Written in Blood

With a new series of Midsomer Murders recently screened on television followed by repeats I decided to have a look at one of the books by Caroline Graham that inspired the long running television series (22 series so far). Caroline Graham wrote seven books in the Midsomer Murders series (or Chief Inspector Barnaby series) and Written in Blood is number 4. It was first published in 1994. 

The Midsomer Worthy Writers' Circle meet regularly to discuss the members' writing projects and from time to time, usually unsuccessfully, invite authors to speak to the group. However when Max Jennings accepts their invitation they all meet at Gerald Hadleigh's house to discuss writing with their guest speaker. Next day it is discovered that Gerald has been murdered. Tom Barnaby and Gavin Troy plus their team from Caustin CID are called in to investigate.

A major feature of the Midsomer Murders books is the importance of the characters in the novel, not just the police carrying out the investigation but also the villagers suspected of being involved in the crime.  The author spends much of the novel allowing the reader to get to know these characters as people while the murder is being investigated. In this case it soon becomes obvious that no one in the village really knew the deceased and that his past was definitely a mystery. Then when the police tried to interview Max Jennings it was discovered that he had disappeared.

In 2016, John Nettles, the actor who played Tom Barnaby, wrote a foreward to thenovel in which he discusses first being approached to be involved in the television series and major differences between books and television plays:

In Carolines' novels, unlike the television series, the size of the social canvas is vast, with a huge variety of characters from all social classes ... The lives of all these characters are intimately and entertainingly deliniated and explores, the murder mysteries are character led, in a way that television versions are, very often, not - the television plots concentrate almost exclusively on the exotic methods of the murder rather than the character of those who commit them.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and meeting the inhabitants of the village of Midsomer Worthing as mysteries were revealed and the crime eventually resolved.