A cleverly written mystery (if you ignore the thumping great coincidence that is at the heart of the plot) with well drawn characters. Unfortunately, I found the vast majority of the characters not very likeable and had trouble working up interest in their fate.

Comparing to the Midsomer Murders series... Much wittier.

First one that I liked and didn't think it was just "ok". Good - it was her last chance! I will try the next one.

This is the author that Midsomer Mysteries (my favorite) based their shows on - wonderful!

Spoiler

This is probably my favourite of all the Inspector Barnaby stories, from both the books and the tv series. Mainly because of the parallels between it and Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily."

Working my way through the Barnaby books that my local library has, after watching a good deal of the TV show.

Competently done. I do feel a bit unsettled, though, with how little I like the characters... all of them seem to have an unpleasant twist to them. Perhaps this is realistically real-life, but I like reading mysteries for the escapism, and prefer to have at least one likeable character.

As far as how closely they're related to the TV show - judging from the two I've read so far, very closely. (Luckily I watched the episodes long enough that the plot details were originally hazy in my memory.) They're therefore not as satisfying/interesting as the Phryne Fisher books (to take a similar example), where the books and the TV show diverge in many small ways. The biggest divergence in Barnaby so far seems to be in the unlikeability of Troy (and, to a lesser extent, Barnaby himself).

This is one of my favourite Midsomer Murder episodes so when I started reading the book and realised that it was this plot I was incandescent (slight exaggeration) with happiness.

However, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I would have hoped. I did love the layers of subplots. The development of both Sue and Amy was a lovely read, and I enjoyed the Gerald/Laura/Jennings subplot and how it all tied together.
But I felt that the main murder plot was too buried. If you will pardon that phrasing...

The Brian storyline got so much page time and yet it wasn't overly interesting except for its impact on Sue.
The Jennings recap just became a tell-all that should have been interesting but was delivered so flatly. Instead, I felt that these elements of Gerald's life should have been found out through police investigation to make it more dynamic and then confirmed or ironed out only by Jennings.

Actually, there was little police work at all except them asking a few questions of people and having things told them.

I enjoyed elements of this book for sure, and as always, I liked the writing style, but the plot needed a sharper focus on the main plot and more dynamic investigation.