier ein Günstling von Elizabeth I., doch nun hat sich in dem Haus eine exotische Truppe von New-Age-Aposteln niedergelassen, die keinen Kontakt zu den übrigen Dorfbewohnern pflegen und sich auch sonst kaum in das Bild von Compton Dando fügen. Sie kommunizieren mit Geistern, schicken ihren Astralleib zur Venus, und es würde auch niemanden überraschen, sie nachts auf Besen durch die Luft reiten zu sehen. So erstaunt es die Leute noch weniger, als ein Mitglied der Gemeinschaft tot aufgefunden wird. Zwar wird das Ganze zur allgemeinen Enttäuschung als Unfall bewertet, aber wer weiß ... Und tatsächlich gibt es schon bald den nächsten Todesfall zu beklagen. Für Chief Inspector Barnaby entwickelt sich der Fall rasch zum verworrensten seiner Laufbahn, und die bizarren Verhältnisse im Herrenhaus machen ihm die Arbeit auch nicht leichter. Besonders undurchsichtig ist allerdings ein Fremder im Herrenhaus, der reiche und mächtige Wirtschaftstycoon Guy Gamelin, der mit allen Mitteln versucht, seine Tochter Suhami - in ihrem früheren Leben Sylvie genannt - der Kultgemeinde zu entreißen ...

Autorin

Caroline Graham wurde in den dreißiger Jahren in Warwickshire geboren. Nach ihrer Ausbildung war sie einige Zeit bei der englischen Marine, leitete später eine Heiratsvermittlung und arbeitete während der sechziger Jahre an einem Theater. 1970 begann sie mit dem Schreiben, arbeitete zunächst als Journalistin bei BBC und Radio London, später wandelte sie sich zur Hörspiel- und Drehbuchautorin. Caroline Grahams erster Roman erschien 1982, seither hat sie neben zahlreichen Kriminalromanen auch zwei Kinderbücher verfaßt.

Die Originalausgabe erschien 1992 unter dem Titel »Death in Disguise« bei Headline Book Publishing PLC, London