New Releases by Robert Barnard

Hilariously satirizing Britain’s education system, a mystery at the Burleigh School involves the inept leadership of its headmaster, Edward Crumwallis, and the evil pupil he chooses as his next headboy—sneaky sycophant Hillary Frome.

A complex story dealing with forgeries, people turning up alive who are supposed to be dead, and literary hoaxes.

Radio Broadwich decides to do a documentary on the small village of Twytching for international broadcast, and the townspeople divide between those who seek the patronage of Mrs. Deborah Withins, arbiter of taste and morals, and those determined to displace her in the cutthroat contest for media recognition. When a rash of poison-pen letters and a murder coincide, quiet inspector George Parrish begins to uncover secrets the leading citizens of Twytching had thought, and fervently hoped, were buried.

A man’s home is his castle, but for Percy Spender that motto has been taken just a bit too literally. After the sudden death of first one distant relative and then another, the amiable Perce has become the 12th Earl of Ellesmere. And his home, no longer a cozy council flat, is now the drafty, imposing Chetton Hall, complete with more bedrooms than Perce can count and an army of servants. Frankly, all these fancy trappings make Perce itch. He’d just as soon sell up, buy a comfy cottage, and put a bundle on the ponies. However, some of his mates and family members have other ideas. And the sad fact is that an Unfortunate Accident can happen to anyone, even a lord of the realm.

Chetton Hall was one of the glories of Jacobean domestic architecture, and the Spenders had lived in Chetton ever since their founder had peculated the money to build it while he was the King’s Secretary of Monopolies. Over the years they had accumulated accrustations of dignity, to say nothing of wealth. Which made it doubly shocking when the Earldom descended to Percy Spender, who was ‘not quite’, not to mention his family, who were not at all. When the family descends on Chetton for his sixtieth birthday, accompanied by various hangers-on, their main obsession is to discover his intentions for the future of the place. Hardly less interested is his man of business, and his neighbours, who feel sadly the diminished glory of the house. The Spenders, in fact, have always felt like birds in a guilded cage at Chetton. Before the celebrations are over, one of the birds is a very dead duck indeed. The traditional country house party murder is turned on its head, given a few twists, and ends up much reinvigorated in this witty and lively whodunit by a writer who, as described in The Times Literary Supplement, ‘can write most under the table with one hand behind his back.’ ‘Mr Barnard always maintains an exceptionally high level, being as much littérateur as mystery story writer; fortunately, he never lets his literary flair get in the way of his mysteries.’ New York Times Book Review

A mysterious envelope arrives on Eve McNabb''s doorstep soon after she has buried her mother, a woman who kept many secrets. The puzzling letter inside this envelope hints at an illicit passion between the letter writer and Eve''s mother, May McNabb. Even when she was a child, Eve sensed that there were parts of May''s life she would never understand. She would never know the details of her parents'' marriage or why her father suddenly disappeared from her life. While Eve has always believed that her father was dead, she begins to wonder whether her mother''s life as a widow had been a ruse. Will she have to question everything her mother has told her? Could her father be alive and well? The letter writer may have some answers, but how can Eve find him or her? With only a blurred postmark for a clue, Eve sets out to locate the writer and journey into her own past. What she never suspected was that questions can be dangerous, perhaps even deadly... Filled with piercing wit and illuminating insight into the human condition, Robert Barnard''s Last Post proves yet again that he is one of the great masters of mystery.

A new mystery set at one of England''s stately homes and featuring beloved Yorkshire cop, Charlie Peace. By Diamond Dagger award winner Robert Barnard.

Sarah Jane Fearing has grown up in the imposing rural mansion of one of England''s most influential banking families. At the centre of Sarah''s world is her uncle, Frank, who has escaped the straitjacket of ponderous respectability. Frank offers Sarah hope, until his extravagant lifestyle leads him into a disastrous marriage.

