Caroline Graham
Caroline Graham is one of the few authors to
have successfully transposed the 'Golden Age' into the 'Modern
Age'. Graham's popularity and success lies in her ability to
bring a quintessential
'English village' murder mystery into modern times but without
losing that Marplesque feel.
Graham was born in Warwickshire, England, in
1931. She pursued a diverse and varied career path before finally
turning to writing in the 1970's. Graham wrote primarily radio
plays, eventually leading to television work.
It was not until 1982 however that Graham achieved her true
ambition and had a novel published. Fire Dance was not
strictly crime fiction, and as a paperback original, is not of
great interest to collectors. In 1984 The Envy of a Stranger
(pictured left) was published by Century. Whilst well written and
plotted, sadly it did not achieve great commercial success. This
led to a brief dalliance with with childrens books, two in fact,
based on the BMX cycle craze.
Finally in 1987 Graham fulfilled her true potential and delivered
The Killings at Badger's Drift. As well as being selected by
the CWA as one of the 100 Greatest Crime Novels, it saw the debut
of Chief Inspector Barnaby. Graham's output was far from prolific
with gaps of 2 to 3 years between some books. Two years after Badger's
Drift Barnaby was back in Death of a Hollow Man
followed by a new novel every two years.
