Fete Fatale

New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc, 1987. Second Dell printing thus [stated]. Mass market paperback. Good. [6], 183, [3] pages. Cover states 1st time in paperback. Signed by the author on the title page. Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 - 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories. Barnard said that his favorite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie. Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement. Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard published two standalone novels and two alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age. Derived from a Kirkus review: A murder mystery set in an English village full of eccentrics gets a fresh and original slant from the ever inventive Barnard. The village is Hexton, the narrator Helen Kitterege, whose husband Marcus is town veterinarian and a church warden. Hexton's ladies run the town ex-officio, wear hats, serve watercress sandwiches and are deeply concerned about the imminent arrival of new vicar Father Battersby, very High Church and celibate. Meanwhile, Helen is slightly distanced from the village women, a quiet rebel with a sardonic eye, until Marcus is found dead at the annual fete, stabbed with a hatpin. She sets out to find his murderer. Calling on self-appointed morals--guardian Mary Morse, the late vicar's sour widow Thyaza Primp, newcomer Gwen Nielson and others, Helen finds everyone has secrets to guard--but the motive, when it emerges, proves compelling. A neat surprise ends another winner from an author with style, humor, vitality and class--long may he flourish!