Special Feature: Inspector Lewis: The Academic Body Count, Season 2 Part 3

The Oxford University of ITV/PBS's Inspector Lewis is a dangerous world for academics, and in this series I bring you the lowdown on who in the academic community is most likely to kill be or be killed.  This post gives the details for episodes 6-7 of US Season Two.  Previous posts in the series: Intro, Season One, Season 2 Part 1, Season 2 Part 2.

 The final two episodes of Season 2 give us one undergraduate victim, three community victims (one an Oxford alum, though), and two—yes, two—faculty murderers (one for each episode).  So we’re back to the Season One problem, it would seem, insofar as Oxford is in more danger from academics than it is a danger to academics.  If it’s any comfort (and I’m not sure it is!), only in “The Quality of Mercy” do the murders directly relate to university life; in “The Point of Vanishing,” the murderer is just a murderer who happens to have “professor” as his job title.

As this is the last season 2 post, it’s time for some overall season totals.  Over seven episodes, we have fifteen victims (only episode 2.3 breaks the “two victims per episode” norm).  Three of those victims are undergrads, two are faculty, three are administrators, one is staff, and six are unaffiliated with the university.  Of eight murderers, four are faculty members (two in episode 2.1, remember) and four are unaffiliated with the university.  A variety of faculty, staff, and students assist Lewis and Hathaway in their investigations, so the university isn’t all bad for the community, but I have to admit that these episodes make faculty look pretty scary.  It’s even more worrying to this humanist that three quarters of the faculty murderers are in the humanities.  And we like to think our fields of study improve our behavior toward our fellow humans!  The good news, I guess, is that while grad school often feels like a kill-or-be-killed kind of world, not one grad student has done either—yet (though to be fair it’s kind of a grad student’s fault that everything goes so badly wrong in “The Quality of Mercy”).

If you haven't seen the season, here's the Amazon link.  It's included with Prime, if you have it.

Details for Episodes 2.6 and 2.7 below the cut.  Contains spoilers.

Book Review: The Adventuress by Tasha Alexander

The Adventuress (Lady Emily Mysteries #10)

By Tasha Alexander

Published by Minotaur Books and distributed by Macmillan, October 13, 2015

Purchased and read on Amazon Kindle

Links: Amazon, B&N, Powell's

Rating: Four Stars (out of five)

Lest you think this blog has over the course of its brief life morphed into an all-Lewis-and-Phryne TV-fest, let me disabuse you of that notion by posting a review of the most recent Lady Emily mystery by Tasha Alexander.  This series, which focuses on the crime-solving adventures of an English noblewoman at the end of the nineteenth century, is one of my favorites, and for at least the last several years Alexander has released a new volume every October.  I hope she keeps it up for a while at least.

The Adventuress marks a return to form after what were, for me, a couple of less worthy entries in the series.  Both Behind the Shattered Glass (2013) and The Counterfeit Heiress (2014) had resolutions that were either unsatisfying or so obvious as to be irritating.  In The Adventuress, Emily’s lifelong friend and one-time suitor Jeremy Sheffield is finally engaged—to an American heiress named Amity Wells.  Amity’s family arranges a two-week engagement celebration in Cannes, to which Emily and her husband Colin, along with some other friends and family, are invited.  Soon after their arrival, Jeremy’s friend Chauncey Neville dies by drinking poisoned whiskey.  Everyone but Emily believes it’s a suicide, but when a young French dancer who had met the English party on the night of Chauncey’s death is found murdered, Emily’s instincts are proven right.

Amity of course knows about Emily and Jeremy’s longstanding friendship and one-time romance, and she sets out to befriend Emily.  However, someone wants her to think that Emily has no interest in her friendship and is out to sabotage her engagement.  Who?  Why?  The solution to this mystery is integral to the resolution of the murder plot. Like all of the Lady Emily books, The Adventuress uses alternating narrative perspectives.  This time, we get third-person narration from Amity’s point of view as well as Emily's first-person perspective. This has caused Alexander problems in the past, most notably in The Counterfeit Heiress where the second narrative voice made the mystery's solution fairly obvious, but in The Adventuress, it works pretty well by developing the "who wants to sabotage Emily and Amity's friendship" plot alongside the murder plot.

