A Place of Safety

A Place of Safety (1999) Caroline Graham

I only meant to read a couple of chapters of A Place of Safety. Unfortunately, an interesting combined with difficulty getting to sleep after an afternoon nap meant that I read the entire book yesterday evening.

A man witnesses what appears to be a woman pushing a girl into the river. His response is not to call the police, but instead to write a blackmail letter. The man is found dead later, however, the woman he is blackmailing couldn’t possibly be the killer.

As I said, this book ended up drawing me in so that I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. Again, I really like Chief Inspector Barnaby. He’s a very realistic character, with very human interests and foibles.

But I also like the other characters that fill the book, and the fact they seem very realistic. Barnaby is a genuinely good person who has his problems, but the people who are not so good, are not evil for the sake of being evil, but have beliefs that lead them to justify their actions. Again, Seargent Troy is a perfect example of this. As much as it would be nice to hate him for being something between an idiot and a jerk, you do see that he has some redeeming values. And to be honest, they are far more Seargent Troys in the world than there are Inspector Barnabys. People are shallow and self-centered and that’s just the way things are. And it’s that realism that draws me into the story.

Of course the characters involved in the mystery Barnaby must solve are just as complex. Couples fall out of love yet stay together for reasons that no one can explain. Obsessions develop and destroy the lives of the obsessed. And not everyone who does good is a good person. I simply love the fact that she creates such realistic characters.

The mystery in this story was also good, and although I knew the murderer relatively quickly, the greater mystery was why people acted they way they did. And like real life, some of those mysteries can never be resolved.

There are also some very funny lines in the book–they even made Michael grin when i forced him to listen to me reading them aloud.

She had never thought if herself as an imaginative woman but now her mind started running every which way. All those stupid soaps–that’s what (her husband) would have said. They turn your mind, woman… If this was television, her husband would have run off with another woman. (Her) heart, which had leapt very briefly in her flat chest at this very notion, got a grip on reality and thudded back into its usual place. Let’s face it, she sighed aloud, who in their right mind would want (her husband)?

My only concerns about this book are whether there is a little more sex in it than my grandmother will be comfortable reading. There isn’t any explicit sex, but it’s there and it’s obvious. Guess I’ll see what she thinks of the first book.

As with Faithful Unto Death I very much enjoyed A Place of Safety and recommend it for those who enjoy mysteries.
Rating: 7/10

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