A City of Strangers

August 29, 1990
In this droll study of Yorkshire town life in Thatcherite England, Barnard ( Bodies ) dishes up the suspense with Christie-like skill. Something is rotten in the Belfield Grove Estate--namely, Jack Phelan, a member of the ``new underclass: riotous, savage, with nothing to lose.'' Phelan has sired six unwashed youths in order to get more beer money from the government's coffers. That his mostly illiterate offspring include a violent fascist and a child prostitute is fine with him. A trial to all its neighbors, the family is despised but tolerated--until Phelan wins at the races and announces his plans to share his presence with the middle class by moving to Wynton Lane. Not too unexpectedly, a murder disrupts his economic ascension--his own. With estimable craftmanship, Barnard has created a feisty melange of characters, none of whom appear brazen enough to commit a felony, making them all the more likely suspects. There's a mild-mannered academic; a fragile beauty who's spent many a year in bed snipping out photos of the royal family; and a supermarket manager and would-be yuppie. Sadly, the resolution of the murder is farfetched, yet almost forgivable considering the high quality of the rest of the work. Mystery Guild main selection.

September 1, 1990
Barnard furnishes another foray into an aptly described and often ironically portrayed village setting. Sleate, a Yorkshire suburb, is the home of the Phelans, an abundant and mostly obnoxious family of welfare recipients who terrorize their neighbors and others with violence, crime, and stupidity. When the residents of a nearby enclave find out that the Phelans might move to their street, tempers flare, phone lines buzz, and then Mr. Phelan dies in a set fire. The author moves easily and deftly among a number of well-limned characters and minor subplots, ending with a more or less unexpected culprit. Not quite as good as Skeleton in the Grass ( LJ 5/1/88), but entertaining and well worth reading.

Copyright 1990 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.