Death of an Old Goat
3.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this ebook
Professor Belville-Smith had bored university audiences in England with the same lecture for fifty years. Now he was crossing the Australian continent, doing precisely the same. Never before had the reaction been so extreme, however, for shortly after an undistinguished appearance at Drummondale University, the doddering old professor is found brutally murdered.
As Police Inspector Royle (who had never actually had to solve a crime before) probes the possible motives of the motley crew of academics who drink their was through the dreary days at Drummondale and as he investigates the bizarre behaviour of some worthy locals, a hilarious, highly satirical portrait of life down under emerges.
‘The perfect gem, one you wouldn’t change a word of’ Los Angeles Times
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard (1936-2013) was awarded the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Nero Wolfe Award, as well as the Agatha and Macavity awards. An eight-time Edgar nominee, he was a member of Britain's distinguished Detection Club, and, in May 2003, he received the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement in mystery writing.
Read more from Robert Barnard
The Singing Sands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bad Samaritan: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Charlie Peace Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Man in the Queue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fall from Grace: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death and the Chaste Apprentice Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Death of a Mystery Writer: A Murder Mystery (Of Course) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Scandal in Belgravia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Place of Safety: A CRIME NOVEL Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Out of the Blackout Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Corpse in a Gilded Cage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Hovering of Vultures Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Fatal Attachment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Death by Sheer Torture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death and the Princess Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Charitable Body: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bones in the Attic: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fete Fatale Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5At Death's Door Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Little Local Murder Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mistress of Alderley: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Case of the Missing Bronte Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5School for Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of an Old Goat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Death of a Literary Widow Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Last Post: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dying Flames: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Political Suicide Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Stranger in the Family: A Novel of Suspense Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Death of an Old Goat
Related ebooks
Death of an Old Goat Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dark Flower: "If you do not think about your future, you cannot have one" Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tobermory & Other Short Stories - Volume 2: "He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman Who Did Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Colonel Quaritch, V.C.: A Tale of Country Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Soul of Countess Adrian Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAudrey Craven: 'She prepared to hurl herself into the breach'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMiss Bracegirdle & Other Stories: "It was curious that the young man was almost precisely as he had pictured him" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bridge at Arta Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5His Excellency's English Governess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Adventures of Denry the Audacious: The Card & The Regent Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlasses: Classic Short Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sorceress Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Pair of Blue Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rejuvenation of Miss Semaphore: A Farcical Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColonel Quaritch, V.C. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo College Friends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZuleika Dobson (Romance Classic) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Card - A Story Of Adventure In The Five Towns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenry James Short Stories Volume 4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cat Among the Pigeons: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Under-Secretary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSome Short Stories Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Sorceress (complete) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife’s Little Ironies by Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColonel Quaritch Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJust Outside: "One lives everything down in time" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Pair of Blue Eyes: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Mystery For You
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summit Lake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pretty Girls: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life We Bury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Murdery Mystery Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5False Witness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden Staircase: Nancy Drew #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Flight: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dean Koontz: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5None of This Is True: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kept Woman: A Will Trent Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight Perfect Murders: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunting Party: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finlay Donovan Is Killing It: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sydney Rye Mysteries Box Set Books 10-12: Sydney Rye Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman in the Library: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pharmacist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Sleep Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Did I Kill You?: A Thriller Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Good Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Club: A Reese's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The People Next Door Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pieces of Her: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Death of an Old Goat
38 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not my favorite by this author by a long stretch. Barnard's look at life in a provincial Australian university town is witheringly satiric, sort of Lucky Jim as a mystery novel. The mystery element is weak and by midway I was hoping just about everyone was guilty since they were all repulsive.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Professor Blevin-Smith, emeritus of Oxford and now well into his dotage, has been tapped for a tour as visiting professor in the wilds of Australia. He finds the accommodations execrable, the food inedible, and the company deplorable. Professor Blevins--who's been giving the same lectures, word for word, for over fifty years--may seem querulous and demanding to his hosts, but in his own mind he's quintessentially British and stiff-upper-lip-y. Professor Blevins is the titular "old goat" in Robert Barnard's delightful and hilarious campus farce-cum-crime novel, Death of an Old Goat.Professor Wickham, also of Oxford but chair, now, at the University in Drummondale, is Professor Blevin-Smith's host for this latest stop on his tour. He's got problems of his own: a wannabe social climber of a wife, a staff who are indifferent at best and at worst are downright stupid. And lucky Wickham--in addition to picking his doddering peer up at the railway station and depositing him at his motel, he gets to host a cocktail party for him as well the next night. Poor Professor Blevin-Smith. After an interminable train ride, a dinner every bit as primitive as he had dreaded, and an utterly unsatisfying night's sleep, the poor old goat has to deliver his lecture on Mrs. Gaskell to an audience of assistant professors and lecturers compelled to attend. No wonder that when he misses the briefest of beats somewhere in the middle of the lecture he picks up at exactly the same point...but in his Jane Austen lecture, leaving those few attendees paying even the least bit of attention either scratching their heads perplexedly or tittering behind their hands to one another.But even though he bored the entire English Department to tears, and even though he wandered through the cocktail party in his honor in a fog of sleeping pills and booze, and even though he ended the night by engaging in a verbal tiff with his host over the quality of his experience so far, still, the poor old goat does not deserve to have his throat slit from ear to ear while he sleeps that night.Everyone's a suspect because no one has any motive at all to kill the professor. The investigation falls into the hands of the less-than-interested Police Inspector Royle, who, in addition to never having had to actually solve a crime before, has a full docket of midday trysts with housewives in his jurisdiction.Death of an Old Goat is light and airy, sending up equally the academics, the local gentry, and the police. A satisfying read for a rainy afternoon.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The very elderly Professor Belville-Smith from Oxford is contributing to the education of antipodean students of English with a lecture tour to Australia. Basically he is delivering the same lectures for which he gained a reputation 50 years ago. However someone at Drummondale, an outback New South Wales university town obviously doesn't like him and he ends up dead in his motel room with his throat cut from ear to ear. Local police inspector Royle has to interrupt his weekly schedule of local cuckolding to investigate the death. This was Barnard's first novel and apparently based on a sojourn he had in Australia. It is semi-satirical and contains some very unkind observations about Australian life in general. It evoked both annoyance and cultural cringe in me.