Jul 21 2008
Brit Lit Made EZ
I love British mystery series, but they are so damned prolific that it’s like being adrift in a sea of character development if you aren’t lucky enough to stumble upon the authors early in their careers. Identifying the first in a series can be daunting enough, but figuring out second, third, and so forth in a series of, say, twenty, is crazy-making. Used to be you could just check the copyright, but no brick and mortar bookseller is going to have all twenty of those books and with reprints and paperbacks and pocket books and trade editions–whatever. Very frustrating. Amazon could hire a person to do nothing but chronologize (and if that’s not a word, it would be) book series’ for a special section. This person would be very popular. This section would get hits, believe you me! I’d be especially interested in the Inspector Lynley series (Elizabeth George), Inspector Morse (back to Morse in a minute), and a few others I’ve just never been able to get a handle on. (It’s moments like these that I really appreciate the Sue Grafton’s and others who make it so simple!) If you like a great British mystery, I highly recommend Anne Perry’s Inspector Pitt. I actually kept up with those until recently. Pitt is a police Inspector (duh) during the Victorian era, who investigates socially sensitive crime among the wealthy, which pretty much always involves sex. Perry, herself, was involved in a real-life murder case and exiled from Britain in her youth, which was the basis for the indie film, Heavenly Creatures. Hard to get much factual information because she was a minor, but she probably knows of what she writes. She has a second series, and some other books, but Pitt is my favorite.
With the advent of Netflix, it is now so easy to supplement the sub-standard TV fare and catch up on all of those British PBS Mystery programs you missed or didn’t have the time or patience to watch commercial-free. For me, Jeremy Brett is the quintessential Sherlock Holmes. The rest of the production is cheesy as hell, but I loved watching that guy. My second favorite was John Thaw as Inspector Morse (based on the novels of Colin Dexter), who shares my temperament, but drinks much more and likes opera. Imagine my joy to find that a new series had been created based on Morse’s sidekick, Robbie Lewis! Actually watched them a few weeks ago on PBS (Alan Cumming now hosts, a bit more interesting than Diana Rigg, I must say), but they are also on DVD, having taken their time coming to America. Wire In the Blood and Touching Evil are also good, and have made me a fan of the actor Robson Green. Robbie Coltrane rocked as Cracker. I could go on…Not all of these come from great books, of course, but might be a diversion from what bores you. Always better to see it on screen first, and then check out the books, and not the other way around. I’ve got Lynley and Havens in my Netflix queue.
