Robert Barnard Books

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Author Robert Barnard was born in Essex on November the twenty-third in 1936 and educated in Colchester Royal Grammar School, as well as at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel was published in 1976 and he wrote it while he worked as a lecturer at the University of Tromso, which is located in Norway. The first twelve of his novels were written when Barnard taught English Literature at universities in Norway and Australia, this was between the years of 1960 until 1983. Barnard once stated that his favorite crime writer was Agatha Christie; he would publish a critique of all of her works.

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So it was a great source of pride for him that he would share, for a short time an editor with Christie (who was named Elizabeth Walter). He spent six years in Australia where he met and married the woman that he would be with for the rest of his life. It was also here in Australia that he gathered material for his first novel “Death of An Old Goat”. Even though he found more popularity in America, he wrote the traditional English murder mystery novel, especially the cozy side of crime writing.

Barnard found that the number one goal of all writing fiction was to entertain the audience, and that was something that he did in every novel that he wrote. He died September nineteenth 2013, and left behind his wife Louise, to whom he was married to for about fifty years. The cause of death was rapid onset dementia that he got in the last year of his life and that caused him to be in a nursing home.

Robert Barnard wrote the “Charlie Peace” series, the “Perry Trethowan” novels, quite a few stand alone novels, some non-fiction, and some short stories. In some of his non-fiction, he wrote about the works of Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, and a history of English Literature. Under the name Bernard Bastable, he wrote two alternate history books about Mozart as a detective in old age, and two stand alone novels. Barnard never topped bestseller lists due to the fact that his work was not adapted for television or movies or large paperback print runs.

ROBERT BARNARD AWARDS

In 2003, Barnard was given the Cartier Diamond Dagger by the Crime Writers Association for lifetime achievement. He was also nominated for the Edgar Award eight times, one of which for his Agatha Christie book.

BEST ROBERT BARNARD BOOKS

For those looking to get into Robert Barnard’s work, this next section will help with that. It will look at the novels: “Death by Sheer Torture”, “Death and the Chaste Apprentice”, and “A Corpse In A Gilded Cage”.

Death by Sheer Torture: This is the first novel in the “Perry Trethowan” series that was released in the year 1981. Inspector Perry Trethowan finds an obituary that says his estranged father has died due to his messing around with a kind of self-torture that is known as strappado. Very suspicious to Perry. His supervisor requests that Peter go back to his ancestral home so that he can figure out if any cousins or siblings of his may have helped his old man to his death.

Death and the Chaste Apprentice: This is the first novel in the “Charlie Peace” series that was released in the year 1989. “The Chaste Apprentice” is a play being put on at the annual fine arts festival. Des Capper is an obnoxious and Australian host at The Saracen’s Head Hotel, where the play is going to be put on and where the actors are staying. He is found killed, with a knife in his back. It is a symbolic gesture as Capper enjoys finding out the secrets from the cast members. The entire cast has an alibi, as the murder took place during the show, but all is not as it appears.

A Corpse In A Gilded Cage: This is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 1984. A working class man who lives in London named Perce Spender and is made an Earl (the twelfth Earl of Ellesmere) when a distant relative of his dies. He would rather be in a bar somewhere, and he has only agreed to go to Chetton Hall only so that he can sell it. Selling off the estate is not something that his greedy kids like, and after a party, the new Earl of Ellesmere is found dead. There are many of suspects for the Chief Constable to sift through.

When Does The Next Robert Barnard book come out?

Robert Barnard doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is A Wreath from the Wilderness, a Selection from the Metrical Arrangements of Accola Montis-Am Ni and was released on May, 22nd 2016. It is the newest book in the Robert Barnard Non-Fiction Books.

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