Crime drama...what's the attraction anyway?

[Nick Armstrong]

Do you read Sherlock Homes, ardcarp? Most great crime fiction features interesting characters and characterizations, on both sides of the divide. Try Elmore Leonard.

Big yes to both... and a huge Dorothy L Sayers fan here (as Anna knows )

[teamsaint]

I was gripped from the moment I first opened a Holmes book, a long time ago now.

One of the things that I love about them is that they are a great reminder of how the popular entertainment of the day can be durable as well as entertaining.
The enthusiasm for the stories at the time is a reminder too that standards of literacy amongst those groups who had decent education, were very high, as evidenced not very long afterwards , sadly, by the quality of writing that came from the trenches.

[Anna]

Big yes to both... and a huge Dorothy L Sayers fan here (as Anna knows )

Yes, it's solely due to Caliban I read a couple of D.L. Sayers! I think a well constructed whodunnit is a bit like a crossword puzzle, you have certain letters filled in, you know the question - but you just cannot find the answer, and when it's revealed it's a classic <doh> moment!

I do agree with the last para of ferney's #8 (and of course with Calum above) I used to enjoy Silent Witness but gave up viewing some time ago due to the increasing violence, plus in 2014 four out of the five stories featured a young woman meeting a violent end as a murder victim. One episode prior to 2014 (although not involving a woman at the receiving end) had so many complaints the BBC Trust had to step in. In its ruling the BBC Trust agreed that the violence was ‘too explicit for this series"

[mangerton]

Yes, it's solely due to Caliban I read a couple of D.L. Sayers! I think a well constructed whodunnit is a bit like a crossword puzzle, you have certain letters filled in, you know the question - but you just cannot find the answer, and when it's revealed it's a classic <doh> moment!

I read my first DLS when I was about 15, and was immediately hooked. I had by that time read all of Sherlock, having scared myself half to death after reading "The Speckled Band" aged about 10 or 11.

[Ferretfancy]

I read my first DLS when I was about 15, and was immediately hooked. I had by that time read all of Sherlock, having scared myself half to death after reading "The Speckled Band" aged about 10 or 11.

0

Not to mention the Giant Rat of Sumatra, a story for which the public are not yet prepared.

[vinteuil]

0

Not to mention the Giant Rat of Sumatra, a story for which the public are not yet prepared.

... are we still not ready for it? The story of the Sussex Vampire in which the reference occurs was set in the 1890s - the story itself written in the 1920s - you wd have thought the public wd be prepared by now...

[mangerton]

... are we still not ready for it? The story of the Sussex Vampire in which the reference occurs was set in the 1890s - the story itself written in the 1920s - you wd have thought the public wd be prepared by now...

Yes indeed. I'm surprised that no-one has yet taken up the reference.