Gently
Does It
The Inspector George Gently Case Files – Book I
By Alan Hunter
Beginning in 1955 Alan Hunter wrote a series of forty-six novels
about Chief Inspector George Gently. Now a BBC TV series has been
made from the books, Robinson has taken the opportunity of the current
interest in the books to reprint them. Viewers might be surprised
by the fact that the series is set in Norfolk, not Newcastle, and
that if you start at the beginning the books are about life in the
1950s instead of the 1960s and Gently is minus his sidekick. This
first case has him enjoying a peaceful vacation, until a local timber
merchant is murdered. Everybody thinks his son must be the culprit
as it is common knowledge that the two were estranged, but Gently
knows better. What is going to be difficult for him, a Scotland
Yard detective on vacation in a strange place is getting the local
police to believe him.
When reviewing any reprinted series, the main question I have to
ask myself is: what does it have to offer to the modern reader?
The TV show has been extensively made over to appeal to modern tastes,
but this is the first book from fifty-five years ago. Part of its
charm lies in that it offers a look into the past, not that of a
historical novel that has been, like the show, tweaked to provide
what contemporary readers want to read about but in that it was
actually written back then. It gives a tangible picture of a shabby,
slow-moving place recovering from post-war austerity when a successful
timber merchant had three servants, women were sidelined and forensics
a long way in the future. No DNA testing for Gently and his colleagues,
but plenty of police work and using, in his case anyway, his brain
and intuition. Perhaps rather off-putting initially is the author’s
terse note that this is a novel about police work rather than a
whodunit but as there is more than one suspect don’t let it
put you off as it is not exactly true. Nobody writes such a long
series of books about mere detecting methods, and this one is surely
no different. It is a short book, filled nicely with a linear but
compelling tale sure to appeal to any fans of police procedurals
and as gentle as the protagonist’s name but none the worse
for that. In the absence of shock tactics, what remains is just
a good story, which is, for this reader weary of the modern vogue
for gimmicks in fiction, a rare treat. One to be savored rather
like Gently’s interminable peppermint creams and just think,
there are forty-five more of them!
|
The
Book |
Robinson (Constable and Robinson) |
29 August 2010 |
Paperback |
1849014981 / 9781849014984 |
Historical Mystery / 1955 Norfolk, England |
More at Amazon US
|| UK |
Excerpt |
NOTE:
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The
Reviewer |
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewed
2010 |
NOTE:
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