Adaptation ledger
Books vs screen.
Caroline Graham wrote seven Chief Inspector Barnaby novels. The first five were adapted for television. A Place of Safety and A Ghost in the Machine offer further Barnaby investigations beyond those screen adaptations.
Adapted
The Killings at Badger's Drift
The programme's opening case keeps the novel's immaculate village surface, central investigation and dark family secret while reshaping the story for feature-length television.
Compare novel and screen →View the verified paperback on Amazon UK ↗Verify this edition with Headline ↗Adapted
Death of a Hollow Man
The Ferne Basset amateur dramatics mystery moves naturally to screen, with its theatrical rivalries and lethal production of Amadeus intact at the centre.
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Death in Disguise
The spiritual retreat, clashing personalities and Barnaby investigation became an early television case and now links directly into the complete episode catalogue.
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Written in Blood
Midsomer Worthy's writers' circle supplied television with one of its purest collisions of literary vanity, insecurity and carefully maintained identity.
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Faithful Unto Death
The adaptation preserves the village unease surrounding a failed development and a disappearance, while compressing the novel's investigation for television.
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A Place of Safety
The sixth Barnaby novel has no direct television adaptation. It offers television viewers a separate investigation to discover in print. Graham discussed its different mystery structure in a recorded account of her 2004 National Film Theatre appearance.
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A Ghost in the Machine
The final published Chief Inspector Barnaby novel has not received a direct television adaptation, leaving another full Graham mystery beyond the familiar episodes.
Compare novel and screen →View the verified paperback on Amazon UK ↗Verify this edition with Headline ↗Reading trail
Check the shelf.
The publisher identifies A Place of Safety as the sixth Barnaby novel; an account of Graham’s 2004 National Film Theatre appearance explicitly records that it was not adapted. This corrects an earlier Casebook claim of six adaptations. Edition dates and availability vary.