tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post6004183539613720385..comments2023-11-29T07:39:34.401+00:00Comments on Carla Nayland Historical Fiction: The Tinner's Corpse: A Crowner John MysteryCarlahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-23398090856812144012007-01-10T16:56:00.000+00:002007-01-10T16:56:00.000+00:00I wouldn't say Falco's in danger of exhausting the...I wouldn't say Falco's in danger of exhausting the series' possibilities just yet, though I haven't read the most recent few. In some ways they're a satire on modern life so that probably helps bring in fresh material. At the point I'd got up to, Helena was Falco's live-in girlfriend - she'd moved into his apartment (he's gone a bit upscale from the gimcrack bedsit he had at the beginning) and had his baby. I suppose in modern parlance they'd be a co-habiting couple, married in all but the legal sense.Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-34175697897125347502007-01-09T20:46:00.000+00:002007-01-09T20:46:00.000+00:00The Spenser novels are a pretty long-running myste...The Spenser novels are a pretty long-running mystery series - I forget the author's name. Miss Snark's comments were a ways back; she may not have been making the same specific point, but it was clear she thought the serious had exhausted its possibilities and then some. <br /><br />And it's been long enough since I read a Falco novel that I don't recall their exact relationship, except that she was clearly what we would call his girlfriend.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-23439493885946344472007-01-09T09:44:00.000+00:002007-01-09T09:44:00.000+00:00Rick - I missed that, what was the comment (and wh...Rick - I missed that, what was the comment (and what are the Spenser novels)? I don't suppose Helena could really have lived with Falco for five minutes without being utterly ostracised, so whether it's one book or 20 doesn't really matter!Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-84968265172963777732007-01-09T01:26:00.000+00:002007-01-09T01:26:00.000+00:00Carla - yes, I'd be astonished if Falco came up wi...Carla - yes, I'd be astonished if Falco came up with the money! But for how many books can Helena go on being the PI's Steady Girlfriend - hasn't Miss Snark made a snarkelicious remark or two about the Spenser novels?<br /><br />As for the classical-setting Rules, well Philonikos was witty, so at least I had that one covered. But then, what PI isn't?Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-89405672250347444002007-01-08T18:27:00.000+00:002007-01-08T18:27:00.000+00:00Rick - I've no idea - I'm not up to date with Falc...Rick - I've no idea - I'm not up to date with Falco's adventures! Though if I were Lindsay Davies I'd think twice about closing down a long-running plot thread in a series - and didn't he calculate it would take him about 400 years to earn the money? So I suspect not.<br /><br />On the Greeks, wasn't that one of the <a href="http://readeryblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/official-rules-for-writing-historical.html">Rules for Classical Set Historical Fiction</a>? A quote from one of Terry Pratchett's characters comes immediately to mind, "Philosophers - one minute it's all Is Truth Beauty and Is Beauty Truth, and the next minute one of them says 'Incidentally, a fifty-foot parabolic mirror on that hill overlooking the harbour would be an interesting demonstration of optical principles', and that's why your empire hasn't got a navy any more!" <br />(<i>Small Gods</i>, and I don't guarantee it's an exact quote because I haven't looked it up, but it's not far off)Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-43725792423244499802007-01-08T17:15:00.000+00:002007-01-08T17:15:00.000+00:00Carla - definitely reminiscent of Falco, though I ...Carla - definitely reminiscent of Falco, though I <i>may</i> have had the idea before I encountered the Falco books. (Has he ever come up with the 300,000 sesterces to become an equites and marry Helena?)<br /><br />Everyone has fun with the Romans, but people still seem to think that the Greeks just stood around talking about Truth and Beauty.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-72725869937614749872007-01-08T12:48:00.000+00:002007-01-08T12:48:00.000+00:00Rick, I really like that.
