Masters of the House

New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good. 186, [4] pages. Minor edge soiling. DJ is in a plastic sleeve with slight wear and soiling. 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: The death of his wife in childbirth sends unemployed Dermot Heenan into such a tailspin that his children are afraid he'll be institutionalized and they'll be parceled out to the tender mercies of Her Majesty's government. So the two eldest plot to keep Dermot's decline from the world by taking on the management of the house, their two younger brothers, and their incoherent father. All goes surprisingly well until Dermot's ex-lover Carmen O'Keefe comes around looking for him. Matthew and Annie tell Carmen that Dermot doesn't want anything to do with her; but this tactic doesn't prevent Carmen from turning up in their garden, dead. They hide her body, scan the newspapers for headlines that never come, and pray that they've heard the last of Carmen -- never suspecting that her mother-in-law, Connie, will soon follow her to their door. Connie's advent ends by provoking as many surprises as you'd expect from Barnard in this memorably off-kilter tale.