The Bad Samaritan

This is a gently handled story of a parson’s wife who loses her faith and happens to befriend an illegal Bosnian young man, which in turn sets off a series of events leading to the murder which DC Charlie Peace has to solve. The characterizations of the members of the church community are not sympathetic, and in fact the entire cast could be said to appear ‘warts and all’. DC Peace is intuitive, engaging and understanding, and consequently is a pleasant character to follow. Quite a nice little book.

Robert Barnard always keeps my attention from the first page. In this story the first half of the book is about Rosemary, a vicar's wife who has lost her faith. This small change in her life send ripples through her husband's congregation that leads to a revelation of how unchristian most church goers can be.As the saying goes "just because you sit in a garage it doesn't make you a car."

2/3 of this part of the book could have been edited out without making any difference in the story. More than halfway through the book there is a murder of one of the church goers who uses religion as a cloak of respectability to improve business connections. A man of little faith he was accepted on these surface behaviors while there was definitely a show more dark side to him.

Charlie Peace and Mike Oldie see though much of the facades the suspects hide behind and the murderers is a bit of a surprise. show less

Barnard is a good writer of perhaps rather slight comedic British mysteries. This one is set in Leeds. It is quite good, though not as fun as Death by Sheer Torture, but better rounded characters and a more realistic setting do tell. Tone of Barnard's writing quite close to the Peter Lovesey's in The Reaper.

Having read the book now, I don't know quite what inspired the cover art. A pizza place does appear in the book, but ....
I have enjoyed other Barnards, but this was the first I've read in the Charlie Peace series. Not my favorite Barnard, but I will try the other ones in the series that I have.