{"id":460,"date":"2007-10-15T09:45:58","date_gmt":"2007-10-15T16:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/460"},"modified":"2026-01-23T18:40:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:40:39","slug":"faithful-unto-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/460","title":{"rendered":"Faithful Unto Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faithful Unto Death<\/span> (1996) Caroline Graham<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Faithful<\/a>I picked up a later book in this series somewhere, and being the way I am, decided to go back and start at the beginning of the series. Too bad for me. This isn’t the first book in the series, it’s simply the first book published by St. Martin’s Press.<\/p>\n

Although Faithful Unto Death<\/em> introduces us to Chief Inspector Barnaby<\/strike>, is primarily about Chief Inspector Barnaby, the first character we meet is Mrs Molfrey, a somewhat batty old woman who lives in the village of Fawcett Green. I was initially disturbed at this, as I wondered if this woman was supposed to be a Miss Marple character, but seemed to lack most of Miss Marple’s virtues. Luckily, Mrs Molfrey wasn’t the main character of the story, and became less annoying as the story continued.<\/p>\n

What I found most interesting about Faithful Unto Death<\/em> were the many vivid characters that filled the story–some likable and some rather distasteful, but all interesting and realistic. Sargent Troy was probably the worst of the lot, but as much as I found his attitude annoying and unpleasant, I found it quite realistic, in that I have met plenty of people like Sargent Troy–shallow and self-centered and destined never to succeed because they can’t see past their own desires and prejudices.<\/p>\n

I found the story fascinating, and the mystery was both good and enjoyable, as the plot twisted on way and then another. But the ending was perhaps the best part, as it was both unexpected and realistic.<\/p>\n

Do I think she’s one of the best detective writers since Agatha Christie? Not really (or at least not yet, this is only the first book I’ve read). But this book was very good, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an open mind who enjoys unexpected twists.<\/p>\n

Rating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faithful Unto Death (1996) Caroline Graham I picked up a later book in this series somewhere, and being the way I am, decided to go back and start at the beginning of the series. Too bad for me. This isn’t the first book in the series, it’s simply the first book published by St. Martin’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,33,8,291,42],"tags":[61,62],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british","category-historical","category-mystery","category-paper","category-police","tag-caroline-graham","tag-chief-inspector-barnaby"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-7q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10023,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10023","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":0},"title":"The Killings at Badger’s Drift","author":"Michelle","date":"March 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Killings at Badger's Drift (1987) Caroline Graham Miss Emily Simpson was found dead in her home. An elderly woman, her death didn't seem suspicious, but her best friend, Miss Lucy Bellringer insists that something was wrong and the death should be investigated. I had very very vague memories of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Killing-Badgers-Drift.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":468,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/468","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":1},"title":"The Killings at Badger’s Drift","author":"Michelle","date":"October 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Killings at Badger's Drift (1987) Caroline Graham This is actually the first Inspector Barnaby mystery. How annoying when publishers only have part of a writer's catalog and one is deluded into thinking you've read the first book in a series, only to discover you were terrible wrong. So this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":466,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/466","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":2},"title":"A Place of Safety","author":"Michelle","date":"October 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":470,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/470","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":3},"title":"A Ghost in the Machine","author":"Michelle","date":"October 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A Ghost in the Machine (2004) Caroline Graham Ghost in the Machine may be my least favorite Inspector Barnaby mystery so far, because it takes us forever to actually get to Inspector Barnaby, and even once he becomes involved, we still spend a great deal of time with the characters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13919,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13919","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":4},"title":"The Killings at Badger’s Drift","author":"Michelle","date":"February 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Killings at Badger's Drift (1987) Caroline Graham (Chief Inspector Barnaby) I'd initially forgotten just how messed up this story is. Then once we were introduced to all the characters, I clearly remembered who did the murdering and why. The opening is actually sweet. An 80-year-old woman and her best\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Killings at Badgers Drift","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/The-Killings-at-Badgers-Drift.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18431,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18431","url_meta":{"origin":460,"position":5},"title":"Death of a Hollow Man","author":"Michelle","date":"October 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Death of a Hollow Man (1989) Caroline Graham (Chief Inspector Barnaby) Inspector Barnaby's wife belongs to the local theater group, so we start during the early rehearsals, and interestingly (for a police procedural) the murder doesn't happen until opening night (about 40% into the book). So not only do you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Death of a Hollow Man","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/deathhollowman.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}