A Murder in Mayfair

Can the truly rich get away with murder or is there always a price?

Two days in May bring Colin Pinnock's career to a peak. His party wins a stunning election victory and he wins a new government office. What a pity that among the congratulations pouring in lurks one grubby card asking: "Who do you think you are?"; Is this someone trying to put him down a peg, or is it someone holding damaging information? Come to think of it, could it just be that Colin's parents are not what they appear? As he probes, he's led back in time to an old political scandal and a murder case ushering a politician out of office, and out of sight ever after. Soon events in the present start tangling with those of the past and Colin finds himself facing something worse than the toppling of his career; his life is in danger.

Barnard mixes fact with surmise over an actual 1980s murder case. No one does this kind of story better than the crafty master of mayhem, winner of the Nero Wolfe and Golden Handcuff Awards, as witnessed in the brilliant A Scandal in Belgravia ($14.95).

Echo Magazine

Sparkling with intelligence, and emphasizing character over action (without sacrificing plot…You’ll be dazzled and delighted by the roundhouse punch of an ending—one which you should have seen coming, but probably won’t.

Robert Barnard, who, with his wife Louise, currently makes his home in Yorkshire, was born in Essex on 23 November, 1936. Educated at the Royal Grammar School in Colchester and at Balliol College, Oxford, taking his Ph.D. from the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1972, he spent many years as a distinguished academic while establishing himself as one of today’s most distinguished crime writers. His fascination with the pure detective story is evident in his many novels and short stories, as is his remarkable catholicity of tastes. The Guest of Honor at 1998’s Malice Domestic mystery conference, recipient of the CWA’s Golden Handcuffs Award, several times nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Barnard maintains he writes only to entertain. It is hardly fair that a man aso gifted as a writer should be equally skilled as a speaker, but so it is. Barnard has graced many literary events, delivered many fine lectures, and generously boosted the works of authors he admires. Nowhere is his won talent to deceive better showcased than in his 1991 clasic, A Scandal in Belgravia.