Death in Disguise: Caroline Graham

Death in Disguise is the third in the Inspector Barnaby series written by Caroline Graham. I was motivated to re-read this book after I found this lovely paperback edition at the September book sale. I first read it back in 2002, and fortunately did not remember a thing about the story.

The Manor House of Compton Dando has been taken over by a commune called The Lodge of the Golden Windhorse. The residents of this small commune all have different reasons for joining this group of mystics and come from very diverse backgrounds. They offer seminars and classes in New Age mysticism and crafts to support their group. When not one but two of the group's leaders dies within a few months of each other, Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Troy of Causton CID investigate. The second death is clearly murder, but was the first?

As Inspector Barnaby investigates, he loses patience with the residents of the commune. The residents vary in their devotion to eccentric belief systems, and some just can't communicate without spouting their beliefs. Some of them are sincere and some are not, and it is hard to tell which. Later he comes to regret that he did not take them more seriously and listen to Sergeant Troy's suggestions and suspicions. I like this humanizing of an otherwise close to perfect inspector.

Some reviewers complained that the story takes a while to get going, with too much exposition preceding the murder and the investigation. Inspector Barnaby doesn't show up until  about a third of the way into the book. I like stories structured like this, setting up the characters and the issues and relationships, so it was definitely my cup of tea.

I also watched the TV adaptation of this book. We have watched all of the episodes with John Nettles, and are going back and re-watching the earlier episodes, so this was perfect timing. In the TV episode some of the relationships are switched around, probably to fit the story into a 90-minute episode.

In the book, much of the plot centers around Suhami, formerly known as Sylvia Gamelin, and daughter of Guy Gamelin, a rich and ruthless business man. She is estranged from her parents and would like nothing better than to never see them again. Then they show up at her birthday celebration at the commune, and death ensues. Much of the book is devoted to fleshing out their background and relationships. The book may go too far in that area, but the episode cuts most of that out, making some of the plot less plausible and confusing. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining episode.

One thing I had forgotten about the books was that Sergeant Troy was a much more self-absorbed and chauvinistic person than in the TV series. In the early shows that are adaptations of novels his aversion and insensitivity to homosexual relationships is obvious, but in later TV episodes he mellows. In the books, Troy is married and he doesn't treat his wife too well. He is, however, an adoring father.

I reviewed the second book in the series, Death of a Hollow Man, in September. My review is here.

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Publisher:  Avon, 1994. Orig. pub. 1993.
Length:     368 pages
Format:     Paperback
Series:      Chief Inspector Barnaby, #3
Setting:     UK
Genre:      Police Procedural
Source:     I purchased my copy.

Enigma (film)

Enigma is a film by Michael Apted that was released in 2001, based on the 1995 novel by Robert Harris. Both are fictionalized accounts of the British code-breaking efforts at Bletchley Park in 1943.  Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) played a big part in breaking an important code earlier; now he is returning to Bletchley Park after a nervous breakdown to take part in a new effort, although there are indications that he is just there for show. His girlfriend Claire (Saffron Burrows) is missing, and he and Claire's roommate Hester (Kate Winslet) try to solve the mystery of her disappearance.

I recently read the book and enjoyed it very much; my review is here.

Did I enjoy the film?

This was my second viewing of the film. I don't remember that much from the first viewing and I suspect I might have enjoyed it more if I had read the book first. This time around I did enjoy it very much. I liked the acting. In addition to the main actors mentioned above, I enjoyed the acting of Jeremy Northam as an intelligence agent, Tom Hollander as another member of the code-breaking team, and Matthew Macfadyen as a naval officer who had been badly burned.

One negative aspect of a book to film review is that I usually read the book and watch the film back to back. In that situation, I tend to nitpick at details while watching the film. This second viewing may have been one of those times when I was watching too much for discrepancies and not immersing myself in the film enough. Regardless, overall I liked a lot about the film and we will be watching it again.

Did the film represent the book fairly or well?

Some reviewers noted places where the film was not true to historical facts. Both the book and the film were supposed to be fiction, so that was not a problem for me. I don't know much of the real history of Bletchley or the code breaking effort, so I wasn't looking for errors, nor was I expecting to learn the strict facts of what happened from either the book or the film.

