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Transcript

Welcome to Mystery Books Podcast, where you’ll discover new mystery books and authors. I’m USA Today bestselling mystery author, Sara Rosett. I’m also a bookworm who specializes in the mystery genre. I love sharing my favorite mystery discoveries from classic golden age novels to contemporary cozies and also crime TV shows.

This is season four, episode four, and it’s all about crime and mystery TV shows that cozy mystery readers will enjoy. I share some of my favorite mystery shows, TV shows. And then share some this and that recommendations. They’re book pairings to go with the television show. So if you like this certain TV show, you’ll enjoy these books.

I should mention, if you want to go into the back list of the podcast, you can scroll back, you, and find a couple of little mini reviews I’ve done of other TV shows, mystery and crime TV shows. In season one, episode four, I talked about the Mallorca Files and in season two, episode four, I talk about two foreign language crime shows that I really enjoyed.

Lately I’ve been watching more and more crime shows that are international from out of the U. S. and really enjoying seeing the similarities and differences in the investigation, in the detectives, and most of these that I’ll talk about today do take place outside of the U. S., but they’re easily… accessible in the US. You can find most of these. You can find them on streaming services. They’re easy to find. All you have to do is do a quick search and you’ll be able to find them. 

The first one is McDonald and Dodds. This is the show description from Wikipedia. It says it’s a crime show about mismatched detectives, DCI Lauren McDonald and DS Dodds.

So DCI McDonald is from London. She’s smart. She’s quick on her feet and she’s ambitious. DS Dodds is shy. He’s a thinker, he’s more plotting, but he’s brilliant in his own way, and you discover that as the show goes on. 

So the first episode is called “The Fall of the House of Crockett,” and here’s a quick description. Wealthy entrepreneur Max Crockett arrives home from a weekend away to find a dead body in his hallway, and a statue worth 200, 000 pounds missing. It seems an open and shut case, with the evidence pointing to a robbery gone wrong, until the victim is discovered to have a link to the Crockett family. The arrival of DCI MacDonald ruffles some feathers amongst the sleepy crime team of Bath detectives.

Getting to the themes and tropes of this show, you can tell from the description right away that it has the odd couple pairing trope. It’s a really fun, interesting pairing because, they have different genders, different ages, different personalities, different backgrounds. It’s just a fun exploration of how these two get through the challenge of working together and gradually appreciating each other’s strengths and becoming friends.

Another theme of the show explores is ambition and what happens when you’re thwarted and like she, McDonald is sent down from London. She’s since this backwater, she’s not really excited to be there and she wants to solve some cases, reestablish herself and get back to London where all the action is.

So there’s that push pull of, she doesn’t really want to be there, but there are some interesting things happening and she’s working with this man. She’s learning some stuff from DS Dodds. And it turns out to be a really interesting time for her in her life. So that’s an interesting aspect to the show.

And then you have, it’s just a beautiful setting. Bath is gorgeous. It’s less metropolitan than some of the crime shows that are set in, maybe London or some other grittier areas. You have the beautiful Georgian architecture like the Royal Crescent and the Circus, and you’ve got Bath Abbey and the ancient Roman Bath, so there’s a lot the show can explore.

I enjoyed the first season and the third season the most, so I would definitely recommend those two seasons. Season two didn’t quite appeal to me as much, but I still enjoyed the dynamic between Dodds and McDonald. 

And Dodds is one, has to be one of my favorite characters because whenever he has a question and he needs some answers, he goes to the library. So of course I’m going to love that. 

Book pairings for this television show would be if you want to read more about Bath, you can check out Death in an Elegant City. That’s one of my books. It’s in the Murder on Location series. 

Another book, another mystery set in Bath is Death Comes to Bath by Catherine Lloyd.

There’s a whole series of Mysteries Set in Bath, and we talked about those in Season 3, Episode 6. The Librarian Rings Twice is the book that episode is about. The series is by Marty Wingate,

And then there’s another another series that takes place in Bath. It’s called, the first book in the series is called The Last Detective, and it’s the Peter Diamond series by Peter Lovesey. It’s actually a police procedural, so it’s not quite as cozy as some of these other ones.

