The Mistress of Alderley by Robert Barnard

I started reading mysteries by Robert Barnard over twenty years ago, and for a while he was on the top of my “must read” list. I’d hunt down his new books and devour them with enthusiasm. I suppose the fact that I’m just getting around to reading a book of his which was published five years ago indicates that my ardor has cooled. “The Mistress of Alderley” does nothing to rekindle my enthusiasm, I’m afraid. I won’t recount the plot here. You can find that many places. Let me focus on what I like about this book, and what I don’t.

Barnard always writes very well, I should say at the outset. He’s literate, has a good hand with dialogue and description. In this instance, he brings in interesting material about opera and the theater that is wholly believable. He also possesses a very sharp pen, and several turns of phrase or sarcastic witticisms made me laugh out loud. His regulars, police detectives Charlie Peace and Mike Oddie, are well developed characters, although in this case Barnard does not share their backstory with readers; you have to have read previous volumes to understand some of the references in this one.

Unfortunately, Barnard trots out some characters that are totally one-dimensional (as his favorite author, Agatha Christie, did) and they sometimes seem to be mere caricatures. Therefore, since Peace and Oddie don’t appear until page 96, the book started very slowly for me. I also think that Barnard’s recurring themes of English racism and class prejudice are a bit tired for this American reader. Peace, as a black man, regularly comes into contact with characters who find a black detective an anomaly, which rarely advances the plot but gives the author a chance to display his social conscience, I suppose. After following the standard leads and progressively eliminating possible subjects, armed with very little evidence, and without cautioning the suspect, the detectives confront the villain and he makes a full and detailed confession. I’m sure that real detectives wish that their life was like that. But the gravest criticism I have of the mystery is that I guessed the villain half way through. To say how I knew would be a complete spoiler, so I’ll just say that if you’ve read enough Barnard, you’ll know too.

Perhaps that’s what annoyed me most about the book, that this is one of Barnard’s “by-the-numbers” volumes. Not bad, but not distinctive either. He can do better. ( )

http://dhamel.typepad.com/book_blog/2003/08/the_mistress_of.html ( )

rich man is killed by boyfriend of his mistresses daughter

A wealthy man is murdered and his mistress discovers how he'd misled her.