Pity you haven't gone fu...Rick, I really like that.<br />Pity you haven't gone further.Bernitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05264585685253812090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-44847491364666610732007-01-08T09:26:00.000+00:002007-01-08T09:26:00.000+00:00Alianore - let me know what you think, if you read...Alianore - let me know what you think, if you read them. I have a suspicion that there might be more forensic work in the novels that didn't make it to the radio, for the reason that Rick gives - one would expect the author to make use of his expertise!<br /><br />Rick - sounds a bit reminiscent of Lindsay Davies' wisecracking Falco, or I have got the wrong end of the stick? Apparently the office of coroner was invented/reintroduced by Richard Lionheart in 1194 and the name of the first Coroner of Devon isn't recorded, hence the fictional Crowner John.<br /><br />Gabriele - those sound fun. Plenty of scope for skullduggery and conspiracy in early Imperial Rome!Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-43389516998853314922007-01-08T03:31:00.000+00:002007-01-08T03:31:00.000+00:00Lol, Rick.
Hm, let's see if I can get one cheap....Lol, Rick. <br /><br />Hm, let's see if I can get one cheap. :)<br /><br />I found some interesting Roman mysteries by David Wishart - if the first book keeps up the promise, I did the right thing to buy three of them because blurbs intrigued me: Ovid (about Ovid and about the Varus battle - with some <i>very</i> interesting twists so far) Germanicus (who killed him?) and Seianus (you gotta love some juicy Tiberian Rome intrugue).Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-27267118595194854502007-01-07T20:40:00.000+00:002007-01-07T20:40:00.000+00:00I'm not familiar with Crowner John at all, but the...I'm not familiar with Crowner John at all, but the setup sounds interesting. I agree, though, that a detective in any era ought to do some, well, detecting. Perry Mason-style confessions are fine, but they're supposed to result from the perp getting caught in their own lies, unravelled by the investigator. <br /><br />And I'd certainly expect a forensic pathologist to use his own background as a pivot - who better to know what an investigator lacking modern techniques but familiar with death scenes would be able to infer?<br /><br /><br />I once mulled the idea of a detective in ancient Greece. I had a character, Philonikos the Sophist, and a single line: <br /><br /><i> The man from Thebes didn't want to talk. I bounced him off the wall a few times and he talked. Even a Boiotian can grasp a simple concept, if you make it clear enough.</i><br /><br />Alas, that was as far as I ever got.Rickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932015378213238346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-11369446062875334842007-01-07T18:22:00.000+00:002007-01-07T18:22:00.000+00:00I have three of the Crowner John books - I picked ...I have three of the Crowner John books - I picked them up very cheaply absolutely ages ago, but have never got round to reading them. Maybe I should give one a try - I do like medieval mysteries.Kathryn Warnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00397714441908100576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-79614365779878669502007-01-07T17:40:00.000+00:002007-01-07T17:40:00.000+00:00Elizabeth - if you've got 90 minutes' worth of qui...Elizabeth - if you've got 90 minutes' worth of quiet and stationary chores to do between now and next Saturday, the play on Listen Again might be a painless way of trying another. 'Moderately entertained' would be a fair description.<br />Isn't <i>The Awful Secret</i> something to do with the Templars or the Cathars?Carlahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11901028520813891575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19922276.post-37727537589142181472007-01-07T17:26:00.000+00:002007-01-07T17:26:00.000+00:00Carla, I have read one Bernard Knight many years ...Carla, I have read one Bernard Knight many years ago - so long that I had to go and look on Amazon to try an remember the title. I think it was The Awful Secret. I recall being moderately entertained. They're the sort of books I'd read from the library but perhaps not buy. The author struck me as being a fairly elderly gent with a collection of musty old research works that haven't been updated. He had a glossary at the front of the book I read and there were several wrong entries although I couldn't quote them to you now, it was too long ago. From what I read when I read the novel, he needs to update his research in the light of fresh evidence and understanding of the period. He was good on some aspects but fell down on others. I may have to visit another of his words next time I go to the library. It's been a while since I've dabbled in a medieval mystery and you have whetted my interest again.Elizabeth Chadwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911841862257909703noreply@blogger.com