Death of a Hollow Man

Death of a Hollow Man is a work of detective fiction by Caroline Graham, the second in her Chief Inspector Barnaby series, which has been adapted into the successful ITV drama Midsomer Murders.

Plot summary

While attending an amateur production of Amadeus with his wife, Joyce, Chief Inspector Barnaby witnesses the gruesome, all-too realistic murder of an actor on stage, after the fake prop knife used to slit his character's throat is replaced with a real one.

As he investigates the shocking crime, Barnaby unearths a whole host of dark passions and resentments nestling beneath the surviving cast's genial facade...

Publication history

• United Kingdom: 1989, Century (imprint of Random House), London, 1989, Hardback, 272 p., ISBN 0712629114.
• United States: 1989, Morrow, New York City, 1989, Hardback, 268 p., ISBN 0688091164.

T.V adaptation

The novel was adapted into the third episode of Midsomer Murders, starring (alongside regulars John Nettles and Daniel Casey) Bernard Hepton, Debra Stephenson, Janine Duvitski, Angela Pleasence, Nicholas Le Prevost and John Cater.