The Mystery Genre - English Cops Part 3.... Guvnor

Another week starting and it's still sunny and fresh... I could have mowed the lawn today for the last time but I got lazy again and did laundry instead. Now it's time to relax and enjoy Monday night TV; Bull, The Resident, 9-1-1, The Rookie (unless it is a repeat as advertised), Murdoch Mysteries and Frankie Drake Mysteries. Jo is going to make a chicken stir fry tonight. Looking forward to it.

I'm making steady progress on my current books; My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, Ice Lake by John Farrow, The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green, Shift by Hugh Howey and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Still a way to go with them so no comments yet. But I will continue with my posts on the Mystery Genre. There are still a few more police mysteries to mention from British authors.

The Mystery Genre - English Cops

Jasper Fforde

1. Jasper Fforde (Thursday Next). Jasper Fforde is an English novelist born in London in 1961. Amongst the series he's created is that of Thursday Next, an agent for the Literary Detective Squad working out of Swindon. This is not your typical mystery series. It's set in an alternate England, with the country run by Prime Minister George Formby. It is however a fascinating series, with the detectives, led by Thursday Next searching through the literary world to solve their cases. I've read the first two books so far and enjoyed them both immensely. Since 2001, Fforde has written seven books in the series. When I finish this series, I may check out his Nursery Crime series (2 books).

a. The Eyre Affair (2001).












"I don't normally like to give 5-star ratings but this book was just such a fun, entertaining read that I couldn't give myself a reason not to. I liked Thursday Next's character very much and the strange and wonderful persons who surrounded her made for a joyful ride, from her time travelling father who dropped in and out for little moments to Uncle Mycroft and Aunt Polly and even the only lightly introduced pet Dodo.

There are so many characters and back stories that I want to find out more about that I'm really looking forward to finding the next episode in Thursday's adventures. What about this story? Well, basically Thursday Next is an SO-27 Literatec agent who works to find lost books, false books, etc. That's such a simplification in this fantastical world, where the Crimean conflict is still taking place, where the walls between reality and fiction are fragile and people can travel both ways, into and out of stories, but that's the gist of her job.

She is seconded to a higher branch of Special Ops and finds herself arrayed against Acheron Hades, a mad, psychopath, who has stolen the original Martin Chuzzlewit and intends to kill off the main character if his demands are not met. Of course this will have a catastrophic impact on the story, of course; it will no longer exist basically. So there you have the beginning; Thursday's adventures progress from there. It's fascinating and wild and well-written and so darned interesting. Enjoy!!! (5 stars)"

b. Lost in a Good Book (2002).












"Lost in a Good Book is the 2nd installment in Jasper Fforde entertaining fantasy series featuring literary detective Thursday Next. I don't know if it's as good as the first book, The Eyre Affair, but it is still a fun read throughout.

We find Thursday 'basking' in the glory of her marriage to Landen, fending off the continual pressure from Special Ops' Cordelia Flakk, their publicity agent as she tries to keep Thursday on a promotional tour for her work saving Jane Eyre (first book). At the same time, evil corporation Goliath wants her to get back Jack Schitt from the pages of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Also, the ChronoGuard want her to help capture Thursday's father, who is wandering through time. Lots going on as well as Thursday learning how to be a Jurisfiction operative from Charles Dickens' Miss Havisham.. Whew, oh yes, she's also awaiting a hearing on changing the ending of Jane Eyre (once again, Book 1)

So much for you to delve into plus all of the interesting characters you meet along the way. Will Thursday be able to save Landen from.. well, you'll have to read it to find out from what? Will she and her father keep the world from ending??? Will Thursday be able to keep herself alive from 'coincidence'? It's all very fantastic and neat and exciting and interesting. (4 stars) Now to find a copy of book three!!!"

The remaining books in the series are - (books with asterisk are on my bookshelf)
- The Well of Lost Plots (2003) *
- Something Rotten (2004)
- First Among Sequels (2007) *
- One of Our Thursday's is Missing (2011)
- The Woman Who Died a Lot (2012)

Frances Fyfield

2. Frances Fyfield (Helen West). Frances Fyfield (pseudonym for Frances Hegarty) is an English mystery writer born in Derbyshire in 1948. She has written a number of mystery series. I'll be featuring her Helen West series. West is a prosecutor, the subject of 6 books by Fyfield.

The series has twice been adapted for TV, once with Juliet Stevenson playing West ant the other time, Amanda Burton in the role. I've managed to find four of the series so far and they are on my bookshelf awaiting my attention. I have read one of Fyfield's standalone mysteries, Blind Date, and enjoyed. I'll highlight three books I have on my shelves for now.

a. Trial By Fire (#2 / 1990).












