Bernard O'Keeffe

This marks the third outing for Detective Inspector Jim Garibaldi (‘like the biscuit’, as he has become tired of acknowledging whenever anyone seems surprised by his surname), and is a very welcome return. Garibaldi lives and works in Barnes, a village-like district of London found on the south bank of the Thames.

Garibaldi is that relatively rare character, a bookish policeman, and while his biggest regret is that he never had the opportunity to go to university, he in an academic manqué, which manifests itself in his frequent inability to stop himself publicly correcting his colleagues’ grammar, or making comments designed primarily to let others know how clever he is. Despite this, he is an engaging and empathetic character.

I had already enjoyed this series with its clever plots and entirely plausible characters, with the added spur of knowing Barnes fairly well.. Bernard O’Keeffe’s description of it is affectionate and accurate. However, I found this instalment especially enjoyable as I have always loved metafiction. This book opens with Garibaldi and his domestic partner Rachel attending a public reading of a crime novel by the local author who had recently retired from their work as a teacher at a nearby independent school. The novel revolves around the death of its primary protagonist, who also turned pout to be a recently retired teacher who had worked at a private school near the Thames.

Life imitates art yet further when the novelist is killed in exactly the same way, and in exactly the same place, as the protagonist of the novel. Similarities then emerge between various aspects of the dead man’s life and that of his character. Garibaldi and his colleagues investigate, and find themselves enmeshed in complications as they try to unravel the similarities and contrasts between the real and fictional lives. The vicinity of Barnes is lovingly depicted, and emerges almost as another character in the book.

I am already now impatiently waiting for the next book in the series.… (altro)

I am indebted to The Times for recently choosing to review Every Trick in the Book, the most recent book by Bernard O’Keeffe. I hadn’t been aware of him until then, but their enticing review encouraged me to try him out, leading me to read his first novel, which introduces Detective Inspector Garibaldi, who lives and works in Barnes, situated in west London on the south bank of the Thames. This novel is Inspector Garibaldi’s second outing, and easily lived up to the promise of the first.

It opens with the discovery of the body of Giles Gallen, a young local man who had been working as a private tutor for several wealthy households in the area. We soon learn that in affluent Barnes, the use of a private tutor to enhances children’s learning is commonplace – indeed, almost de rigeur in some of the more exalted circles. Giles had been highly rated for his skills as a tutor, and his services were hired out by Forum, an ambitious local agency.

One of Giles’s clients is a wealthy Italian family who are currently residing in an opulent Barnes mansion. During the summer they had returned home for several weeks, taking Giles with them for a long and luxurious break. Everyone is astounded when Giles is killed. The mystery deepens when one of his friends, who had also worked for Forum, is attacked in the street, and urged to keep their mouth shut, although they are not told what should be kept secret.

I found Inspector Garibaldi an empathetic character. He is an avid reader and an auto-didact, and has developed a tendency towards pedantry which is often manifested by an urge, which he battles against, to correct his colleagues’ grammar or errant literary allusions. I have worked with several people like that, and found him highly plausible. He also works well with Gardner, his Detective Sergeant, who is less well informed on cultural issues, and who consequently has some comic misunderstandings of Garibaldi’s comments.

Garibaldi has a fair amount of baggage arising from domestic woes, and worries that his son is being unduly influenced by his ex-wife’s wealthy new partner. There have also been references throughout this book and its predecessor to an apparent breakdown a few years ago, although no further information has been forthcoming to date.

The plot is well-constructed, and I particularly enjoyed reading about the setting. I have been to Barnes a few times, and always enjoyed my time there, and am looking forwards to exploring it further, and checking out some of the landmarks mentioned in the books.… (altro)

I am always keen to discover a new fictional detective, and Inspector Garibaldi, working in the Barnes area of South London, is a welcome addition to the cadre. Of course, as is now mandatory for any fictional detective, he has a complicated backstory. In his case, we learn that he separated from his wife a few years ago, and that she has taken up with a very wealthy new partner, and that, as a consequence, their son now attends a very exclusive private school. There are also oblique references to some sort of breakdown that Garibaldi suffered.

Barnes is situated on the south bank of the Thames, and is probably best known to non-Londoners as being on the route of the Boat Race, with the competing boats having to shoot the central span of Barnes Bridge. It tends to be overrun with sightseers on Boat Race Day, and the pubs do huge business, although the influx of outsiders is less welcome to most of the local residents. It is on the evening of Boat Race Day that the novel opens, with someone being murdered in the parkland around the Leg of Lamb Pond.

Two weeks earlier, a group of six people who had known each other decades ago as students at Balfour College, Oxford, had gathered for their annual reunion, which took the form of a charity pub quiz. This year, it all went fairly smoothly until a mystery voice offered some salacious statements about each of the six alumni, and asked the assembled crowd to decide which (if any) they thought were true. It is this exchange that sets in motion the events that will lead to the murder.

This sets the scene for Inspector Garibaldi and his colleagues to investigate, which they do capably. The plot is well thought through, and the necessary clues are there (even if I didn’t spot all of them myself). This is merely the first in a series, which already stretches to three books, and I am looking forward to reading more.… (altro)