I was disappointed that the character of Hester Wallace was so changed in the film. Both versions show the discrepancy between the roles of women and men in work like this, and emphasize Hester's frustration at doing more clerical work, and not having the opportunity to work on code breaking. However, the nature of Hester's and Tom's relationship is very different in the book. I prefer not to go into more detail about that for the benefit of those who have not seen the book or the film. Overall, I did not feel that this change marred the film.

While a film usually cannot get into the characters and their relationships (and thoughts) as well as a book does, a film can portray action in a clearer and more effective way. The war scenes that can only be imagined while reading the book are given more reality in the film version.

Given that changes are always necessary to make a novel conform to the needs of film, I found the changes made for this film acceptable. The film focused much more on the espionage subplot, and spent less time portraying actual conditions at Bletchley. I like the portrayal of characters and relationships better in the book. The film had more to offer in action and pacing. I felt that both stood well on their own.

This film review is submitted for the 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey.

Death of a Hollow Man (TV episode)

This episode of Midsomer Murders centers around the amateur theatrical group in Causton, of which Joyce Barnaby, wife of Inspector Tom Barnaby, is a member. The members of the group are a motley group, and seem to be very true to the types who take part in amateur theatricals. These individuals have known each other so well and so long that there are petty resentments and misunderstandings simmering. All of this builds up to murder while working on the current play, Amadeus. Barnaby has done volunteer work for this group over the years, so he knows all the suspects well.

I recently reread the book that this episode is based on and my review is here. I enjoyed it just as much this time around.

The episode is faithful to the book, for the most part. It includes the preparations for the play, the in-fighting among the various members of the theatrical group, the performance of the play itself. Some of the characters in the book have been cut and relationships changed. The adaptation also differs in that there is a murder that occurs at the beginning of the episode. Personally I did not find that this added anything to the story. Initially it is unclear what the link is between the Causton Amateur Dramatic Society and this death. Caroline Graham wrote the screen play, so she must have felt theses changes were needed or at least beneficial for adaptation as a TV episode.

The TV adaptations don't have the same depth of dissection of English village life as the books did, but I enjoy them all the same. I love the characters, even the boorish Sergeant Troy. The book spends much more time explaining why Joyce has given up her budding career as a singer to be the wife of a policeman. This is just one example of how the character development can have more depth in a book. But each entertains in its own way.

Only five of the seven books in the Inspector Barnaby series by Caroline Graham were adapted for television. Death of a Hollow Man was the second book in the series and the fourth episode in the TV series. The episode first aired in 1998. It stars John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby and Daniel Casey as Sgt Troy. Joyce is played by Jane Wymark. Cully Barnaby (Laura Howard) plays a significant part in this episode, as she does in the book.

This TV adaptation is submitted for the 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey.

Motherhunt (Nero Wolfe Mystery TV series)

It has taken me a while to write up a book to movie post on Motherhunt for many reasons. I love the Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout and The Mother Hunt is one of my favorite books in the series. I enjoyed every episode in the Nero Wolfe Mystery series shown on A&E in 2000-2001. Thus it is hard for me to step away from the experience of watching them and evaluate them.

The Nero Wolfe series was written between 1934 and 1976 and each book was set in the time that the book was written. The characters did not age over the time the series was written. Each of the episodes of the Nero Wolfe Mystery series is set in the 1950's, so some of the adaptations in this series may be a bit different from the book just because of the time setting. In the case of The Mother Hunt, this probably makes no difference, since the year of publication was 1963. I have given an overview of the Nero Wolfe mysteries in book format and the TV series in this post, so I won't repeat all of that here.

It may be that this series would be most enjoyed by those who already are familiar with the Nero Wolfe mysteries. Each episode emphasizes the quirks of Wolfe's household, especially the adaptations of the full-length books. The orchids that Wolfe spends many of his waking hours tending, Fritz's cooking and Wolfe's obsession with food, Wolfe's reluctance to leave the house or, for that matter, to even work on a case.