The Lady Emily books overall are fun, quick reads.  If you’re a fan of the Late Victorian era or of historical mysteries in general, they’re reliably enjoyable in spite of the occasional dud.  One thing I really appreciate about this series is that once Emily and Colin are married (at the end of book 3), their relationship is mostly a background to the mysteries.  It’s nice to read about a partnership between a married couple who love and can count on each other without a lot of relationship-based drama.  I particularly like how, in The Adventuress, jealousy never enters the picture on Colin’s part, even though there’s some suggestion that Jeremy and Emily might have lingering feelings for each other.

On a final note, for fans of other historical mysteries there’s a lovely shoutout to Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody books.  I like thinking of the characters as all inhabiting the same fictional world at the end of the nineteenth century.  Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot and will continue to look forward to new entries in the series.

TV Review: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Episode 3.5

“Death and Hysteria”

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Episode 3.5

Available on: Netflix (DVDs will be released on October 27, 2015)

Rating: Five Stars (out of five)

Okay, so this episode isn’t perfect, but it’s the best episode of the season so far.  It has everything you’d expect from a Miss Fisher mystery: a twisty turny plot, lots of witty banter, beautiful clothes, and Phryne insisting on helping those cast aside by mainstream society—in this case, “hysterical” women.

The episode opens with a group of women dancing the lawn at Aunt Prudence’s estate.  We then see Aunt Prudence conversing with the head psychiatrist, Dr. Samuels, and learn that she is letting the doctor use her house as a sanatorium because he has helped her cope with her son Arthur’s death.  When one of the patients dies by electrocution, aunt Prudence summons both her niece and the police, so Phryne and Jack are soon on the scene.  We soon learn that all is not as it seems with Dr. Samuels and his partner Dr. Perkins, and Phryne wonders if her aunt might have been taken in by an unscrupulous practitioner intent on taking Prudence’s money.  The case takes numerous twists and turns as we discover that Dr. Samuels is in disgrace with his medical colleagues, in no small part because he tries to save women from unnecessary hysterectomies.  Dr. Perkins, too, is up to something as is his sister Harriet, who serves as the doctors’ secretary and assistant.  The solution is moderately shocking and the episode is well-plotted so that the reveal makes sense.

I won’t reveal the murder weapon; let it suffice to say that it leads to much witty banter and some understated hilarity when our heroes discover it, and it allows for lots of innuendo between Phryne and Jack.  Their relationship is at its finest; we see the attraction but we’re not hit over the head with it and both characters behave like the ones we’ve come to know and love.  Hugh is completely absent, as he’s still on the sulky fishing trip he embarked on after being refused a promotion in Episode 3.4, causing this viewer to wonder whether the actor had another break, or the show had a budget issue, or what, because pouty Hugh is a weird story choice.  His replacement is an extremely sexist and irritating constable; as Mac remarks, “It’s men like that, that make the rest of them look reasonable.”  Fortunately he’s not around enough to spoil the episode.

Overall, this was a fun, well-plotted episode, and I hope the rest of the season continues in this vein.

Special Feature: Inspector Lewis: The Academic Body Count, Season 2 Part 2

The Oxford University of ITV/PBS's Inspector Lewis is a dangerous world for academics, and in this series I bring you the lowdown on who in the academic community is most likely to kill be or be killed.  This post gives the details for episodes 4-5 of US Season Two.  Here's the Intro post; here's the Season One breakdown; and here’s the first three episodes of Season 2.

In the first three episodes of season 2, things look pretty grim for Oxford faculty, staff, students and administrators.  We have victims in all four categories, and two faculty murderers.  Thus far in Season 2, undergrads aren’t as dangerous as they are in Season 1, but the community of Oxford is still pretty dangerous, what with all the murderous ex-Communists and, in these episodes, vengeful parents running around.

Episodes 4 and 5 contain a total of four victims (two in each episode).  Only one—a faculty member—is a member of the university community at the time of his death, but most of the murders connect to Oxford U in some way.  Neither of two murderers is directly affiliated with the University.  These episodes suggest that you can’t escape your past (even by becoming an English professor).  Your high school and college days may or may not be the best of your life, in other words, but they will haunt you forever whether you like it or not.

If you haven’t seen the season, here’s Amazon link.  It’s included with Prime, if you have it.

Episode-by-episode details below the cut.  Contains Spoilers.

TV Review: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Episode 3.4

“Blood and Money”

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Episode 3.4

Available on: Netflix (DVDs will be released on October 27, 2015)

Rating: Four Stars (out of five)

For me, this is the best episode of the season so far.  The mystery has a lot of twists, but it isn’t hard to follow and the solution makes sense.  Also, while Phryne and Jack have some nice personal moments, those moments are driven by the story rather than the other way around.  Things between Dot and Hugh aren’t so good, though, and the manufactured drama between them keeps this from being a five-star episode.

