Robert Barnard

Robert Barnard (23 November 1936 – 19 September 2013) was an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.

Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford. His first crime novel, A Little Local Murder, was published in 1976. The novel was written while he was a lecturer at University of Tromsø in Norway. He went on to write more than 40 other books and numerous short stories.

Barnard said that his favourite crime writer was Agatha Christie. In 1980 he published a critique of her work titled A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie.

Barnard was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2003 by the Crime Writers Association for a lifetime of achievement.

Under the pseudonym Bernard Bastable, Robert Barnard published two standalone novels and two alternate history books starring Wolfgang Mozart as a detective, he having survived to old age.

Barnard died on 19 September 2013. He and his wife Louise lived in Yorkshire.

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