4/13/1980 Sergeant Cribb meets PBS

April 13, 1980.  This day saw the premiere of Cribb on Mystery on PBS.  The British series was based on Peter Lovesey's brilliant novels about a Victorian copper.  Alan Dobie played the shrewd detective who could never get promoted because he came from the wrong social class.

 I saw them a year later and it used to drive me crazy because at the same time I could watch NBC's disastrous attempt to bring Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe to the screen in the person of William Conrad.  Why could the British do so well what Hollywood couldn't do at all?

The only bad thing about the series was that Peter Lovesey used up all his ideas for future Victorian stories on episodes of the show.  He never wrote another Cribb novel.

8/15/1888 Waxwork begins

August 15, 1888.  The action began on this date in Waxwork, Peter Lovesey's last novel about Victorian police detective Sergeant Cribb.  The wife of a photographer is convicted of murder.  While she is awaiting execution a photo is anonymously sent to the government that seems to prove she could not have done it.  Cribb is ordered to settle the question, quietly, and before the execution date.

One of my favorite mystery novels, period.

6/12/2012 Cop to Corpse

June 12, 2012.  This date saw the U.S. publication of Cop to Corpse, in which Peter Lovesey's English police detective Peter Diamond searches for someone who is killing cops in small towns in the West Country. 

“Nobody but Lovesey could thump out a gritty procedural yet instill Bath with so much charm and history that readers will have to put it on their bucket lists.” -Kirkus Reviews