“Pitying people isn’t a kindness. It makes them supine. And those who seek it don’t deserve respect.”

After almost two years, I am back to the DCI Barnaby mysteries! I read The Killings at Badger’s Drift in mid-2021, and since I recently watched an episode of Midsomer Murders (albeit in incognito as my BBC player page is not loading), I decided to hunt down the next book in the series.

Death of a Hollow Man follows the members of the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society (CADS) as they prepare for the performance of Amadeus. Key to the whole show is a sharp razor that Mozart uses to commit suicide. Of course, the blade is taped so that it doesn’t hurt anyone… until it does and someone dies on opening night. Luckily for DCI Tom Barnaby, he’s watching the performance of Amadeus as his wife is a member of CADS and he and his deputy sergeant Troy are on the scene immediately.

I did not quite notice this in the first book, but I found Death of a Hollow Man to be a very character-focused book. Each chapter cycles through multiple viewpoints of the various members of CADS and we are basically following their journey. On one hand, it means that the murder is very organic and grows out of the existing tensions within the group. On the other hand, it also means that if you aren’t invested in these characters and keen to follow their stories, you’ll probably be bored with this even before the killing happens!

Personally, I enjoyed the characters! Many of them were unpleasant, but I think Nicholas, the young man who wants to be an actor after seeing a play, and Deidre, the often put-down assistant director, were fascinating and I was rooting for them. They are both people who put up with a lot of unpleasantness for their dreams and I admired them for that.

The mystery itself was rather decent. It’s a lot of old-fashioned detective work and talking to people to find out their motivations (a little like Poirot, in that respect) and when the reveal came, I was surprised. There are a few pieces of information kept away from the reader, but enough hints given that I felt like I should have gotten it.

Overall, this is another fun read! I’m not sure when I’ll get to the next book in the series, but I’ll probably watch another episode or two of Midsomer Murders sometime soon.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva