Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is the award-winning author of dozens of mystery novels, many of them very funny. Barnard was a passionate fan of the performing arts, opera in particular, and his knowledge of the field, both the music and the people involved in presenting it, infuses a number of his books set in that world, such as Death and the Chaste Apprentice and Death on the High C's. Because his funny books were so gorgeously funny, Barnard has often been thought of as a specialist in wit. But the few “serious” mysteries he wrote, such as Out of the Blackout, are at least the equal of the funny ones.