The Killings at Badger's Drift

Badger's Drift is the ideal English village, complete with vicar, bumbling local doctor, and kindly spinster with a nice line in homemade cookies. But when the spinster dies suddenly, her best friend kicks up a fuss loud enough to attract the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby. And when Barnaby and his eager-beaver deputy start poking around, they uncover a swamp of ugly scandals and long-suppressed resentments seething beneath the hollyhocks.

In the grand English tradition of the quietly intelligent copper, Barnaby has both a bone dry sense of humor and a keen eye for what makes people tick. Badger's Drift has won the Macavity Awards for Best First Mystery and has proved itself a crime-drama classic.