IT'S A CRIME! (OR A MYSTERY...)

The Murdoch Mysteries on alibi: series two starts on Tuesday 10 Feb 2009

UK digital TV station alibi has been bringing us the delights of re-runs of old UK crime series favourites for quite a while now.  If you tune in on Tuesday 03.02.09 @ 9pm you will find an episode of Murdoch Mysteries, but I believe this to be season one, possibly seen only on Sky before, of a Canadian crime series.

However, one week later series/season two starts as an exclusive to UKTV's station alibi on 10.02.09.  It's set in a Victorian Toronto and is based on the novels of Maureen Jennings.  Starring French Canadian actor Yannick Bisson as the detective William Murdoch; UK actor Thomas Craig (Where The Heart Is, Coronation Street) stars alongside as Inspector Brackenreid, his difficult boss.

New crime drama TV series in the UK w/c Monday 2 Feb 2009

There are three of them altogether, but I'll start with Monday's head to head between BBC2 and ITV1 at 9pm.  Aren't we lucky we have BBC iplayer and other remedies to dilemmas such as this one?

BBC2 has a three parter entitled Moses Jones, written by Joe Penhall.  Expect some decent viewing figures as there will be many checking out Matt Smith, the new Dr Who in his role as DS Dan Twentyman.  He stars alongside Shaun Parkes as DI Moses Jones in a London-based crime drama that takes them into the heart of the African community.  The story kicks off with the mutilated body of a man found floating in the Thames.  Where witchcraft is the first thought, the truth turns out to be much stranger...  [More info at the Daily Telegraph in a feature from the pen of the writer.  Picture: BBC.]

Over on ITV1, we're still in London, but the offering of Whitechapel stars Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis and Steve Pemberton.  120 years after Jack the Ripper struck, someone is copying the slaughter with amazing accuracy, even under the constant surveillance of CCTV cameras in the area and the use of modern day detection techniques such as DNA analysis.  It's another three part production.  [Again the DT has more information.  Picture: ITV.]

And the third series starts on Tuesday: more to come in a separate post.

The Coroner - M. R. Hall

And now for something delightfully different.  The novel carries but one blurb, but this time it's worth every word; from Lynda La Plante "M. R. Hall has created a wonderful heroine in a genre we haven't seen before".  The heroine to which she refers is Jenny Cooper, leaving an acrimonious divorce behind her (as much as she can) and emerging from a maelstrom in a cocoon of a nervous breakdown to be able to function enough to start a new job as a Coroner.

Unfortunately, the peace and quiet she sought in her new role was not to be, as her predecessor died suddenly leaving behind him two cases for which his judgement call could be described as suspect.  In the case of Danny Wills, 14, found hanging from the window bars in his bedroom at a Secure Training Centre, Harry Marshall promised his mother that no stone would go unturned but he chickened out before the inquest.  For Katy Taylor, 15, found near Clifton Suspension Bridge slumped on the ground and partially decomposed, Marshall did not open an inquest even though the cause of death was heroine overdose.

Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge: Duke of York's Theatre London & more on books later...

It's only just started and is still in preview, but the Duke of York's theatre was packed for the matinee on the Saturday afternoon of 24 Jan 09.  What do you expect?  We see a return to the boards for Ken Stott in the lead role and it was clear that many had come to see him and him alone.  Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Consenting Adults, The Perfect Storm) has crossed the pond to star alongside him.  Relative newcomer Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited) puts in an excellent performance as the niece Catherine.  And there's more.  But first, the story, taken from the theatre's website:

Authors making the grade on January's blue Monday...

January 19th is said to be the most depressing day of the year, so this headline in the Daily Telegraph caught my eye: "Blue Monday?  Try our celebrity cheer-up tips".  The cynic in me just had to click on the link as I wondered what little gems (probably costly) these celebrities were coming up with.  I was stunned: a few of them carry no cost at all and many carry low cost treats.  But then, the DT hasn't trotted out your usual celebrities.

Fresh from winning the CWA's Cartier Diamond Dagger 2009, Andrew Taylor recommends chatting, especially about books, and highly recommends reading groups.  (I wonder what he thinks of his new celebrity status?)

Another crime author featured is R.S.Downie who recommends playing tennis at Blackheath Park @ £6.50 for the hire of a court.