"The author of A Question of Guilt returns with another heart-rending mystery featuring Crown Prosecutor Helen West and Detective Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey. The likely place for a crime of passion, but what else could account for the naked body of a woman found in the woods?"

b. Shadow Play (#4 / 1993).












"Crown Prosecutor Helen West is doubly frustrated. Her lover, Geoffrey Bailey, is off to a police education course, with weekend visits only a slight possibility. And she has just failed for the fifth time to convict a menacing little man called Logo. Brought before the magistrate for trying to lure young girls to the cemetery, Logo blames all his troubles on the daughter who ran away four years before. If she returned, he could stop chasing the others.

Until Logo misbehaves again and Geoffrey returns, Helen can just stew. Or she can strike up an unlikely friendship with Rose, a smart office clerk who has slept with most of the young constables in the area. Tart-tongued Rose lets down her guard for Helen. But neither one of them is prepared for the terror just around the corner in Rose's life--."

c. A Clear Conscience (#5 / 1994). 












" Helen West, Crown Prosecutor in domestic violence court, is working up a good case of burnout because justice-by-the-book seldom seems to do the women she represents much good. Helen's love affair with Police Superintendent Geoffrey Bailey also seems to be losing its fire.

Then, as if someone has designed a test case for her, Helen learns that humble Cath, her cleaning woman, is being beaten by her husband. Cath has no family--her beautiful brother, Damien, has recently been brutally murdered--so she needs all the help she can get. Helen is willing to give it.
But as the truth of Cath's young life, her marriage, and her brother's murder begin to take shape, piece by jagged piece, help and justice seem hard to come by . . . and may be forever beyond reach."

The other three books in the series are - (asterisk on the one I've got)
- A Question of Guilt (1988)
- Deep Sleep (1991)
- Without Consent (1996) *

Elizabeth George

3. Elizabeth George (Inspector Lynley). Elizabeth George is an American writer of mysteries, best known for her series featuring English police inspector, Lord Lynley and his Sgt, Barbara Havers. She has written 20 books in the series since 1988, with the first 11 being turned into TV movies. When I discovered the series, I very quickly read the first 5, plus #9, but it's been a few years now since I returned to the books. I will have to do so. I think it's probably because I started watching the TV series that I neglected the books.

a. A Great Deliverance (1988).












"To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders.

Now into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an axe in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry."

Yet as Lynley and Havers wind their way through Keldale's dark labyrinth of secret scandals and appalling crimes, they uncover a shattering series of revelations that will reverberate through this tranquil English valley—and in their own lives as well. (4 stars)"

b. Payment in Blood (1989).













"The career of playwright Joy Sinclair comes to an abrupt end on an isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands when someone drives an eighteen-inch dirk through her neck. Called upon to investigate the case in a country where they have virtually no authority, aristocratic Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, grapple for both a motive and a murderer. Emotions run deep in this highly charged drama, for the list of suspects soon includes Britain's foremost actress, its most successful theatrical producer, and the woman Lynley loves. He and Havers must tread carefully through the complicated terrain of human relationships, while they work to solve a case rooted in the darkest corners of the past and the unexplored regions of the human heart. (3 stars)"

c. Well-Schooled in Murder (1990).












"When thirteen-year-old Matthew Whately goes missing from Bredgar Chambers, a prestigious public school in the heart of West Sussex, aristocratic Inspector Thomas Lynley receives a call for help from the lad's housemaster, who also happens to be an old school chum. Thus, the inspector, his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, and forensic scientist Simon Allcourt-St. James find themselves once again outside their jurisdiction and deeply involved in the search for a child--and then, tragically, for a child killer. Questioning prefects, teachers, and pupils closest to the dead boy, Lynley and Havers sense that something extraordinarily evil is going on behind Bredgar Chambers's cloistered walls. But as they begin to unlock the secrets of this closed society, the investigation into Matthew's death leads them perilously close to their own emotional wounds--and blinds them to the signs of another murder in the making.... (4 stars)"

The remaining books in the series are - (rated if I've read and asterisked if I have them)
- A Suitable Vengeance (1991) (4 stars) *
- For the Sake of Elena (1992) (3 stars) *
- Missing Joseph (1992)
- Playing for the Ashes (1993)
- In the Presence of the Enemy (1996)
- Deception on his Mind (1997) (3 stars) *
- In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner (1999)
- A Traitor to Memory (2001)
- A Place of Hiding (2003) *
- With No One as Witness (2005)
- What Came Before He Shot Her (2006)
- Careless in Red (2008)
- This Body of Death (2010)
- Believing the Lie (2012)
- Just One Evil Act (2013)
- A Banquet of Consequences (2015)
- The Punishment She Deserves (2018)

Well, there you go. Time to watch Murdoch Mysteries. It's a great one.. The Spy Who Loved Murdoch.... Lots of fun so far.