Latest news with #cosycrime
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Sexual assault and drink driving – cosy crime but not as we know it
A puzzle-setter turns sleuth in a quirky British crime series. Stop me if you think you've heard this one before. Murder Most Puzzling is trying to be Ludwig, which was a hit for the BBC last year. But it's a pale imitation. While that one was a five-star treat starring David Mitchell, this one is a two-star rip-off starring Phyllis Logan. The missteps start as soon as we are introduced to her character, Cora Felton. Cora is The Puzzle Lady, a crossword compiler whose job has made her so famous that she has her own range of biscuits and TV adverts. Let's not pause to ponder how unlikely that is. She is called in to investigate the case of a young woman found murdered in a churchyard, with a mysterious crossword clue in her pocket. Unfortunately, Cora can't make head nor tail of the clue when she first sees it because she's still sozzled from the night before. When we first meet her, she is passed out at the wheel of her car after a spot of drink-driving. Drink-driving? Really? We're supposed to find this quirkily amusing, but it strikes the wrong tone right away. It's a sign that the show doesn't quite know what it's supposed to be. This is cosy crime, yet having someone at a town hall meeting ask if the murder victim was sexually assaulted belongs in a grittier police drama. At least the mystery is wrapped up in a feature-length episode rather than being dragged out. The show is based on a book series by Parnell Hall and the failings of the TV series are odd because its writer, Dominique Moloney is a veteran of Father Brown and The Sister Boniface Mysteries. Some bits do conform to the cosy crime template: jaunty music, a picturesque setting in the fictional market town of Bakerbury (it's Lisburn in Northern Ireland), and the odd silly character, such as the blustering mayor in a cravat who runs the local police force. The programme's saving graces are the three lead performances. Logan, best known as Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey, is a safe pair of hands and does her best with the material. Charlotte Hope is a bright spot as Cara's niece and right-hand-woman, Sherry. And Adam Best is, well, the best thing here as DCI Derek Hooper, who has never worked a murder case before and reluctantly turns to Cora for help. There is a twist halfway through relating to Cora's job, and if you didn't see it coming then I'm afraid your sleuthing skills are a little below par.
The Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Win a copy of A Novel Murder by E.C. Nevin in this week's Fabulous book competition
THIS deliciously fun cosy-crime novel is perfect weekend reading. When author Jane Hepburn arrives at the Killer Lines book festival, she knows it's her chance to get her book noticed. But then she stumbles upon the body of reviled literary agent Carrie Marks and finds herself playing detective for real. . . 10 lucky Fabulous readers will win a copy of this new novel in this week's book competition. To win a copy, enter using the form below by 11:59pm on June 28, 2025. For full terms and conditions, click here.
Irish Times
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Death Valley review: Timothy Spall effortlessly commands the screen but this BBC drama struggles
When did we decide we preferred our television detectives sunny-side up rather than served in the traditional hard-boiled fashion? At whatever point it happened, we nowadays live, beyond all hope of escape, in a cosy crime purgatory, where murder is a green light for jolly japes, and the only good cop is a whimsical one. Cosy crime isn't new. It extends back to Agatha Christie in the 1920s and even to Wilkie Collins in the 19th century. But goodness, is it having a moment now – whether manifesting as cosy crime in the sun (Death in Paradise), cosy crime marinated in the cheesy values of 1980s US television (Poker Face) or cosy crime in upper-west-side Manhattan (Only Murders in the Building). Alas, like a killer driven to ever more desperate extremes in the hope of attracting attention, the genre has lately arrived at the 'trying-too-hard' stage of its cycle, as evidenced by the distractingly offbeat Death Valley ( BBC One, Sunday) – a capricious caper that cannot make up its mind whether to celebrate the tropes of the milieu or poke fun at them. [ The Last of Us finale review: A nerve-shredding, bloody conclusion that leaves us wanting more, and soon Opens in new window ] The setting of small-town Wales is in the classic British tradition of dramedies taking place off the beaten track (see also: Shetland, Vera, Midsommar Murder or, in ancient times, Wicklow-set Ballykissangel). It stars veteran Timothy Spall as a reclusive actor once famous for playing a television detective (one gathers his character was a cross between Taggart and Bergerac). He's content in his solitude, with only his cat for the company – until a local bigwig seemingly shoots himself, and the police are called in. READ MORE Timothy Spall (left) plays John Chapel, with Gwyneth Keyworth as Janie Mallowan in Death Valley. Photograph: BBC/BBC Studios/Simon Ridgway Spall earned his reputation with gritty character parts in unsentimental State of the Nation films such as Secrets and Lies by Mike Leigh (who would go on to cast him as the painter JMW Turner in a 2014 biopic). However, it is whimsy all the way in Death Valley, where his character, John Chapel, quickly joins forces with local police officer Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth). They're an odd pairing though you wonder how much of this is on purpose and how much has to do with the baffling decision to make Janie a devoted dispenser of gags. She's forever firing off pithy observations and commenting on life around her, whether or not anyone else has asked her to upend the contents of her brain all over their conversation. Her backstory contains its share of loss, and her outré personality is presumably a coping mechanism – unfortunately, Death Valley doesn't make any of this feel plausible. For instance, in an early scene where she and John meet in a coffee shop to compare notes, she explains that she's reading an online piece about 'washed-up celebs and what they look like today'. She reveals that John is mentioned. But when he inquires further, she says she's only joking. Well, that's going to bring him around to her side, isn't it? The actual mystery is solid. The dead businessman, Carwyn Rees, did not, in fact, take his own life. He was done in by people close to him amid murky dealings in his building development company and an illicit affair (or three) on the side. Here, Death Valley holds up – in so far as you can understand the motives of the perpetrators and the means by which the ghastly deed was carried out. That sets it apart from popular rivals such as Death in Paradise, where the big reveal about that week's murder invariably raises more questions than it answers. The problem is ultimately one of tone. Death Valley wants to be flighty as anything and also have the crunchy qualities of a solid sleuth fest. It is well-intentioned and thoughtfully plotted while Spall effortlessly commands the screen as a fading luvvy who just so happens to be a top-rank crime buster in real life. But some things simply don't go well together. Now we know that this category includes off-beam humour and dark deeds in small-town Wales. The six-part series is on BBC One on Sundays from 8.15pm
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
From cops to bookshops, and cosy crime
Photo: Penguin NZ Photo: Penguin NZ Cosy crime became massively popular thanks to Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club , and Amanda Hampson 's The Tea Ladies . New Zealand adds to the genre with Gareth and Louise Ward's The Bookshop Detectives. Gareth and Louise are ex-cops turned book shop owners , uniquely positioning them to write about bookselling and crime-fighting. They tell Susie about The Bookshop Detectives 2: Tea and Cake and Death .