Now back to the depressing bit.  Just 24 hours before, Professor Dylan Jones-Evans of the University of Wales wrote this enlightening article about the state of the economy last week.  Then on blue Monday things got worse.  Much worse.  Will Hutton said we look like "...Iceland-on-Thames..." and Peter Oborne thinks "We're a nation on the brink of going bankrupt".  What a day!

The Good Thief's Guide to Paris - Chris Ewan

Chris Ewan's protagonist Charlie Howard - the crime caper author who writes about a burglar, but who is also a burglar in his non-writing time - is back.  After a bit of a "do" in Amsterdam involving the theft of three monkeys (of the dust-collecting variety and not live), Charlie is now in Paris, working on his next novel and about to do a book signing.  Where some authors may simply pray that people turn up for such an event, this could be their own customised Aesop's fable.  It's the book signing that starts the stream of events that causes Charlie a bit of a challenging time in Paris.

A fan seeks a personal book dedication and then persuades Charlie to provide him with a paid tutorial on breaking-in.  No worries: it's the fan's own apartment, he says.  It's achieved satisfactorily and Charlie is paid for his services.  But the following day things go a little bit more than belly-up when Charlie's fence in Paris asks him to break into an apartment to steal a non-entity of a piece of art.  It proves to be the same apartment as the previous night.  Charlie is now on a trail in which he has to look after his own back and work out who is bluffing whom in a plot that involves art and museums and of course, a few nasty pieces of work in human form.

The Private Patient - P.D.James

P.D.James's The Private Patient from Faber is out now in hardback and the paperback will follow in April 2009.  It is thought possible that it could be the last in the Dalgliesh series, given the author's age.  If so, it nicely rounds off some open threads for her main characters and if not, it leaves some still in need of resolution, although nothing that would break hearts or cause stress.  If it proves to be the last, it contains one sentence which, I believe, will make it memorable:

"Because I no longer have need of it."

This is the reply Rhoda Gradwyn gives her Harley Street plastic surgeon when asked at their first consultation why she has waited thirty four years to seek removal of her facial scar.  Three weeks and two days later, just after a successful operation on her scar, she lies dead in her hospital bed.  But this is not due to medical complications; she has been strangled.

A Vengeful Longing - Three Book Giveaway Competition

Roger (R.N.) Morris has kindly offered three copies of his latest St Petersburg mystery paperback edition from Faber.  They will be signed and can be dedicated.  All you have to do is correctly answer the following question in the comments and be one of the first three correct replies: Where A Vengeful Longing is set in the summer, in which season was A Gentle Axe set?

Clue?  You can find one by following the link on the book list here (right hand bar) and looking at the picture.  Easy peasy.  Go on then...

Competition now closed, we have three winners in the comments.

Skin and Bones - Tom Bale

January 2009 sees the launch of at least two new thrillers: Neil Cross's Burial and Tom Bale's Skin and Bones, both of which are getting some PR push.  At the time of writing, Cross appears to have garnered a bit more MSM page space, so forgive me for gushing here, but I feel that Bale's Skin and Bones is even better than Burial and I am surprised that not more reviewers have yet picked up on it.

Tom Bale has previously written a crime novel under his own name of David Harrison, but we'll come back to that one later.  Skin and Bones is the first thriller from this author, published by Preface (a Random House imprint) in Jan '09.  The first hook for me was in the synopsis; I found it full of intrigue and wondered where the author could take that kind of story.  The second hook came when I started reading and I didn't want to stop.  So what's it all about?

Early one morning, Julia Trent enters the Sussex village that was once the home of her recently late parents, expecting to start a house clearance.  But in those unnaturally quiet village moments, Trent thinks she sees a dead body. 

An interesting meme of sorts...

Maxine has just posted her thoughts on this matter in Mystery Reader Cafe via Eurocrime and Karen, at Eurocrime, did so on Friday 2 Jan 09.  What's it all about?  The Yahoo group Mystery Reader Cafe is running the following challenge for 2009:

1. Read a mystery with the word "murder" in the title.
2. Read a mystery set in your region.
3. Read a mystery that has been on your shelf for at least a year.
4. Read a mystery from a "new to you" author.

Please remember that each challenge above should be a different book.

Both Karen and Maxine have posted with their results for 2008 and so will I and here it is: