Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Killing's at Badger's Drift

First, I did (finally) find my copy of Caroline Graham’s The Killings at Badger’s Drift on a sorting cart at the library. But I learned my lesson and will never hide a book again.

It is a rather odd moving from a favorite television program to the book that inspired it. For example, I am a great fan of the show’s Sergeant Troy. But Sergeant Troy in the book has red hair (!), is married (!!), and seems to have no qualms about cheating on his wife (!!!).

Other than his character, the television show does a good job of capturing the book’s tone and the essence of Chief Inspector Barnaby.

Despite the faithful interpretation, I was still surprised by how graphic the book is. The content and tone of the book is consistent with many other “cottage mysteries” I’ve read, and the core mystery definitely contains “adult content,” but that’s not what surprised me.

I was more disturbed by how sexually descriptive the book is. I am not entirely a prude, but it’s always a bit odd to run across descriptions of womanly and manly parts in what is, in essence, an Agatha Christie mystery.

I did like the book. It was a fast and enjoyable read, but now I have to decide whether or not to keep reading the series—or just be satisfied with watching it instead.

2 comments:

Wanna-Be Lit said...

This is one of the most shocking episodes of "Midsomer Murders" that I have seen. However, I was impressed that the show didn't go into any graphic. Too bad the book had to.

Blogger said...

I hope this will make sense (and not give anything away) when I say the shocking storyline is not the graphic part. It is the sex lives of the other characters.