We've just received a new book from KQED Books, the publishing arm of San 
Francisco's public TV station.  It's a retrospective of Public TV's series 
_MYSTERY!_, entitled _MYSTERY! A Celebration: Stalking Public Television's 
Greatest Sleuths_, by Ron Miller.  
It's a fine collection of essays, photos, and interviews concerning all the 
different shows and the authors of the books behind them.  While most of the 
stuff I'll go on to mention is TV-oriented, I'm pleased to see that there is 
so much book-related material.  Nobody has forgotten that these series have, 
for the most part, sprung from the printed page.  In the sidebars and margin 
notes they provide bibliographies and biographical information on the 
authors, and there are interviews with some of the authors (the living ones, 
obviously).  Long-time readers of this echo won't be surprised to find out 
that I especially liked the interview with Dick Francis, to name just one 
example.  The text acknowledges many of the changes that were made between 
book and screen (and I now know which producer to blame for sticking Agatha 
Troy into so many stories where she didn't belong!).  
And there are great little surprises here and there:  a charming photo of 
Derek Jacobi and Ellis Peters; reproductions of covers from _The Strand_ 
magazine which make it perfectly clear why the producers were keen to cast 
Jeremy Brett to play Sherlock Holmes.  And bits of trivia -- one of my 
favorites is this:
> Once when author [John] Mortimer failed to win the case of a client
> accused of attempted murder, the condemned snapped at him, "Your Mr. 
> Rumpole could have got me out of this!"
All in all, it's a fun book to look through and reminisce over.  The only 
problem is -- and this is an odd complaint, I know -- the good pictures in 
the book are so good, it makes me impatient with the ones which are okay but 
not great:  if they could get really super pictures some of the time, why 
settle for okay ones the rest of the time?  And even though there are tons of 
great photos in the book, I came away wanting more, because in some cases the 
supporting players are missing entirely.  
No, they weren't stupid enough to leave out Watson, or Harriet Vane, or 
Inspector Fox.  But really, how can one have Lord Peter Wimsey and no Bunter? 
 There's a fine sidebar on Bunter and his relationship with LPW, and you look 
down the page expecting to see a picture of Richard Morant to go with it, and 
what you see are two pictures of -- Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane.  
They did a great job with _Rumpole of the Bailey_ and managed to get in tons 
of pictures with almost all the cast members, so is it asking too much to 
have just *one* tiny little picture of Mick Ford as Chico Barnes in _The 
Racing Game_ chapter?  And I'll bet that there are similar niggling 
deficiencies in the chapters on the series that I didn't watch.  For shame.  
But aside from that, the book is a heck of a lot of fun, with lots of great 
photos for the actor-spotting fan, interviews and info on the authors, some 
filming notes, a trivia quiz, great background info on the hosts, a big 
bookstore list, pointers on how to buy the videos, etc. etc.  After leafing 
through the book in the store a few times, I just couldn't resist.  Even 
considering that I've only seen about half of the shows, in the end, there 
was just too much good material in the book -- I had to have it.  
Did I mention how many really good pictures there are in this book?  ;-)  If 
you want lovely big 9 X 12 glossy pictures of the main characters in the 
MYSTERY! programs, then this is the book for you; it's especially fine for 
fans of the British Stage, since so many Royal Shakespeare Company players, 
and many other fine British stage actors, have brought their talents to the 
small screen here.  
If you can't find the book in your local mystery bookshop, tell them it's 
distributed by Publishers Group West, and it's available through Ingram Book 
Company; the ISBN is 0-912333-89-8, and it's $24.95 -- sure, it seems steep 
for a paperback, but like I said, it is packed with pictures, most of them in 
color.  And if all else fails, you can get it from us:
http://www.dnai.com/~ochobbit -- or e-mail my boss at ochobbit@dnai.com.
Happy browsing!
--- QM v1.31 
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