In The Mother Hunt, Wolfe's client is Lucy Valdon. She has been caring, temporarily, for a baby that has been left in her vestibule. She has approached Wolfe to find the identity of the mother and determine if her husband was the father of the child. The hunt for the mother starts a series of events leading to a murder that Wolfe must solve.

For some reason, The Mother Hunt was given the title Motherhunt in the TV series. This adaptation was shown as two parts on TV, but is combined into one long episode on DVD. I had missed watching it the first time we viewed the episodes on DVD because the disc it was on was damaged. After reading the book in June, we rented the disc from Netflix and watched the episode. It was a faithful adaptation, although I felt that Penelope Ann Miller played the Lucy Valdon part a bit frothier than she was in the book. I will note that my husband (who has not read the books) liked her in the role. She was very appealing, and the overall mood of the adaptation was appropriate.

Here is a good example of how the TV series picks up some of the quirky behavior of the novels. This is a quote from the book:

"Do you like eggs?"
She laughed. She looked at me, so I laughed too.
Wolfe scowled. "Confound it, are eggs comical? Do you know how to scramble eggs, Mrs. Valdon?"
"Yes, of course."
"To use Mr. Goodwin's favorite locution, one will get you ten that you don't. I'll scramble eggs for your breakfast and we'll see. Tell me forty minutes before you're ready."
Her eyes widened. "Forty minutes?"
"Yes. I knew you didn't know."

The TV adaptation includes this scene where Wolfe cooks breakfast for Lucy and Archie and shows her how eggs should be scrambled. Maybe boring to some, but absolutely enchanting to me.  (I actually learned how to cook scrambled eggs this way in a Home Economics class in elementary school and they are delicious.)

In addition to Penelope Ann Miller, there were other roles I enjoyed. Of course, Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie are wonderful. Chaykin may overplay his role a bit, but Wolfe is larger than life and he puts that over well. Bill Smitrovich plays the recurring role of Inspector Cramer. Saul Rubinek, one of my favorite actors, plays Lon Cohen (a newspaperman) in this episode and others. Griffin Dunne and Carrie Fisher play smaller but crucial roles.

This movie review is submitted for the 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey.

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Motherhunt (2002), A&E Network
Cast: Maury Chaykin, Timothy Hutton, Bill Smitrovich, Colin Fox, Saul Rubinek
Director: Charles B. Wessler (as Alan Smithee)
Adapted by: Sharon Elizabeth Doyle 

World War Z: Max Brooks

I do not like zombies. I do not like books or movies about zombies. So why did I read World War Z? Mainly because my husband recommended it, and based on his description, I was curious. The subtitle is "An Oral History of the Zombie War," and that describes the book pretty well.

This is the first paragraph in the book, which introduces us to the catastrophic events that have happened:

It goes by many names: “The Crisis,” “The Dark Years,” “The Walking Plague,” as well as newer and more “hip” titles such as “World War Z” or “Z War One.”  I personally dislike this last moniker as it implies an inevitable “Z War Two.”  For me, it will always be “The Zombie War,” and while many may protest the scientific accuracy of the word zombie, they will be hard pressed to discover a more globally accepted term for the creatures that almost caused our extinction. Zombie remains a devastating word, unrivaled in its power to conjure up so many memories or emotions, and it is these memories, and emotions, that are the subject of this book.

The book is presented as a compilation of interviews with survivors of the Zombie War. It is divided into sections covering different time periods in the conflict, starting with Warnings. That section has interviews with people from China, Tibet, Greece, Brazil, the West Indies, Israel and Palestine, all talking about first occurrences or encounters with the zombies.

Although each section covers some time frame in the Zombie War, what the reader really sees is what life is like in the present, ten years after the population of earth has been largely destroyed. It is clear that the threat is not totally gone, just under control enough to allow people to return to some semblance of a normal life.

Some reviewers found this book unsatisfactory because there is no continuing story, with characters that you can get to know. That is a valid point, but my take was that was what made the book so fresh and engrossing. It is true that each section was fairly short and just as you were getting into the story, it was over and I wanted to know more, to hang around.

