Chief Inspector Barnaby and his faithful sidekick, Sergeant Troy, investigate doings at an exotic New Age commune and find themselves in a whirlpool of murder and mistaken identities. 25,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.
From Publishers Weekly
Murder in a country manor inhabited by a cult of mystics tests the patience and skills of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, last seen in Murder at Madingley Grange . After the death of cult member Jim Carter is ruled an accident, various residents of the Lodge of the Golden Windhorse in the English village of Compton Dando go about their normal lives--communing with the spirits, astral-planing to the planet Venus, holding "psychic weekends." One event looms, however: a scheduled visit by financier Guy Gamelin, a ruthless robber-baron and father of cult member and heiress Suhami, known as Sylvie Gamelin in her earlier life. Following Gamelin's unsuccessful attempt to reconcile with Suhami, the Master of the lodge is killed by a knife thrown during a psychic regression by one of the cultists. Barnaby's investigation uncovers a variety of suspects and discrepancies: Suhami accuses her father; several of the residents, including the Master, prove to be other than they claim; a retarded boy holds important information but cannot speak about it. Graham's competent procedural works most effectively as a wickedly acid yet sympathetic portrayal of a group of society's misfits seeking comfort and a place in the world.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The "Chief Inspector Barnaby" series continues as Barnaby and partner Troy investigate murder in a small English commune. The usual witty prose and peculiar characters apply.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Chief Inspector Barnaby and his faithful sidekick, Sergeant Troy, investigate doings at an exotic New Age commune and find themselves in a whirlpool of murder and mistaken identities. 25,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.
From Publishers Weekly
Murder in a country manor inhabited by a cult of mystics tests the patience and skills of Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, last seen in Murder at Madingley Grange . After the death of cult member Jim Carter is ruled an accident, various residents of the Lodge of the Golden Windhorse in the English village of Compton Dando go about their normal lives--communing with the spirits, astral-planing to the planet Venus, holding "psychic weekends." One event looms, however: a scheduled visit by financier Guy Gamelin, a ruthless robber-baron and father of cult member and heiress Suhami, known as Sylvie Gamelin in her earlier life. Following Gamelin's unsuccessful attempt to reconcile with Suhami, the Master of the lodge is killed by a knife thrown during a psychic regression by one of the cultists. Barnaby's investigation uncovers a variety of suspects and discrepancies: Suhami accuses her father; several of the residents, including the Master, prove to be other than they claim; a retarded boy holds important information but cannot speak about it. Graham's competent procedural works most effectively as a wickedly acid yet sympathetic portrayal of a group of society's misfits seeking comfort and a place in the world.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The "Chief Inspector Barnaby" series continues as Barnaby and partner Troy investigate murder in a small English commune. The usual witty prose and peculiar characters apply.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A third ramble through the village for Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy (Murder at Madingley Grange, 1991; Death of a Hollow Man, 1989) giddily blends homage and satire in the goings-on at the Manor House in Compton Dando, where a wacko bunch of spiritualists/charlatans/disciples have taken up residence. An accidental fall kills off monkish Jim Carter and, months later, while Suhami's millionaire estranged dad Guy Gamelin and addicted mom Felicity are visiting, the Master himself is skewered with a kitchen knife during May's past-lives regression. Are the murders connected? Do they tie in with Suhami's birthday wish to cede her trust fund to the Master's plan--and his refusal of it? For Barnaby and Troy, sorting through interviews with healers, channelers, and their attendant mumbo-jumbo is not easy--nor is learning their pre- enlightenment felony-conviction surnames--and there will be a fatal heart seizure and a lethal poke with a crowbar before all the ends tie up and the angels guarding the signs of the zodiac, as well as the requirements of the vintage mystery, are so gloriously appeased. Wonderfully funny, with such solid, traditional underpinnings as good plotting, judiciously dropped clues, and a luminescent turn of phrase: a likely-to-be New Age classic. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.