"Murder most pleasing...a corking good mystery." --Los Angeles Times This award-winner is the first of the Inspector Barnaby novels and inspiration for the staggeringly popular Midsomer Murders TV series--24 seasons and counting! It's no wonder the Sunday Times called Caroline Graham "simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie."

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.