Popular Female Crime Investigators Hit the Big Screen--

It has seemed a big mystery to me why Hollywood does not have more women in leads of detective stories when the fiction world has its share (although it still has a way to go no doubt). And there certainly has to be a number of actresses who would love to bring these characters to the screen.

I suspect that too many think that women do not fill the bill as a tough authority type and when it comes to physical confrontations. Also there may be a desire to spice up a movie story with a car chase or foot chase and with a female detective that is less likely. And perhaps the female detective story loses something in the transition to the big screen. Just a few thoughts here.

So I was pleased to read about two new upcoming film projects featuring two of Hollywood's talented, familiar faces.

A real surprise to me was the recent announcement of actress Katherine Heigl of TV's "Grey's Anatomy" fame set to portray New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum of the Janet Evanovich number series (One for the Money, Two for the Dough, etc.). I would not imagine a normally very blond-haired Heigl playing that role but recent photos show otherwise (see here from Google).

Also actress Angelina Jolie as is pursuing the opportunity to portray medical examiner Kay Scarpetta from the Patricia Cornwell novels.

So with the rich number of novels featuring these two characters alone (Evanovich is up to book number 15 in the number series with Plum for instance) the public has reasonable hopes for good films. I certainly do anyway.

Book Club discusses "Wife of the Gods"

The book club selection for March, Wife of the Gods, is debut novel and first of a series from writer Kwei Quartey. Set in west Africa, Detective Inspector Darko Dawson travels from Accra, his home and the capital of Ghana, to the nearby small community of Ketanu to investigate the murder of a medical student.

Here is a googled photo of Quartey, which is the same as in his book jacket.

In addition to the investigation, Dawson is reacquainted with a seldom seen aunt and also reflects upon the disappearance of his mother near that area when he was a young child.

And while working, the investigation takes several uncomfortable turns for the inspector as his arrival is a surprise to the local law enforcement and he is repelled by the old, local custom of trokosi where teenage girls are offered to the fetish priest as a "wife of the gods." Furthermore, the assignment also takes Dawson away from his young family for a period of time.

Here are some observations from the book:

• the book invites some comparisons to Alexander McCall Smith series of "the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" but the tone for Quarteys' book is tough-minded
• Dawson has his set of flaws in the story but they don't overshadow the mystery and he works through them
• as the mystery builds and later unravels, it can be shown that a small community is accepting of certain people's behavior and events which should be scrutinized
• it was suggested the book's might be better served by a different title which is closer to the story's core
• the dress shown on the cover of the book should be blue (not white) according to the novel regarding the trokosi ceremony
• the author did a good job keeping the various characters unique and distinct
• the glossary for the book was appreciated although one could read the book without its use
• all book club attendees said they enjoyed the book and two said they would not have selected the book to read if not for the book club selection.

Some asked and I mentioned that Quartey has a new book "Darko Dawson mystery" Children of the Street scheduled for release this year as promoted on his website.

The late Peter Graves as a fictional PI--

As I flipped through the new Time magazine, I ran across a brief article about the recent passing of journeyman actor Peter Graves. A star of the hit "Mission Impossible" TV series, Graves did have a long and successful career which includes one role I'm mention here. Here's a googled pix of the actor.

My recollection for an old TV movie clicked when I thought of Graves. He did star as a fictional private investigator from a successful book series in a 1974 movie which I remember watching way back then. "The Underground Man" which was based on a book by the same name featured writer Ross MacDonald's PI Lew Archer. A Wikipedia article says the movie was a pilot for a TV series.

And although MacDonald's work was written and published mainly in the 50s and 60s, it has been resurrected recently in paperbacks including some titles in our local library system.

Author responses to post

The recent blog post about Michael Lawson's House Rules marks the first time the blog has received a direct author response to a blog post. He wrote and replied to the post message about the book club's discussion about his book from December (the photo included here comes from his website).

This is a nice treat as I did not attempt to contact him until after he wrote and I emailed his website to ask how he found the blog. He soon replied and--as one would expect--he said he periodically googles his name and books to get reaction to his work and found the blog that way. Cool.

Book Club discusses "Gallows Lane" [February]

The new year started with a police mystery set in Ireland featuring Inspector Benedict Devlin. Devlin is a police official working the location which is the borderlands between North and South Ireland.

Writer Brian McGilloway's second book of the Devlin series, Gallows Lane was the month's selection. His picture (as shown in the back of the book) is to the right.

The beating death of a young woman after a visit to a night club is the new assignment for Devlin and his partner, Caroline Williams, but he was also previously asked by his supervisor to keep tabs on a newly-released convict, James Kerr. But Kerr gives Devlin the slip and is later found viciously murdered.

In the meanwhile, Devlin's attention is directed to inter-department affairs with important promotion opportunities and coping with fellow police and their prickly personalities. That has some ramification beyond the job as DI Devlin does have a young family to consider.

Some observations included the following:

• the book stays focused on a telling a straightforward crime story--it doesn't include any humor or much about description about Ireland (a couple of suggestions)
• the novel's atmospheric nature is mainly only in reference to weather on occasion but slang and Irish expressions pop up regularly in the dialogue
• the book includes a surprise in the end with its promotion storyline
• the practice of smoking is carried on frequently (much more so than the U.S.) and that was a little surprise [I added the author says in an interview that he used to be a smoker]
• those who read McGilloway's first book Borderlands preferred it to Gallows Lane.

A Close Call for Participating in This Month's Book Club--

This month I was facing the dilemma of not owning a copy of the book club selection in time for the book club. Looking at the title's library wait list, I was third of the list to get a copy so I guessed I would not be able to get a copy of The Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey in time.

Working at the library reference desk from time to time I speak to people in immediate need of their book club selection from the library and I know sometimes it is too late to get a desired book in time. And I almost forgot to place my request for this book until it seemed too late.

But I lucked out.

I checked the internet and found a preview for the novel in Google Books and plowed through the first 80 pages so pages--with omitted pages here and there, I guessed a few juicy bits got shaved off. Now that is tough for a mystery but with this arrangement, you just have to roll with it. Fortunately, my copy of Wife came with two days to spare and I zipped through the rest.

I was lucky this time and thankful for the leg up from the web site. Anyone else out there have similar luck with an interest site offering books to read?