Waddell, 1860

PBS and BBC America are replete with British detective series. They're all so similar in every respect (the characters encountered, the deaths, the motives, the acting style, the writing) that it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the screenplays are all written by one guy sitting in a small office in Guildford. My take-away from all these is that if you live in England you're likely to be murdered in a most disturbing manner. Don't worry, however, as they'll catch your killer before the end of the episode. Everyone - even the detectives - will be very glum the whole time. This will be explained by revelations of a personal nature right about the 75 minute mark.

I was wondering what an Irish detective series would look like. By strange coincidence, I've just started reading Melancholy Madness: A Coroner's Casebook. I'm still not done, so I'll hold any review to a later date. However, it occurs to me that this book would make an ideal detective series. The casebook of the title belonged to William Charles Waddell, coroner of County Monaghan, and the book was the second of three volumes that he wrote officially documenting his cases. It spans the period from 1856 to 1876 and the cases cover everything from household accidents to murder. Even with the passage of so much time, the sense of tragedy is palpable. This isn't just because of the individual circumstances surrounding each case, but because of the despair and societal norms of the time that led to so many of these deaths. Chapter 2 (cases involving infants and children) was particularly difficult to read. I think it'd translate to TV quite well, and with 900 cases documented, there won't be a shortage of material, either.