 And then of course, the classic book set in Bath at Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Can’t go wrong with that.

The next show is a very new one. I’ve only watched a few episodes of it, but I’m enjoying it so far. It’s called Mrs. Sidhu Investigates. Here’s the blurb. Mrs. Sidhu is a caterer with a taste for solving mysteries. Her sleuthing turns into an unofficial partnership with dour DCI Burton, who reluctantly accepts that together they make the perfect pairing to fight crime.

The first episode is called “Ripped”. That’s It’s ripped as in fit, not ripped as in torn. Here’s the description. Mrs. Sidhu’s first day catering for a health club takes a turn when two dead bodies are found in the spa. Her niece becomes a prime suspect and Mrs. Sidhu starts her own investigation. 

So this is an interesting one. I don’t have as much on this one because I’ve only watched a few episodes of it, but it does. have a lot of, one of the themes is basically Indian culture in Britain. It’s explores how Mrs. Sidhu navigates this world and how her culture influences her decisions and her actions. 

There’s also a theme, I can tell there’s going to be a theme about grief and also self reliance. She’s not newly widowed, so she’s not in the throes of deep grief, but you can tell she does miss her husband and she’s navigating life on her own. She’s also a parent. She has an adult son. So I think there will be some themes about parenting of adult children and like when to be involved and when to step back. So that will be interesting. 

Again, we have the trope of the odd couple. This time it’s an older woman with a really grumpy DCI. You again have the differences in personality and gender and this one you truly have the grumpy sunshine trope that there’s shades of that in McDonald and Dodds, but this one they really lean into it and it is funny their reactions that they have.

The last trope is the nosy older lady. She is not this comes from the Ms. Marple type character where you have an older woman who can see what’s going on, that other things that other people can’t see because of her life experience. And Mrs. Sidhu is nowhere near Ms. Marple’s age, but she is older than DCI Burton, and she takes the role of a helpful auntie and sometimes DCI Burton doesn’t want to be helped, but because she’s in a service job, she sees a lot of things that he doesn’t see. So she’s able to see and talk to people in a way and interview people in a way that he would not be able to because they will open up to her sometimes when they wouldn’t talk to him. So it is a fun pairing. 

Alright, so on to book pairings. I would recommend The Cornish Wedding Murder. It’s the first in the Nosy Parker Cozy Mystery series by Fiona Leitch. The main character left the police and moved to the Cornish coast to open a catering business. So you’ve got the elements of mystery, catering former police detective. This could also be a good book pairing for McDonald and Dodds as well. 

And then I would also recommend Catering to Nobody, the first in the Goldie Bear series by Diane Mott Davidson. It’s about a caterer. This one is set in Colorado. Lots of good recipes in there and very solid mysteries.

Okay, next up is a couple of Australian New Zealand set mystery shows. The first one is called My Life is Murder and here’s the blurb. My Life is Murder follows the adventures of a fearless private investigator who solves the most baffling crimes as well as coping with the frustrations of everyday life.

So the first episode is called “The Boyfriend Experience” and here’s the description of that. Former detective Alexa Crowe is lured into the world of murder and mystery when her friend and colleague asks her to look into the death of a woman who fell from the balcony of a male escort’s apartment. 

So this one is definitely on the lighter, more comedic end of the mystery spectrum. And the episodes are a little bit shorter. They’re about 45 minutes instead of some of these shows are about an hour and a half. So the cases aren’t as complex, but they still have good mysteries. It’s just that there’s more, I think, emphasis in this show on the comedic elements, the lighter aspects of the storyline. They really lean into the comedy in this one more than so than some of the other shows that I’ve mentioned already. 

The themes would be, one would be starting over because Alexa is a widow and she is recently widowed. So she’s still going through some grief. She doesn’t really show it to the world. She’s got a very strong, she’s going to keep all her emotions inside, but you do see glimpses of that. So she’s starting over. She was a former police detective, but she’s left the police force and she’s drawn back into investigating by her friend who’s still in the police force. And he, there’s always cases, that they need, that they don’t have the resources to dedicate to solving the crime. And so he asked her to take a look into a couple of things. So that’s how the series starts. And it’s a great setup because she has the knowledge and experience of a police officer or a detective, but she doesn’t have, she’s not bound by the rules that a police officer or detective would have to be bound by and she’s not exactly a real follower anyway, so it works out perfectly.