From Robert Barnard, the internationally acclaimed Diamond Dagger–winning crime writer . . . Kit Philipson has always felt like something of a stranger in his family. Growing up as the only child of professional parents in Glasgow, Scotland, he had every advantage. His mother was a teacher; his father, a journalist, escaped from Nazi Germany at the age of three on one of the 1939 Kindertransports. But on her deathbed, Kit’s mother tells him he was adopted and that his birth name was Novello. Soon, vague memories of his early life begin to surface: his nursery, pictures on the wall, the smell of his birth mother when she’d been cooking. And, sometimes, there are more disturbing memories—of strangers taking him by the hand and leading him away from the only family he had ever known. A search of old newspaper files reveals that a three-year-old boy named Peter Novello was abducted from his parents’ holiday hotel in Sicily in 1989. Now the young man who has known himself only as Kit sets out to rediscover his past, the story of two three-year-old boys torn from their mothers in very different circumstances. Kit’s probing inquiries are sure to bring surprises. They may also unearth dangerous secrets that dare never be revealed. With sharp wit and deep insight, Robert Barnard sweeps away all preconceptions in this powerful study of maternal love and the danger of obsession.

Vernon Watts may have been beloved by the millions of faithful viewers of the long-running soap opera Jubilee Terrace but his fellow cast members knew him for what he was -- an egotistical former music-hall performer whose untimely death in a pedestrian accident was not something to be universally regretted. Sadly, though, director Reggie Friedman soon fills the supposed void by asking Hamish Fawley, an equally unpleasant former member of the Jubilee Terrace troupe, to rejoin the soap. Hamish was never much liked. Now he''s more obnoxious than ever. The mood on the set is not exactly serene, a situation made worse when the police receive an anonymous letter suggesting that Vernon Watts''s "accident" may in fact have been murder. Did one of his fellow actors push Vernon into the oncoming traffic? Detective Inspector Charlie Peace faces tough challenges as he probes the make-believe world of skilled thespians to find a possible killer. With a cast of suspects who are trained to emote on cue, Charlie will need all of his policeman''s instincts if he''s to avert further tragedy. Writing with his usual acerbic wit and penetrating insight into human foibles, acclaimed master of mystery Robert Barnard gives us another winning entry in his magnificent body of work.

It can be a bit of an embarrassment when your old man is done in. Particularly, when you are a rising inspector with CID, and hated his guts. Particularly, when your old man was at the time subjecting himself to a do-it-yourself version of a Spanish Inquisition torture. And wearing spangled tights. What it meant was that Perry Trethowan had to go back to the home of his ancestors and do a bit of semi-official sleuthing. Like the Sitwells and the Mitfords, the Trethowans proved that Birth and Artistic Talent could go together. The Trethowans, though, made one hope it didn''t happen too often. Perry''s father had been a dilettante composer so minor that he stopped composing long before he started decomposing. His Uncle Lawrence, head of the family, was a poet of sorts, one of his aunts a stage designer, another an overgrown schoolgirl who had never grown out of her Thirties crush on Adolf Hitler. And that''s only the older generation. Perry goes with fear and trembling back into the lions'' den, and finds that his worst forebodings are mere shadows of the grisly reality.

Master of mystery Robert Barnard, internationally acclaimed for his suspenseful, witty literary gems, cleverly mixes past and present in A Cry from the Dark, an intriguing tour de force sweeping from 1930s Australia to contemporary London. Bettina Whitelaw has come a long way from her childhood in the little outback town of Bundaroo, Australia. Many years have passed, a lifetime really, but she''s never forgotten what happened there on the evening that changed her life forever. How could she forget the school dance, her taunting classmates, dancing with the strange but brilliant English boy, Hughie Naismyth? How could she forget what happened next, when, overheated and exhilarated by the music and the moment, she wandered off alone into a secluded, wooded area? Now a renowned, elderly author living in London''s elegant Holland Park, Bettina faces a flood of memories as she works on her memoirs, even though her focus is more on the frightening things that are happening today. Someone has recently entered her home and gone through her desk. The intruder is clearly not an ordinary burglar. It must be someone she knows. She''s been a little lax in handing out keys, so the suspects are many -- her nephew, Mark; her agent, Clare; her friends, Peter or Katie. Or it could be someone else. What does Bettina possess that this person would want to steal? A puzzle that at first seems mildly disturbing soon turns deadly serious. Someone is willing to kill -- but why? Does the answer rest in Bundaroo or nearer to home? A Cry from the Dark shows us vintage Robert Barnard as he slyly lays the clues that lead to his trademark surprise -- and poignant -- ending.

