Fete Fatale

January 1, 1985
Barnard's acidly witty, swift new mystery displays once more the stylish inventiveness that has won him three Edgar nominations and devoted readers in America as well as in his native England. The narrator is spiky Helen, wife of Marcus Kitterege, the veterinarian in their hidebound Yorkshire village. The women, who have always run the community, they take up against gentle Marcus when he opposes their current scheme, a plan to boycott the new Anglican minister, a "Popish'' celibate. When Marcus is murdered during the church fair, Helen channels her grief into an implacable drive to track down the killer. She gains grim satisfaction from flouting the local police, setting the village in an uproar, and confronting each member of the female cabal. But the identity of the guilty party comes as a stunning surprise to the widow and to the reader. So does her last word, a delicious lagniappe by a superb entertainer. November