This one’s much better than the last Barnard I read,
Death of an Old Goat, better in every way.
The plot is better, the characters are better, the
mystery is better, and it doesn’t drip with scorn.
It’s true, the most obnoxious character in the book
is Australian, but you get the sense that she’d
have been just as annoying no matter what her origin.

It involves a young but promising opera company in the
north of England. They are just beginning their second
season with a staging of Rigoletto–and Barnard
clearly knows and loves Rigoletto just as much
as he (apparently) dislikes Australia. There are lots of
nice twists and turns, and it ends up quite satisfactorily.

One of the interesting things about Barnard’s work is that he
doesn’t have a consistent tone. Sometimes he plays for laughs;
sometimes he’s more serious; and in this one, it almost seems
like he’s trying to play Ngaio Marsh. If so, he
doesn’t quite make it…but the results are pleasingly
Marsh-like nevertheless.