This is my husband's review from Goodreads:

Zombies are the perfect nightmare villain. They are relentless, they can't be influenced, and in the case of this book, they number in the tens of millions.
This work, consisting entirely of interviews with survivors of the Zombie War, is so engrossing that it could have gone on for twice its length and never lost my interest.
Maps would have been a welcome addition (as in any history of any war) but that is a very minor quibble.

You can see that we both enjoyed the book, even though he likes zombies and I don't.

I haven't included many facts about the book other than the structure. I prefer to let the reader discover for themselves the good and the bad. However, I will point you to a good review at SF Site, if you want more details.  Also, another useful review at Atomic Spud.

And how was the movie?

The movie adaptation of World War Z stars Brad Pitt as a former employee of the United Nations who gets called back to his old job when the world is overrun with zombies. The movie bears little resemblance to the book. The movie is an action thriller, with zombies invading all countries of the world. In the movie, the zombies move very fast (different from most zombie movies I have seen, although I am far from an expert). In the book, the zombies are slow. That does not prevent them from overrunning the world, however. There are many, many other differences between book and movie and it is pretty safe to say that they basically just used the same title.

Brad Pitt's character, Gerry Lane, is a reluctant hero; he has left his job to spend time with his family and has no desire to go on expeditions to find a cure for the zombie problem. When it is clear that he and his family will lose their protected status if he does not cooperate, he gives in. And a plus is that he is not a superhero with no vulnerabilities. He is pretty much a normal guy, just clever and motivated to find some solution to the problem.

We watched the movie twice. The first time was before I had read the book, the second was after. The movie was enjoyable both times, but I liked it even better the second time. It has its flaws, but whether you will like it or not depends on what you are looking for. It is not a typical zombie movie, and that is what the viewer wants, it could be disappointing. It is a decent action flick.

I said at the beginning that I don't like zombie movies. I have watched and enjoyed two silly, humorous takes on zombie movies, Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. I don't like the blood and gore in those movies, but they are fun movies if you can get beyond that. I did appreciate in this movie that there was no blood and little gore. The concept of zombies with no blood does agree with the book.

In this interview, Max Brooks talks about the book and the film.

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Publisher:  Crown Publishers, 2006
Length:      342 pages
Format:      hardcover
Setting:       worldwide
Genre:        science fiction, apocalyptic
Source:       Borrowed from my husband

Max Brooks wrote an earlier book about zombies in 2003, The Zombie Survival Guide. I have not read that book, but I understand that it is a parody of survival guides. He is the son of director and producer Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. I did not know this until after I read the book and watched the movie twice, so it had no bearing on my decision to give the book a try.  The author only mentions his father in the acknowledgments to World War Z in this way: "and Dad, for 'the human factor'." His website does not mention his parents, so he is not trading on their fame. The acknowledgments also include "a final thank-you to the three men whose inspiration made this book possible: Studs Terkel, the late General Sir John Hackett, and, of course, the genius and terror of George A. Romero."

The Golden Spiders (TV movie)

In 2000, A&E adapted Rex Stout's The Golden Spiders into a TV movie. This was followed the next year by a series of one hour episodes starring the same actors.

Per Wikipedia:

A&E initially planned that The Golden Spiders would be the first in a series of two-hour mystery movies featuring Nero Wolfe. The high ratings (3.2 million households) garnered by the film, along with the critical praise accorded Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin, prompted A&E to order a weekly one-hour drama series — A Nero Wolfe Mystery — into production.

The Nero Wolfe mystery series, written by Rex Stout, features two detectives. Wolfe is the eccentric armchair detective who depends on Archie Goodwin to be his leg man. Wolfe is naturally lazy and has to be goaded into taking a case. Often this is necessary because the bank account is decreasing and Wolfe needs to support his household, which includes an orchid expert who helps him tend to his orchid collection, and a cook, Fritz. Faithful readers of the Nero Wolfe novels are familiar with every room in Wolfe's New York brownstone, and all of his quirks. He only leaves his home when necessary; he is overweight and sedentary. Archie is Wolfe's secretary when there is no case, and narrates all the stories.

