Mysteries...the kind you read

I’ve already mentioned a few TV shows that I like. I am a fan of mysteries (and comedy) so I like Monk and Psych on Fridays. Monk is probably my favorite detective show since the old Columbo series. It’s not nearly as sophisticated but I like the character of Monk in the same way that I liked Peter Falk’s Columbo.

J-Matt likes to tease me about watching Murder, She Wrote, saying that it’s proof of what a dull life I lead. That’s only partly true. In truth, I never really watched the show much when it was originally on the air. I do watch it occasionally now since it’s on cable simply because I do like mysteries and sometimes it’s the best thing on. And, really, it’s hard not to like Jessica Fletcher-Angela Lansbury. The stories aren’t very complicated. It’s an enjoyable way to pass the time but the shows are very 1980s for the most part. They’re fun if you like to be reminded of the clothes and hair and the way things were back then. It wasn’t so long ago but a lot of things have changed in a short amount of time. When you think about it, a lot of mysteries revolve around whether or not people have telephone access so cellphones change everything now.

I was always a great Agatha Christie fan. I think I read all of her books. I liked Hercules Poirot much better than Miss Marple. I always felt that Miss Marple cheated. You would be reading along in a Miss Marple mystery, trying to figure things out, when all of a sudden, with 50 pages to go, Miss Marple would say that so-and-so was just like Johnny Applegate in her village and she would solve the mystery based on that obscure reference. How in the world was a reader supposed to know what Johnny Applegate was like? She had information that she didn’t share so you couldn’t solve the mystery. However, after reading a lot of her mysteries I determined that you could solve virtually any Miss Marple mystery by counting the seventh major character introduced -- that person was almost invariably the killer.

Hercules Poirot was a masterpiece of a detective. I admired him so much. What a great character. He was drawn with so much detail and precision. Even though I think Christie was making fun of him half the time she couldn’t diminish him. She only succeeded in making him more vivid. She wrote some great stories with Poirot. Anybody who is interested in reading a great Poirot story should read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I thought the PBS series with David Suchet as Poirot was outstanding.

After reading so much Christie I came to the conclusion that she had a very strong sense of right and wrong. That’s possibly what made her stories so appealing. She seemed to believe that there was genuine evil in the world and that individuals could do something about it. Evil was always punished, one way or another. You may have to fight small, individual battles, but you can win. I don’t know if you find people who believe in those ideas much anymore. I like her vision of the world, including the idea that reason can prevail and that people have to take action. Miss Marple could have stayed home like other little old ladies, knitting. Instead she busied herself solving murders. Hercules Poirot could have stay retired, growing vegetable marrows, but instead he becomes a private detective in his new country.

You can’t overlook Sherlock Holmes! I read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories when I was 13-14 years old. I think they had a profound effect on me. I’m a huge Holmes fan. I love Basil Rathbone as Holmes in the old movies and Jeremy Brett in the later series. They’re both wonderful. I don’t know why mysteries seem to be perfect for such idiosyncratic characters as Holmes.

There are so many other great mystery writers. I particularly like Elizabeth George, though I’ve gotten behind and I haven’t read her last 2-3 novels yet. Dorothy Sayers is wonderful. I like Ngaio Marsh, too. Minette Walters, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James -- they’re all excellent. I don’t have as much time for reading as I used to. Work gets in the way now. Even when I have time I can’t seem to relax and put things out of my mind the way I used to. I need to work on that and make more time for reading again. So many books, so little time.