Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Caroline Graham: Death of a Hollow Man

The last of the library's four Caroline Grahams in English. Ironically, there are only four of her books in Swedish too - considering the popularity of Midsomer Murders I mean. I do not at the moment have the energy to see if they are also the same books, but that would be very funny.

The Hollow Man is set around an amateur theatrical company (of which Joyce Barnaby, of course, is a member), led by an egomaniac with delusions of grandeur. The leading man suffers from the same malady, and was married to the former primadonna, whose position in his life and on stage has been usurped by his new, superficially pretty little wifey. See all the dwama? During the opening night of Amadeus all manner of conflict comes to life and starts to come out on the stage, culminating in the razor that Salieri uses to slit his throat with being doctored. Resulting in a real throat-slit, right there on the stage.

I do like Caroline Graham, I've said it before. This felt rather more Midsomer Murderish, as in the TV series, due to both Joyce and Cully being present. Cully's aloofness and coolness is demonstrated very subtly by her wearing a t-shirt with an Eddie Izzard quote, in French. This book is from -89 so coolness and indie extreme, dudes.

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