The TV movie of The Golden Spiders includes all aspects of the story, as fans of the books would expect. The movie is set in the 1950's as is the book. The trouble with watching any adaptation of a book is that the impression of the characters that the reader has come up with may clash with the interpretation in the adaptation. No one could perfectly match my picture of Archie and Wolfe, but Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin come very close. Chaykin is more blustery and loud than I picture Wolfe; but he plays an intelligent eccentric detective very well. If I could have chosen someone to play Archie, Timothy Hutton would have been my pick.

There is a trio of operatives that often work with Wolfe and Goodwin on cases throughout the books. Those operatives show up in this film and I think the choices of actors to play the roles were very good. My favorite was Saul Rubinek as Saul Panzer, but that may be because I like Rubinek in every role I have seen him in (most recently in the Jesse Stone TV movies, a few episodes of Leverage, and a starring role in Warehouse 13).

This adaptation is stylized; the characterizations are exaggerated. The clothing and set design is gorgeous. The story is not identical to the novel, but very close. As a confirmed fan of the Nero Wolfe books who has read each multiple times, I cannot judge how someone unfamiliar with the stories would enjoy the adaptation. I was very happy with the results.

This movie review is submitted for Katie’s 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey.

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The Golden Spiders (2000), A&E Network
Cast: Maury Chaykin, Timothy Hutton, Bill Smitrovich, Colin Fox, Saul Rubinek
Director: Bill Duke
Adapted by: Paul Monash

In the Heat of the Night (film)

In the Heat of the Night is a film adaptation of the book of the same name, written by John Ball. The book was published in 1965 and the film was released just two years later. The film starred Sidney Poitier, who had won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1964, and Rod Steiger, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for this film. In the Heat of the Night won four other Oscars, including Best Picture.

In the opening of the movie, Sam Wood, a police officer in a small town in the South, is patrolling the streets and finds a body. Bill Gillespie, the chief of police, sends Sam to several areas to look for suspicious characters. At the railway station, Sam finds a nicely dressed black man, Virgil Tibbs, waiting for a train, and arrests him because he has a large amount of cash in his wallet. Eventually it is determined that Tibbs is a homicide cop from Philadelphia and he is coerced into helping out with the investigation.

After reading the novel, I watched this movie again. I had not watched it for a couple of years. I like this movie a lot. Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier were both very good in their roles. I felt like it was a good depiction of the racial prejudices in the South at that time. I did not grow up in a small town, nor did I spend much time in small towns, but I did have relatives that lived in Batesville, Mississippi, a town about the same size as the one in this movie (in the 1960's). The town in the movie seemed realistic to me. I cannot speak to the racial attitudes or tensions at that time in a town like that; but I would guess the scenes in the film were realistic, especially as the 1960's was a time of civil rights demonstrations and unrest.

There are differences between the book and the movie, although the basic story and the intent of the book and the film are the same. The book was set in Wells, South Carolina; the movie is set in Sparta, Mississippi. (The movie was actually filmed in Sparta, Illinois.) The detective, Virgil Tibbs, is from Pasadena, California in the book, and has a much milder manner. In the movie he is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is much more confrontational. In the movie, the main characters are the Chief of Police and Tibbs. Gillespie’s role in the book is minor compared to Sam Woods, his deputy. None of these changes made a huge impact on the story, and probably worked better for the film.

The movie showed more thuggish behavior on the part of townspeople; the novel was more about the shabby treatment Tibbs received from the police and the townspeople, solely based on his color. A key scene in the movie is the visit of Tibbs and Gillespie to the Endicott mansion, where Tibbs is treated poorly. In the book, Mr. Endicott is a highly respected member of the community, originally from the North, and the host of the murder victim; he is not racially prejudiced, and requests that Tibbs continue to help with the investigation.

What I liked about the book over the movie was the role of Sam Woods. The book lets us see a slow transformation as Sam begins to see Tibbs as a human being, and an intelligent, worthy colleague. Although the relationship between Tibbs and Gillespie develops throughout the movie, I found the changes less convincing. Nevertheless, I enjoyed both versions. My review of the book is here.

There is much more interesting background on this film. See this article on 25 Things You Didn't Know About the Sidney Poitier Classic. It is noted in that article that Poitier did not want to film in Mississippi because he and Harry Belafonte had run into some problems while visiting there.

