Page & Screen – May 2014

reviews by Sharon L. Shervington

Together Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson have sold hundreds of millions of books.

Each is a force to be reckoned with in the publishing world, and each one’s creativity in the suspense genre continues to be a driving force in the public’s appetite for these page-turners around the world. That makes it a serendipitous occasion when their publication dates coincide, as they do this April and May.

Mr. Patterson now publishes several books a year, many of them collaborations, with some of those intended for middle-grade or young-adult audiences; he’ll release two more titles in June. Meanwhile, Ms. Clark generally writes alone and has written a string of more than 30 suspense bestsellers. These books come out like clockwork every April and are largely responsible for her legion of fans.

Patterson’s latest, Unlucky 13, now at Number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List, is the latest entry to the women’s murder club series. That refers to a tight group of friends—a journalist, a medical examiner, a district attorney—and the series’ lead character, Detective Lindsay Boxer, who is also a new mother.

The story follows the deadly dance between the detective and a serial killer, Mackie Morales, who is stalking her, and who is also the mother of a young child. Lindsay’s highly competitive friend Claire, a journalist out to get a game-changing scoop, tries to take down this crazed killer on her own, placing herself in deadly jeopardy. (Little, Brown; $28; 416 pages)

Clark’s latest, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, also on the bestseller list, showcases once again her great skill and style. Here, she displays the talent that inspired a thousand cold-case copycats with the story of a television producer, Laurie Moran, whose doctor husband was murdered in front of their young son a few years before the story opens.

Without giving away any spoilers, it is safe to say that that murder case intersects with another that is the subject of the pilot in a new series she has created. In it, the four best friends, who were present at the graduation party where the wife of a wealthy and influential businessman was murdered, recreate the events, on camera this time, that led up to the killing, right down to wearing similar clothes and hairstyles. And each one has a strong motive. This is a great read with such breakneck pacing that you won’t want to put it down. (Simon & Schuster; $26.99; 303 pages)

On page and screen there is something for everyone this month presenting intricate life-or-death puzzles that often involve dark family secrets, history, and, frequently ethical conundrums, without sacrificing suspense or pacing.

One real standout is Crime Stories, from Germany—about a lawyer who is very clear that his professional obligations trump a client’s guilt. Surprisingly, this character is highly sympathetic and likable. (International Mystery; MHz Networks; six episodes, about 45 minutes each)

Another memorable legal drama, A Case of Conscience, from Italy, also deals with the dark side of the legal profession. Sebastiano Somma, the charismatic Italian actor, plays Rocco Tasca, a lawyer who has almost lost his moral center after spending years as a hotshot representative of corporate interests. As he finds new partners he also experiences an epiphany in which he realizes that power, money, and winning aren’t everything. (MHz Networks; six episodes, about 100 minutes each)

Endeavor, a Masterpiece Mystery, set in Oxford in the mid-1960s, stars Shaun Evans as Detective Constable Endeavor Morse, an humble genius who uses his own experience at Oxford University to solve crimes that often involve the dons and other wealthy notables who believe they are above the law. But this detective’s eye for the telling detail and stellar intellect thwart them again and again in five engaging episodes of about 90 minutes each. The gorgeous color-drenched setting perfectly offsets the city’s dark underbelly of secrets and murder. (PBS Direct)

Another outstanding suspense drama is Ripper Street, Season Two, starring the always engaging Matthew Macfadyen, an actor who is as comfortable with the classics as with more contemporary work.

In his role as Detective Inspector Reid he combines a little of both. Set in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, in the 1890s, the inspector faces corruption and moral collapse, along with murder, at every turn. And he is haunted by the recent death of his child, a tragedy that has unhinged his wife.

Jerome Flynn plays his loyal, haunted deputy who seems to attract disloyalty from the women in his life, and who unceasingly and brutally punishes himself for that. One frame of Mr. Flynn’s face is worth at least a thousand words. Followers of Game of Thrones will recognize him as the actor who plays Tyrion Lannister’s sidekick and blade. (BBC Worldwide Americas; 485 minutes)

Crimes of Passion, set in post-war Sweden’s scenic lake district, is a series of whodunits about Puck, a graduate student and amateur sleuth, who is followed everywhere by Einar, an academic, and Christer, a police commissioner; they are hunks—and childhood friends—who are drawn to Puck’s beauty, intellect, and ability to tease out the strands of the most convoluted crimes, sometimes even when they involve her friends.

An elegant period-jazz soundtrack and themes that highlight family secrets even among the most apparently respectable families add polish to a carefully crafted series. (MHz Networks; six episodes, about 90 minutes each)

In The Making of a Lady (based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who is better known for The Secret Garden and A Little Princess), Emily, who enters into a marriage of convenience that turns into love, finds that it is a short step between love and death when her husband’s sinister relatives try to kill her not long after her new husband is recalled to India to handle a crisis. With Emily and her husband out of the way, his title and fortune will revert to his cousin, a goal they pursue relentlessly after she generously allows the debt-ridden cousins to move in to her lavish country estate.

The portrayals of the relatives, an interracial couple, and the husband’s chilly aunt, add extra depth to the proceedings; there is evan a housekeeper every bit as frightening as the one in the classic Rebecca. This is an engaging, lavishly mounted production. (PBS Direct; 96 minutes)

Back on the page, exceptional historical thrillers are the sequential The Midwife’s Tale and The Harlot’s Tale (in paper and hardcover respectively), about a 17th-century midwife and detective who works with her surprisingly sophisticated maidservant to uncover secrets and murderers at a time when a woman’s intelligence was not considered an asset.

The protagonist, Lady Bridget Hodgson, is based on a real person whom the author discovered (in his work as a historian) by reading several hundred women’s wills from the time. She was the only one who defined herself by her profession rather than her status as a widow. This is a series and a debut author to watch. (By Sam Thomas; Minotaur; $14.99 and $24.99)

The Hidden Child is the eagerly awaited latest from Camilla Lackberg, the wildly popular Swedish author, whose best-known characters are journalist Erica Falck and detective Patrik Hedstrom, who work together as unofficial sleuthing (and parenting) partners. The secrets are especially personal in this outstanding fifth series entry in which Erica finds a Nazi medal among her mother’s belongings, as well as her diaries, both of which prove to be directly connected to a string of murders in the present day that begin as the book opens.

Thanks to Pegasus Press, Ms. Lackberg’s books are becoming more available in the United States, and there is buzz that a series based on these characters will come to television here soon. More on that as it develops. (Pegasus Crime; $25.95; 528 pages)

A stellar season two of Mr. Selfridge, about the American department store mogul in England, blends public and private lives in a kind of carriage-trade Upstairs, Downstairs. This season also incorporates elements of intrigue and suspense linked to Germany and World War I. Polly Walker joins the cast as nightclub owner Delphine Day, while Australian actress Frances O’Connor returns as the long-suffering Rose. (PBS Direct; 7.5 hours)

Just out from Simon Pulse, the teen imprint, is Killer Instinct, a kind of Dexter for teens, about Lane, a personable teenager who loves animals, gets good grades, and excels in martial arts. But dark urges haunt her, as does the mystery surrounding the bloody serial killer known as the Decapitator. She goes after him but finds she is out of her depth. And her mother, an FBI agent, has deadly secrets of her own. (By S.E. Green; $17.99; 260 pages)