The plot concerns the murders of two boys from Melbourne’s impoverished Collingwood district, where Phryne spent much of her childhood.  Phryne is drawn into the case when Paddy, a young homeless boy, asks her to find his missing brother.  The boys are part of a gang called the Bottle Top Boys, and the case concerns medical research and a drug-and-jewelry-theft scheme as well as the murders.  Paddy approaches Phryne because she’s legendary in Collingwood, and she takes the case because she wants to help people from her old neighborhood.  I like it when the show references Phryne’s origins, and they used those origins particularly well here.

The subplot involves Hugh’s mother’s opposition to his conversion.  There were always religious tensions between Dot and Hugh, but we haven’t heard a lot about this until now, and we certainly haven’t met his mother.  That Hugh’s mother opposes the marriage isn’t all that surprising, but it’s really irritating that he chooses not to tell Dot.  He tells her nothing—and does not adequately explain why.  Clearly, the writers wanted a reason to delay Dot and Hugh’s marriage without breaking them up.  It feels manufactured and can you tell I find it irritating?  Frankly, Hugh is a jerk in this episode, and he’s been a jerk all season.  I hope they redeem him in the remaining four episodes.

Mac is great in this episode.  We see her in her non-ME professional capacity, and she also assists in the investigation.  I love her and Phryne’s friendship, and I’m glad we get to see more of her this season.  Jane, on the other hand, is still totally MIA.  Everyone seems to have forgotten that Phryne had an adopted daughter, and I can’t help but find this odd.

Overall, I really enjoyed this episode and hope the show continues on the trajectory established here in the second half of Season Three.

Book Review: A Question of Death by Kerry Greenwood

A Question of Death: An Illustrated Phryne Fisher Anthology

By Kerry Greenwood

Published by Poisoned Pen Press, 2014 (reprint of 2007 original)

Paperback; purchased from Amazon

Links: Amazon, B&N, Powell's

Rating: Four Stars (out of five)

This is a fun read for Phryne Fisher fans.  It contains thirteen short stories as well as recipes and fun facts about Phryne from author Kerry Greenwood.  In addition to drawings in some margins and designs on all pages, there’s at least one full-color illustration (by Beth Norling) for each story, so we get a sense of how Greenwood, assuming she collaborated with the illustrator, imagined Phryne’s appearance pre-TV.

The stories themselves are fairly insubstantial.  It’s possible to write tightly-plotted, well-developed mystery shorts (see: Sherlock Holmes), but Greenwood doesn’t do so here.  Most of the mysteries aren’t actually murders, and the police aren’t in all of them.  My favorites were “Come Sable Night,” in which Greenwood seems to be trying out ideas for Murder and Mendelssohn (2014) and “The Hours of Juana the Mad,” in which Phryne stakes a dinner at High Table on the recovery of a stolen Medieval manuscript.  In fact, a number of stories including “Carnival” and “The Vanishing of Jock McHale’s Hat” as well as “The Hours…” involve theft.  In general, Greenwood showcases Phryne’s logic and cleverness, and I enjoyed the stories in part because of their lightness.

As a side note, a number of episodes in the second season of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries appear to emerge from the stories collected here.  With added murders, “The Vanishing of Jock McHale’s Hat” and “The Hours of Juana the Mad” become “Marked for Murder” (Episode 2.6) and “The Blood of Juana the Mad” (Episode 2.8), and I’m pretty sure that “The Body in the Library” is the basis for “Murder Most Scandalous” (Episode 2.1).  I always like comparing a book/original story with its adaptations, so it’s fun to see how these episodes started.  Also, I was wondering why they got away so apparently quickly and completely from Greenwood’s stories, and I was sort of relieved to see that wasn’t the case.

Two caveats regarding this book: it’s not really for Miss Fisher newbies and there are some distracting typesetting/proofreading errors.  I’m really not sure you’d be drawn to Phryne Fisher through this anthology if you hadn’t read the other books.  Why would you care what’s in Phryne’s bag, for example, and how would you know how strong a role food plays in Phryne’s world (hence the recipes)?  On the second point, I noticed a lot of missing punctuation and even a place or two where spaces between words went missing.  This is supposed to be a nice book, and for the most part it is, but I did find the editing errors distracting.

