Listening shelf · Audible UK catalogue checked 6 September 2026
Listen to the original Barnaby mysteries.
All seven Caroline Graham novels are currently listed as English, unabridged audiobooks narrated by John Hopkins. The first five inspired television episodes; the final two are complete Barnaby investigations that were not directly adapted.
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The Killings at Badger's Drift
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 April 2022
Death of a Hollow Man
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 June 2022
Death in Disguise
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 October 2022
Written in Blood
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 December 2022
Faithful Unto Death
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 March 2023
A Place of Safety
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 June 2023
A Ghost in the Machine
- Narrator
- John Hopkins
- Edition
- English · unabridged
- Audio release
- 1 July 2023
Language editions
Catalogue names change across borders.
Audible also lists a German-language Inspector Barnaby series narrated by Frank Arnold. The title selection and membership terms shown to you depend on your Audible territory.
German-language Audible series ↗Browse the full English series ↗How the listening order connects to the screen
Follow novel publication order rather than the audio release dates. All seven recordings below name John Hopkins as narrator; the running times belong to those editions, not to television broadcasts.
| Book | Publication | Narrator and duration | Screen version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Killings at Badger's Drift | 1987 | John Hopkins · 8 hrs 22 mins | The Killings at Badger's Drift |
| 2. Death of a Hollow Man | 1989 | John Hopkins · 11 hrs 10 mins | Death of a Hollow Man |
| 3. Death in Disguise | 1992 | John Hopkins · 13 hrs 48 mins | Death in Disguise |
| 4. Written in Blood | 1994 | John Hopkins · 13 hrs 24 mins | Written in Blood |
| 5. Faithful Unto Death | 1996 | John Hopkins · 13 hrs 12 mins | Faithful Unto Death |
| 6. A Place of Safety | 1999 | John Hopkins · 10 hrs 9 mins | No direct adaptation |
| 7. A Ghost in the Machine | 2004 | John Hopkins · 17 hrs 14 mins | No direct adaptation |
1. The Killings at Badger's Drift
Begin with the first novel if you want the literary introduction to Barnaby before revisiting the television pilot. The familiar title provides an easy bridge between formats, but a book can place the reader inside a character’s thoughts in a way a screen performance cannot. Compare the opening village impressions before comparing the solution. A narrator’s phrasing and an actor’s expression are different means of directing attention; neither needs to imitate the other to make the investigation intelligible.
2. Death of a Hollow Man
The amateur theatre setting makes this a particularly useful book-and-screen pairing. On television, a performance takes place before your eyes; on the page, the prose must distinguish between the play, its performers and what the reader is told about them. Notice when you are watching a character perform a role and when you are seeing that person away from the stage. Save any discussion of the lethal production’s mechanics until both versions are finished, because a comparison can otherwise reveal more than intended.
3. Death in Disguise
The spiritual retreat brings people with incompatible expectations into the same place. Reading rather than watching gives you time to reconsider the language each person uses about that shared setting. The corresponding episode is an early television investigation, so this is also a manageable comparison before exploring the much longer screen run. Publication position and television position are separate things: use the linked episode’s series number rather than assuming that the third novel must supply the third televised case.
4. Written in Blood
A writers’ circle is an apt setting for thinking about what people choose to say and what an audience accepts as their story. Begin with the published novel if you prefer to meet that circle through prose; begin with the episode if you want the performers’ interpretations to be your first impression. Either route is workable. The useful comparison comes afterwards, when you can separate what a character says about events from what the narrative actually allows you to observe without relying on memory of the ending.
5. Faithful Unto Death
This is the fifth and final direct adaptation in the seven-book sequence. That position makes it a natural stopping point for a reader working through the early television connections, but it is not the end of Graham’s Barnaby novels. Keep the next two titles on your reading list if the literary detective and village observations are what interest you. The audio edition’s running time describes this particular recording; it does not indicate the length of the television episode or promise the same pacing.
6. A Place of Safety
This sixth novel offers a Barnaby investigation without a direct television counterpart in the Casebook’s adaptation list. It is therefore a useful choice for someone who knows the screen mysteries and wants to encounter an unfamiliar literary case. There is no matching episode link to follow and no screen solution to compare here. Read it as a novel in its own right rather than searching the television archive for a case with an approximately similar title or treating a shared theme as evidence of adaptation.
7. A Ghost in the Machine
The seventh book completes this publication-order route and is also the longest recording listed in the current audio data. Its duration may help you divide listening into several sessions, but the catalogue does not specify a recommended daily schedule. Like A Place of Safety, it has no direct adaptation in the site’s book-to-screen list. Finishing it takes you beyond the five adapted stories while leaving the much larger television archive available as a separate route through Midsomer.