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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, very funny whodunit, 17 Dec 2004
The old goat in question is a touring Oxford Professor, visiting an outback Australian university. He delivers lectures on Victorian writers ... lectures which are themselves so old they qualify for a pension. And here he is, at the end of the line. The university is a blemish on a drought-ridden wilderness; as a place of learning, it suffers from an intellectual drought.The local farmers have little time for the university; the academics look down on the locals. When the old goat is found murdered in his motel room, the scene is set for the two worlds to accuse one another. Will the blundering Inspector Royle get to the truth through the morass of suspicion and mutual contempt? This is an accomplished whodunit, very funny in places, and graced throughout with undercurrents of irony and outrageous cynicism: this is humour in the Tom Sharpe vein. A simple, very well written, slow moving story, "Death of an Old Goat" will grip you and sweep you up in its crazy dynamic. If I have one criticism, it is that the ending is a tad abrupt, but, that aside, excellent ... thoroughly excellent!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, very funny whodunit, 17 Dec 2004
The old goat in question is a touring Oxford Professor, visiting an outback Australian university. He delivers lectures on Victorian writers ... lectures which are themselves so old they qualify for a pension. And here he is, at the end of the line. The university is a blemish on a drought-ridden wilderness; as a place of learning, it suffers from an intellectual drought.The local farmers have little time for the university; the academics look down on the locals. When the old goat is found murdered in his motel room, the scene is set for the two worlds to accuse one another. Will the blundering Inspector Royle get to the truth through the morass of suspicion and mutual contempt? This is an accomplished whodunit, very funny in places, and graced throughout with undercurrents of irony and outrageous cynicism: this is humour in the Tom Sharpe vein. A simple, very well written, slow moving story, "Death of an Old Goat" will grip you and sweep you up in its crazy dynamic. If I have one criticism, it is that the ending is a tad abrupt, but, that aside, excellent ... thoroughly excellent!
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hilarious Aussie detective story in "Lucky Jim" tradition, 6 Jan 2004
I have to admit I don't usually read detective stories. This one is as good as Carl Hiaasen! I found it on a bedside table while staying at a friend's house. "Death of an Old Goat" was so funny that I have read it several times and end up buying a copy. It is the story of a murder at a backwater university-- university is too good a name for it-- in provincial Australia. Maybe I like it so much partly because my father taught English at a place much like the one in the story, and the author has a keen eye for the petty faculty politics, backstabbing, social climbing, and oneupmanship in such places! But the book's appeal goes beyond that. Years later, I can still see the characters and story vividly. The characters are hilariously observed and believable and the dialogue snappy and sharp. The brassy young Australian woman professor, the doddering eminent visiting lecturer, the hapless young Oxford graduate lost on the Australian scene, the rough and hearty Aussie landowners, and other memorable characters, plus the fast-paced clever story and the strong sense of dusty-outback place, made me love this book.
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by Robert Barnard
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