Friday's "Forgotten" Books - The Killings at Badger's Drift

Caroline Graham (born in the UK in 1931) had what you would definitely call a varied background, including leaving school at age 14 to work in a factory, a stint in the Navy, professional dancer, actress, journalist and scriptwriter for radio plays followed by television work. But her desire to write novels led her to publish the romance novel Fire Dance in 1982 when she was in her 50s, followed by several other books that had  modest success.

In 1987 she published her first crime fiction novel, The Killings at Badger's Drift, which introduced DCI Tom Barnaby and Sergeant Gavin Troy and won the Macavity Award for "Best First Novel" (in addition to being nominated for the same honor by the Anthony and Agatha Awards). In 1990, the Crime Writers' Association selected Badger's Drift as one of the top hundred crime novels of all time.

The DCI Barnaby series was popular enough to spawn six more installments, but it wasn't until ITV came calling that the fortunes of Graham (and Barnaby) really took off. The televised series Midsomer Murders, based on Graham's books and starring John Nettles, began with an adaptation of Badger's Drift in 1997 and is still going strong with new episodes 15 years later. Graham herself has written many of those episodes, but several other writers have also contributed, including Anthony Horowitz (the creator of Foyle's War, among many other works). Graham's ultimate success prompted her to achieve another dream, an advanced degree in Writing for the Theatre at Birmingham University that she obtained at the age of 60.

The Killings at Badger's Drift is set in an idyllic English village of that name filled with stereotypical characters including vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster who taught almost everyone in town. When the spinster dies, everyone believes it was natural causes—except for her closest friend, Miss Lucy Bellringer, who is convincing enough that Chief Inspector Barnaby orders an autopsy. When the coroner finds the woman died of hemlock-laden wine, Barnaby and Sargeant Troy begin to peel away layers of scandals and festering resentments in the town that provides them with plenty of suspects. And then, the murderer strikes again, leaving a woman's bloody corpse to be found by her son, the local undertaker...

Caroline Graham manages to channel the Golden Age mysteries and preserve the same small-town English village milieu popularized by Agatha Christie, while throwing in modern touches and a little more violence and sex. Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy are polar opposites and both well-drawn—Barnaby the conservative, thoughtful, married officer with a dry wit, and Troy, the young, handsome, know-it-all. Publishers Weekly said that "Graham makes the characters humanly believable in her witty and tragic novel, a real winner," while the Washington Post noted "The characters are strong, with a decidedly dark side, and the plot is twisted enough to stump the most astute."

The settings and descriptions are also detailed, astute and quite fun to read, as in this excerpt:

She was very, very fat. She spread outwards and towered upwards. At least a quarter of her height seemed to be accounted for by her hair, which was a rigid pagoda-like structure: a landscape of peaks and waves, whorls and curls ending in a sharp point like an inverted ice-cream cone. It was the colour of butterscotch instant whip. She wore a great deal of makeup in excitable colours and a lilac caftan, rather short, revealing bolstery legs and tiny feet. The chief inspector fielded her welcoming glance, direct and sharp as a lancet, and introduced himself.

This is a wonderful introduction to Graham, to Barnaby and even to the TV program, although those episodes have veered away from the original material a bit. It's a pity there were only seven books in the series.

Comments

[John]

I love this book. Origianl mystery, wicked humor and satire, and a gasp inducing surprise ending. Being an ex-Brit Lit student I should've figured it all out, but she fooled me. The brilliant clues are all there in the first couple of pages. It's a real rule breaker on so many levels and it's a shame that Graham never really surpassed it. For me it will always be her best book in the Midsomer series. I recommend it all the time as one of the best in contemporary crime fiction.

If only the series retained some of her incisive criticism of the narrow mindedness of English villages and kept the brutish chauvinism in Sgt. Troy who is much too cute and likeable in the TV series for my tastes.

[BV Lawson]

I agree with your comments, John (although I haven't read every book in the series); the TV changes may not be her doing - once producers or networks get hold of your creation, sometimes you have to be willing to let them alter elements to please the Powers That Be. At least, she was able to maintain a little bit of control by being a contributing writer.

[Skywatcher]

It's always seemed to me that although they have had to make changes to the letter of the books, they have kept true to their spirit. Even all of these years in, there is still a strong satirical element in most of the scripts.

Just for the record, MIDSOMER MURDERS is not a BBC programme. It's made by ITV. This is the major independent broadcaster in Britain. POIROT is also an ITV programme.

[BV Lawson]

Thanks for the network correction! I've changed the post to reflect the error.

[Todd Mason]

Indeed. And MIDSOMER MURDERS is seen in syndication to public broadcasting stations in the US...I'll have to doublecheck, but I think it's on either TV Ontario or CBC in Canada.

[BV Lawson]

Todd, this is from Wikipedia (so take with a grain of salt until I can verify): in Canada, the series is seen "On public broadcaster TVOntario and the Book Television in Ontario, and on Knowledge in British Columbia, which in 2009 is showing Series 9 through series 10. series 13 is scheduled to begin showing on October 30, 2010 on Knowledge."