“. . .[T]his is a hell of a time for Carl Mørk to rejoin the team and monopolize four of our very best detectives. People are complaining about him, and who do you think they're complaining to?” He jabbed at his chest, as if he were the only one who had to listen to people's shit.
“He shows up hours late,” he went on. “Rides his staff hard, rummages around with the cases, and refuses to return phone calls. His office is utter chaos, and you won't believe this, but they called from the forensics lab to bitch about a phone conversation with him. The boys from forensics – can you believe it? It takes a lot to aggravate those guys. We need to do something about Carl, Marcus, regardless of what he's been through. . . He's not suited to working here; we're too dependent on each other. Carl was hopeless as a colleague from day one. Why did you ever bring him downtown from Bellahøj?”
Markus fixed his eyes on Bjørn. “He was and is an outstanding detective, Lars. That's why.”
I never can decide whether I'm on the outs with the “genius detective is also most annoying man in four counties” trope or if I love it, and I think the only true answer is “it depends.” On what? It just depends. This one could be really great, despite some awkwardness in the prose, or it could be so generic it's nonexistent, but it's too soon to tell.
Question for the better-informed: Are there genius detectives who are also the most annoying woman in four counties? Or any geographical range? There was creepy, cackling Mrs. Bradley in Speedy Death (and a bunch of other books I haven't read yet) – who else is difficult to work with, but the best at what they do?
In other news, I stopped by the library book sale and bought a stack of books – most of them for the store, but a few for me to read first. Some Ngaio Marsh and Josephine Tey, because I like to keep the shelves stocked with my old-school murder faves even if no one else is interested (there is one Ngaio Marsh fan who comes in occasionally; for all I know we're just buying and selling each others books in an endless loop) – also an earlyish P. D. James and a Ruth Rendell, and Plain Murder by C. S. Forester, author of the Hornblower books.
Comments
I'm fairly sure Agatha Raisin would be a contender, but I'm not sure she's a genius, which means she's just annoying, which is less fun. To be fair, I fail to read murder mysteries if they weren't published at least 50 years ago and/or set more than 50 years ago, so I'm not really in a position to say.
On a side note, I came across this the other day, because I was looking at my Ngaio Marsh books and realised that her final novel was dedicated to James Laurenson, who is an actor I've watched in quite a few old telly things. (It turns out he's from NZ and was once Macbeth in one of Ngaio Marsh's productions, hence the dedication.)
Also, what a great article! <3 Do you know if the George Baker who plays Rory in the TV2 adaptation is the same George Baker who was Tiberius in I, Claudius? (Poor Tiberius. I kept rooting for him to pull himself together, but he never did, because no one is allowed to be happy in I, Claudius except maybe that snake)
Also, I didn't know that Ngaio Marsh was also a painter, though I should have guessed from the way she writes about painting. Why so multitalented??
I hadn't heard about the TV2 productions, but given the timing I assumed it was that George Baker & checking IMBD says that it was indeed. (IMBD also tells me that two Marshes were dramatised in the 60s as part of one of the endless anthology shows, this time Detective, with two more Alleyns, Michael Allinson and Geoffrey Keen, who I don't know off the top of my head.)
*HUGS*
Edited at 2016-07-29 04:20 pm (UTC)
for all I know we're just buying and selling each others books in an endless loop
This sounds like an excellent set-up for a stage play or a romcom.
This sounds like an excellent set-up for a stage play or a romcom.
It does, doesn't it? If you have any romcom skill of your own, please feel free to use it.
Sean Stewart's Passion Play had a pretty good go at inverting the usual noir gender roles. There's some sff/dystopic elements to this one but it's not superpowered.
Sara Paretsky's Warshawski is probably the most iconic and famous woman gumshoe but tbh it's been so many years since I read any of those books, so I can't say for sure if they are any good? I remember they got really repetitive fast. Probably worth reading one for the experience.
Not detective stories but in terms of playing with ideas of noir and the femme fatale - I enjoyed Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and I thought Queenpin by Megan Abbott had some interesting ideas even if it didn't stick the landing.
If you have any romcom skill of your own
Ahahaha. Thank you for the kind thought but no... I wish. :)
WHAT. It's like someone put all my book daydreams in a bucket and dumped them at my feet! congratulations, you have activated my "automatic order" reflex (someone really should take away my amazon account for my own good).
Passion Play is now on my non-automatic to-read list, and I'm going to give Sara Paretsky another try sometime soon - I got bored with the first chapter of the one I tried to read, but it's possible my mind was just elsewhere.
I wish I had even a tiny sliver of romcom skill. I like romcoms so much in theory. :|