A Ghost in the Machine is a work of detective fiction

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

 by Caroline Graham

Caroline Graham

Caroline Graham is an English playwright, screenwriter and novelist.Graham was born in Nuneaton, studied with the Open University, and received a degree in writing for the theatre from the University of Birmingham. Her first published book was Fire Dance, a romance novel...

, the seventh in her popular Chief Inspector

Chief inspector

Chief inspector is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police .-Australia:...

 Barnaby

Tom Barnaby

Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Barnaby is a fictional detective created by Caroline Graham. DCI Barnaby is featured in the Chief Inspector Barnaby book series which began with The Killing at Badger's Drift in 1987. Barnaby is also the main detective in Midsomer Murders, a popular...

 series, which has been adapted into the equally successful ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...

.

Plot summary

Midsomer resident Dennis Brinkley, an enthusiastic collector of old war machines and torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

 weapons, suffers a gruesome death after being crushed by one of his own devices. Although his demise is initially regarded as an accident, his best friend Benny believes otherwise, and her suspicions are only confounded by local psychic Ava Garrett, who tells her that she will ask Derek to identify his killer at her next seance

Séance

A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...

.

However, the elusive murderer silences her before the event can go ahead, leaving Chief Inspector Barnaby, accompanied by his Sgt

Sergeant

Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

Gavin Troy, with two gruesome slayings and an increasingly complex mystery to unravel...