Another theme would be independence and dependence because Alexa is very prickly and she doesn’t really want to really be connected to anyone. But, of course, a detective has to have a sidekick, so we have the odd couple pairing of Alexa and Madison, a young woman who is friendly and bubbly and eager to learn and wants to, be involved and Madison is determined enough to push past some of Alexa’s reserve and they do end up having a working relationship together. And it’s another, I guess it’s just standard that you have the odd couple pairing, especially in crime TV shows. 

Another trope here is the beautiful location. It’s gorgeous scenery. The first season takes place in Australia and then there’s a couple more seasons and those take place in New Zealand. I’m not sure why the series moved. Whichever season you’re in, you’re going to get gorgeous, beautiful views, especially the metropolitan areas of those two countries. 

Before I do book pairings, I’m going to just tell you about the last TV show because it’s also set in Australia. So I figured the book pairings could go for both of these series.

The next series is called Darby and Joan, and here’s the blurb. A retired Australian detective and an English nurse work together to solve the mystery of her husband’s recent death. 

So I’m seeing a pattern here that… I didn’t even notice, even when I put together the notes for the episode, I didn’t realize that most of these involve an odd couple pairing and a widow. So it’s funny that this pattern has emerged over and over again and I didn’t even notice it. It’s interesting how much variety you can take, you can have with a trope, you can take these two like the odd couple and you can mix and match it with all sorts of other elements to make it fresh and interesting. These shows are all very different, even though they have the same base elements. 

Okay, so back to Darby and Joan. There’s only one season of this so far, and I’ll read you the description of the first episode. After a car accident with the enigmatic Jack,  Joan’s first stop in her investigation into her husband’s death brings Jack and Joan to a waterside paradise where a group of old friends have gathered. Then a tragic death puts the, puts a stop to the party. Was it an accidental drowning or is this idyllic land so intensely beautiful it’s worth killing for?

So basically, I don’t think that conveyed clearly that there’s a a wreck. And Jack and Joan travel on together, it’s one of those that their only option is to travel together because of Reasons and so they become involved.  Jack becomes involved in Joan’s quest to figure out what happened to her husband who has died.

All right, so themes you’ve got the cultural clash of Australian and British so you have elements of that’s part of the odd couple the things that they’re gonna have to work out and misunderstandings that they have. Everything, from language to differences in the way they would approach things, that’s more the other element of the odd couple is like their personality differences.

The other thing is that Jack is a former investigator, police investigator, and Joan is a nurse. So there’s another element there that’s different from the other shows we’ve talked about. Her being a nurse gives her, background in medical knowledge that is great in investigations. And Jack has the sort of forensic investigation details down. So it’s a good pairing that way. And something new. 

Another theme is, can you truly know someone, even your spouse? And that’s what Joan is exploring throughout this whole first season and then you have travel and exploration and beautiful scenery So the other show the My Life is Murder is more urban, and this is more in outside the metropolitan area. You’re going to see beautiful waterfalls, beautiful beaches, you really get to see some of the natural beauty of Australia.

So book pairings for both Darby and Joan and My Life is Murder, I would recommend The Murder Mystery Book Club. It’s the first in the series by C. A. Larmer. And it’s an Australian series about a book club that gets involved in mysteries. So that has the Australian setting. 

And then the other recommendation I’d have would be Cocaine Blues. It’s the first in the Miss Fisher Investigates series by Kerry Greenwood. 

My question for you this week is what crime shows are you watching? There are so many good options I realize this is just a tiny smattering of what’s available so I would love to hear your favorite crime and mystery TV shows.

You can find me on Instagram or you can leave a comment on the show notes for this episode which will be at sararosett.com/crimetv.

 I hope this podcast has helped you discover a new TV show or an author to try. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast I hope you’ll tell a fellow mystery reader. Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time.