Overall, this is a fun read and a worthwhile purchase for Miss Fisher aficionados.

Special Feature: Inspector Lewis: The Academic Body Count, Season 2 Part 1

The Oxford University of ITV/PBS's Inspector Lewis is a dangerous world for academics, and in this series I bring you the lowdown on who in the academic community is most likely to kill be or be killed.  This post gives the details for the first three episodes of US Season Two.  Here's the Intro post; here's the Season One breakdown.

My Miss Fisher-induced euphoria cased me to neglect my favorite British inspector, but have no fear, I have not forgotten my commitment to assessing the dangers of Oxford for academics and would-be academics.  Season Two of Inspector Lewis is inexplicably long.  At seven episodes, I believe it’s the longest season of the series.  In fact, I think it might have been two different “series” (seasons) in Britain that were combined into one for us Americans—so maybe not “inexplicably” long, but long.  For that reason, I’m breaking the season in to three posts, covering episodes 1-3, 4-5, and 6-7.  Onward with the first installment!

While Season One had only 25% university victims, in Season Two things are looking a little bleaker for academics, at least in the first few episodes.  We have, in total, seven murder victims (plus a suicide) and four murderers.  Two victims are undergrads, one is faculty, one is a staff member, and three (count them, three! And all in one episode!) are administrators.  That means all the victims are affiliated with Oxford University in some fashion.  Two murderers are faculty members, and the other two are unaffiliated community members, though one is the parent of an undergrad.  So, Oxford University is definitely a dangerous place to work or study, and the town/gown issues dwarf those in most US university towns!  It’s far from certain that you’ll die in Oxford, but you might want to invest in some Mace or something.

If you haven’t seen the season, here’s Amazon link.  It’s included with Prime, if you have it.

Episode-by-episode details below the cut.  Contains spoilers.

TV Review: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Episode 3.3

“Murder and Mozzarella” 
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Episode 3.3
Available on: Netflix (DVDs will be released on October 27, 2015) 
Rating: Three Stars (out of five)

This episode makes it clear to me that Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries no longer wants to be a mystery show with hints of romance.  Instead, it wants to be a romantic comedy in which leads solve mysteries.  There’s nothing wrong with that in theory, but I’m not sure it works when Phryne Fisher is one of the lead in question.  Just as “Murder and the Maiden” is structured to give Jack an opportunity to be jealous, the plot in “Murder and Mozzarella” highlights parts of Jack’s life that Phryne doesn’t know about and puts an artificial obstacle in the way of the romance.

The murder victim, Nonna Luisa Carbone, cooks in her family’s Italian restaurant.  The Carbones have a longstanding rivalry with the Stranos, who also own an Italian restaurant.  The Carbone family assumes that the Stranos must have murdered Nonna Luisa, but did they?  The activities of an Italian crime syndicate and an illicit love affair complicate Phryne and Jack’s investigations. 

The murder plot is fine, though not particularly gripping.  The solution isn’t what I expected at the beginning, but it isn’t hard to figure out once we learn about a certain plot point halfway through.  But this episode isn’t really about murder; instead, it's about Jack and Phryne’s relationship.  To my relief, there’s no silly jealousy on Jack’s part here.  The episode suggests that Phryne might have something to be jealous about, but they don’t push that plot point.  I’m glad, because I don’t think it’s in her character to be jealous, at least when there’s no definite commitment on either part.  “Murder and Mozzarella” certainly plays with the idea of commitment on both sides, but since we only ever see flirtation and innuendo, as viewers we have sense that the relationship is going anywhere at all.  So why did we have a whole episode essentially about it?

The already-committed relationship between Dot and Hugh also encounters some obstacles, this time in the form of Catholic doctrine about the family.  Hugh is all for the “man as head of household” bits and Dot is not.  Hugh has always had a sexist streak—but he’s a man in the 1920s, so it made a certain amount of sense.  At this point, though, he’s known Dot (and Phryne!) for quite a while, and it’s wearing thin, especially since they’ve amped it up this season (why?).  Ultimately, Dot and Hugh’s problems have the same “fake” feel to me as Jack and Phryne’s problems, but for different reasons.  We all know (don’t we?) that Dot and Hugh are going to get married, and we all know it’s unlikely that the show will either put Phryne and Jack together permanently or end their relationship completely.  For different reasons, all the obstacles are artificial.  That’s not good storytelling, show, I know you’re better than this!