Tangled Web UK Review March 2007
Sheer Torture by
Robert Barnard
pbk out February 07
(Allison Busby)
at £6.99
It is good to see that Allison & Busby are reprinting some of Robert Barnard's older
novels. This is perhaps the strongest of his early series featuring Perry Trethowan of
the CID; originally published in 1981, it is one of the author's personal favourites and
the first of his books that I read, about twenty years ago. The premise is bizarre: the
detective's father, from whom he has long been estranged, has been murdered. It
seems that at the time, he was subjecting himself to a form of torture and wearing
gauzy spangled tights (this book was, incidentally, written long before a prominent
MP was found dead in almost equally weird circumstances, suggesting that Barnard's
imagination is not as wild as might at first be thought.) What follows is an enjoyable
romp. It doesn't quite match Barnard classics such as 'A Scandal in Belgravia', but
readers who come to it afresh in search of witty entertainment will certainly not be
disappointed.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
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