The late Robert Barnard was a very good writer indeed. He wrote dozens of fine mysteries over the course of his career. Some featured series detective characters while others were stand-alones. Barnard's books were written with a good deal of sometimes savage satire and wit, and some of his books managed to combine laugh-out-loud humor with tight, well-plotted stories. One of my favorites among his novels was Death and the Chaste Apprentice, a 1989 book that could give you a good sense of Barnard's abilities. I first reviewed this book some nine years ago. Here's what I said on the podcast (somewhat edited, as always):
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Here’s a mystery that’s not only a classic itself…it takes place surrounded by other types of classics. The scene is an arts festival, home to a fairly improbable play from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, and also to a fictional opera by Donizetti. A large group of actors and singers is involved in these productions. And when murder occurs, the field of suspects is wide indeed. That’s a quick summary of Death and the Chaste Apprentice, by Robert Barnard.
What is it about singers and actors that seem to make them natural characters to appear in mysteries? Many great mystery stories revolve around these artists. Sometimes it is a matter of their egos, their temperaments and the often very public natures of their private lives. Authors such as Agatha Christie, Michael Innes and Edmund Crispin have written about them with considerable zeal.
To that company, certainly, belongs the name of Robert Barnard, a fine author who has been writing mysteries – more than 40 of them [at the time this review was written, several years prior to Barnard's death] – over the past thirty years. He brings a remarkably sharp wit and biting humor to his stories, and they really do fit into the classic mold, providing clues for the reader who is sharp enough to spot them and relying on smart detective work to solve the cases.
In Death and the Chaste Apprentice, we are taken to the annual arts festival in the fictional London suburb of Ketterick. It’s one of those festivals that feature the most obscure plays and relatively unknown musical performances, and Barnard treats it with considerable relish. The play this year will be “The Chaste Apprentice of Bowe,” a work supposedly attributed to an unknown author here. Barnard notes in a brief preface that the quotations taken from this non-existent play actually come from real Elizabethan and Restoration dramas (and ends his note with, "so don't blame me,") but you get the idea quite easily. The festival also will feature an opera, attributed here to Donizetti – a real enough composer, although he never created an opera called “Adelaide di Birkenhead.”
Barnard’s descriptions of these artistic works are scathing. In describing the unknown authorship of “The Chaste Apprentice of Bowe,” for example, Barnard notes, "it was generally agreed that two hands were discernible in it, though only half a brain." And his supposed quotes from critics about operas, mostly imaginary, are, if anything, even funnier. He talks about one Rossini opera as “a stillborn curiosity,” an opera called “Attila” is described as “proving that even Verdi nodded,” and another Donizetti opera earns, “This is less a revival than a resurrection, in the Burke and Hare sense of the word.”
The point of all this is simply to give you an idea of Barnard’s humor, and there is a great deal of satire in his approach to the play and opera that are central to this story. The same is true of the larger-than-life artistic types involved. As one reviewer noted, the chaste apprentice of the title appears to be one of the very few characters to whom that adjective could be applied. Virtually all the actors and/or singers appear to be involved in affairs. There is a great deal of activity, both out in the open and hidden.
And – unfortunately for the artists – there is also the manager of the hotel where all of this is going on, the Saracen Head Inn, an old and sprawling coaching inn dating back to the Elizabethan era that hosts the festival play and houses all of the key characters. The hotel manager, who is Australian – is described by Barnard, “he was the most loathsome of God’s creations, the Australian know-all.” His name is Des Capper, and he is incredibly nosy, being one of those types who love to accumulate knowledge about other people – and then use that knowledge against them.
As any mystery reader will understand, that sort of thing can be very dangerous, and it soon proves to be fatal to Des Capper. And so the police have to be called in – much to the displeasure of Superintendent Iain Dundy, who confesses, quite gloomily, when he is called in,
“I do hate arty people. I admit it. I can’t stand them. They touch a nerve in me. I’ve had a feeling ever since this festival started up that one day I was going to get stuck with a case chock-a-block full of arty people. And I wouldn’t mind betting this is it!”
Dundy, of course, will be proven right – but, to his credit, he manages to keep his investigation on course. Once the murder has occurred, the clues are quite fairly presented, both to Dundy and to the reader, and the usual process of figuring out who could have had both motive and opportunity is carried out quite fairly. The trouble, of course, is that Des Capper has managed to make an enemy of nearly everybody. Dundy is set on the right course, however, by one of his assistants – a young policeman named Charlie Peace, who plays a minor role here but who will be featured as the primary detective in a series of Barnard’s later books.
Death and the Chaste Apprentice is smart, tightly written, quite funny and a thoroughly good mystery story. The plot is well-constructed and fairly clued – and when the real motive for the murder is revealed, it will undoubtedly come as a surprise to most readers. There are a great many plot twists here in a story that is very much in the classic tradition – and largely blood-free as well. If you enjoy mysteries with a theatrical or operatic background, stories which play the game fairly with the reader, and books which are loaded with memorable characters, you’ll enjoy Death and the Chaste Apprentice, by Robert Barnard.
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You can listen to the original podcast review by clicking here.
Next week, The Roman Hat Mystery, by Ellery Queen.
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