This book and movie review is submitted for Katie’s 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey.

Under the Dragon's Tail: Maureen Jennings

This is the second book in the Murdoch Mysteries series, published by Maureen Jennings in 1998, and featuring William Murdoch, an Acting Detective in Toronto in the late 1800's.  I enjoyed the first book in the series, Except the Dying (1997), and I liked this one even more.

Maureen Jennings does a wonderful job of portraying Victorian-era Toronto. As described in this article, she did extensive research into the time period. But in addition to the convincing picture of the times, we also get well-developed and interesting characters. Without dwelling on Murdoch's past, the author conveys how his childhood has affected him, and his continuing grief for his fiancee who died of typhoid, at the same time he yearns for a relationship with a woman. Maybe he is a tad too perfect, but I can live with that. Constable George Crabtree, and several of the suspects at varying levels of society are also well-defined; their portrayals contribute to the overall portrait of the city, its poverty and its inhabitants.

Getting to the mystery, the detective and his constable are investigating the death of a former midwife, living with her grown daughter and two foster children. The suspects come from a well-to-do family and from the lower echelons of society. To the reader, it is somewhat obvious who the culprit is likely to be, yet the author kept me guessing. And the story had a very good pace, never lagging.

In 2004, three made-for-TV movies were produced and televised, based on the first three books in the series. Later, in 2008, a television series (with new actors in the parts) began and has continued for seven seasons.  I watched the TV movies and a few episodes of the 2008 series before I read the books. As I read the first two books in this series, my only disappointment has been that the forensics that are emphasized in the TV movie adaptations were not featured more in the books (those that I have read so far). Dr. Julia Ogden, who is featured in both the TV movies and the later TV series, only shows up briefly in this second book. Nevertheless, I found this book to be very enjoyable on its own merits.

Under the Dragon's Tail (2004), Shaftesbury Films Inc., Toronto, Ontario
Cast: Peter Outerbridge, Flora Montgomery, Matthew MacFadzean

The three made-for-TV movies were televised in a slightly different order than the first three books. Under the Dragon's Tail is the second book in the series; the adaptation of this story was the third movie televised. Dr. Julia Odgen features heavily in the first two movies, but is only mentioned in the this adaptation.

The TV movie based on this book is a fine adaptation, but it does change the story quite a bit. The basic outline of the story is retained, and the picture of Toronto in the 1890's is well done. There is, however, much more emphasis on forensics, such as the use of fingerprints, or finger marks as they are called in the movie. This was an emerging science at the time, and an interesting topic to introduce into the story. My take on adaptations of books or series is that sometimes you end up with something entirely different, but that can be fine as long as the adaptation works well on its own. I think this one does. I don't want to go into more detail about the differences in the movie, so that I don't spoil it for anyone who ends up watching the movie (or reading the book).

This book and movie review is submitted for Katie’s 2014 Book to Movie Challenge at Doing Dewey and for the 7th annual Canadian Book Challenge sponsored by John Mutford at The Book Mine Set.

Book to Movie Challenge 2

I am joining the Book to Movie Challenge for the second year. This year long event is hosted by Katie at the Doing Dewey blog, and co-hosted by Sergio of Tipping My Fedora. If you are interested, HERE is the sign-up post with more information.

There are five levels:

Movie Fan - read 3 books and watch their movies
Movie Devotee - read 6 books and watch their movies
Movie Lover - read 9 books and watch their movies
Movie Aficionado - read 12 books and watch their movies
Movie Auteur - read 24 books and watch their movies

I am participating at the Movie Fan level, read 3 books and watch their movies. I hope to read 6 books and watch the associated movies, but I am not committing to that. Reading the books and reviewing them is (relatively) easy. For me, writing a post on a movie is much more work.

There are so many books that have been made into movies that I want to read, watch and review. The list would be very long. There is In the Heat of the Night by John Ball, Hopscotch by Brian Garfield, and the Hildegarde Withers series by Stuart Palmer. There are several James Bond movies and several books by Raymond Chandler that have been adapted (multiple times). Other possibilities are The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and Hammett by Joe Gores.

I welcome any suggestions for book to movie possibilities.