"@Britta: You like George Gently?" asked Tony Van Helsing in a comment on a comment (see: we read them).
Do I? Do I like George Gently? About the person I'm not quite sure. I like the TV-series very much, discovered it just recently. I see and read a lot of detective fiction, above you see a little choice fom the DVDs I have.
We endowed 6000 German (written by Germans, no translations) detective novels to the Schiller Literaturarchiv in Marbach. Normally they only harbour "High Literature". But our books were very old German detective novels (the first written before Edgar Allan Poe's famous short story), and they are double valuable because nobody ever collected them - the fate of "Low Literature", though produced in masses, is to be thrown away. Lots of them date very easily,
some become classics.
Though even a classic can be modernized:
At the moment I delve into "A Touch of Frost", interspersed with the umptien times meeting with "Inspector Morse".
Had you asked me: "You like Inspector Morse?" my answer would have been a clear: "Yes! I love him!"
PS:
If anybody of you will recommend a detective TV-series I might not know, PLEASE do it! The winter evenings will be long...
PPS: Thank you for your P.D.James tip, dear Anonymous: of course I should have mentioned Commander Adam Dalgliesh (and a few others :-)
17 comments:
Love to watch The Thin Man movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy, and their little dog Asta.
Dear Amy,
thank you! Myrna and William are such a fashionable 'cool' wisecracking pair - hilarious! Only 'danger': when I see them, I want a cocktail, too. The books of Dashiel Hammett are also interesting (though a far cry from the films with Myrna&William)
Alas, I do not have a recommendation for you my dear Britta. But I did enjoy learning this about you, and I very much enjoyed the imagery posted with your words. Particularly that colossal pinky ring on Jason King.
Dear Britta,
Your knowledge in detective fiction is really vast. Sherlock Holmes is my favorites and Agatha Christie is also not second..but i didnt like the modernised version of Sherlock Holmes..
Dear Suze,
yeah - pink is right - Peter Wyngarde was also very much responsible for the fashion of the Seventies (really). I have more photographs of him, also in "Department S" - he has a unique style, and the Jason-King-films are not unwitty.
Dear Tomz,
I love Sherlock Holmes, too - and Lord Peter Wimsey, and Hercule Poirot (especially with David Suchet) and Jane Marple (especially with Jane Hickson, but Geraldine McEwan is also very good).
I am very, very interested why you do not like the modernised version of Sherlock.
Britta: We, too, our huge fans of British TV mystery series, in particular, though I can't imagine, given your huge knowledge, there'd be any we know that you don't. Still, here are two: Inspector Lynley (from books by Elizabeth George) and Foyle's War.
Dear Susan,
BINGO: I don't know Foyle's War! Thank you - I will first look it up on Youtube (once I didn't do that and ordered a TV-series - and then I was so disturbed by the voice&gum-champing of the main character, that I sent it back :-)
Foyle's War; Walander (Swedish) and Beck (also Swedish). We are thoroughly enjoying the Inspector Lewis episodes that are airing on PBS too.
Dear Pondside,
when Susan and you both recommend Foyle's War, it must be worth looking at! And I will! Inspector Lewis is still waiting in his DVD-box - I have to confess that I have to get used to the idea that he is the main character now. I loved the books from Maj Sjöwall & Per Wallöö (I met her reading a few years ago) - but in TV Swedish novels are rather dark and a bit depressing, though interesting :-)
I love those sorts of books/movies/series...I want to thank your commentators for introducing me to new ones!
Dear Maggie,
that is the great thing in Blogland: I learn so much through those posts and comments! So much to be grateful for.
I used to enjoy reading Sherlock Holmes stories and Agatha Christie. Sadly, now I only find time to watch an occasional Poirot DVD, and I think I've borrowed Foyle's War from the local library. It sounds familiar. The Brits are very good at those detective stories. More dignified work than the Americans have done, at least recently. I'm sorry to say I've never read any German detective novels. Are there any new ones being written that you can recommend?
Dear Walk2Write,
I agree, to read detective stories is a question of time - and, as I think, of season too: I read/see more in autumn and winter. Well - those masses of German detective stories were the foundation of a thesis of Husband - except from some very new Germans (who write plots with regional concern) I prefer to read British and American novels - those are still here,(mostly in our house in Hildesheim, where Husband has a sort of own library - well, he works on Popular Culture, but I wanted, when we moved, a flat with less books. They are still enough here in Berlin...)
If you really want to know all about detective fiction,P.D James is an absolute MUST. Not only is she Britain's best lady-crime writer to date, but she has also written an excellent and intelligent book about the genre (which is also a great joy to read)called 'Talking About Detective Fiction'.I'm quite surprised none of you had her on your list.And do try Kate Atkinson's books.The way her puzzle pieces fit together and add up to a thriller is quite fantastic.
Dear Anonymous,
thank you for both recommendations! I'm sorry that I forgot P.D.James (but look above at my PPS), and I know her wonderful book on detective fiction. Kate Atkinson is new for me - I ordered on Amazon now :-) So winter may come.
I was about to recommend Kate Atkinson, but I see someone already has. Just don't bother with the TV version: the actor was perfect but they'd messed with the stories and lost the humour. You need 'Case Histories' first.
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