The discovery of a child''s skeleton that is at least thirty years old in the attic of the old stone house he has just purchased leads Matt Harper on a journey into the past to solve the mystery.

When Colin Pinnock becomes a junior minister in the new Prime Minister''s government, he''s understandably thrilled. Still youngish, with a shining reputation, he''s clearly being groomed for even higher office. Basking in congratulatory greetings and praise, Colin picks a soiled postcard from the stack. Who do you think you are? it asks. Does the writer think Colin is getting a big head, or do the words have a more literal meaning: Who, indeed, is Colin? When the threatening messages continue, Colin begins an urgent investigation into his past and a dangerous search for his tormentor.

This illustrated biography examines the life and legacy of Emily Bronte. The enigma that a young woman from such a closed and protected environment as a Yorkshire rectory could write the wildly romantic and complex Wuthering Heights has long been a source of fascination. Largely self-educated, Emily spent most of her life at the rectory in Haworth. Her solitary instincts are well-known, and the biographer''s task has been made no easier by her refusal to give anything of herself away to anyone during her lifetime. Robert Barnard examines her insulated childhood, and the stories of Gondal and Angria, leading to the lyrical poems of her twenties which prefigure the raw intensity of Wuthering Heights. He demonstrates that many aspects of Wuthering Heights were shaped or stimulated by her own experiences, many of which can be traced to real examples. He also refers extensively to other critical sources, from early reviews of Wuthering Heights to Mrs. Gaskell''s appraisal of Emily''s stern selfishness, to Juliet Barker''s recent biography of the Bronte family.

"By definition, this generation -- those born between the early sixties and late seventies -- has no "hard edges". It is a generation based on formative experiences and pivotal events rather than specific birthdates and cohort size. Essentially, you are a Nexus if you first felt the effects of the computer chip and global media at some point during your formative years. This means you could have encountered a PC for the first time in university or mastered Pong (the first video game) at the age of seven. You could be Nexus if you watched live CNN coverage of the Gulf War at high school, saw the space shuttle Challenger blow up in high school, or were the first kid in your neighbourhood with cable TV and a remote control." (p.17,18).

Scotland Yard Superintendent Perry Trethowan is enjoying a vacation evening at a cozy Yorkshire pub when an old woman shows him an original, unpublished Bronte manuscript. Trethowan agrees to engage in a little literary detective work, but he doesn''t realize that for a criminal the manuscript is motive for theft, torture--and murder.

Following the death of their mother in childbirth, the older Heenan children try to hide their father''s madness from prying neighbours and authorities to avoid being taken into care.

A collection of novels by the best-selling mystery writer features Death by Sheer Torture, Death in a Cold Climate, Death of a Mystery Writer, and Death of a Perfect Mother.

Available to American readers for the first time, Britain''s spectacular Crime Club Diamond Jubilee commemorative volume is packed with the best in suspense fiction. This exclusive collection includes devilishly clever tales by Robert Barnard, Sarah Caudwell, Reginald Hill, Charlotte MacLeod, John Malcolm, and others.

An innkeeper is the object of universal dislike--and one murderer''s weapon--on the set of a provincial festival production of a tepid Jacobean comedy.

Intrusion Detection Systems has long been considered the most important reference for intrusion detection system equipment and implementation. In this revised and expanded edition, it goes even further in providing the reader with a better understanding of how to design an integrated system. The book describes the basic operating principles and applications of the equipment in an easy to understand manner. This book was written for those security directors, consultants, and companies that select the equipment or make critical decisions about security systems design. Mr. Barnard provides sufficient detail to satisfy the needs of those interested in the technical principles, yet has included enough description on the operation and application of these systems to make Intrusion Detection Systems, Second Edition a useful reference for any security professional.