Text to screen- the mystery

 I've read the entire Inspector Banks (Stephen Tompkinson)series , a detective in the fictional English town of Eastvale, by Peter Robinson.The ITV produced episode (Innocent graves) I saw on PBS was from the  middle of the series, and I was mildly disappointed. They did a decent job with the how the cops  detected and interrogated, but not  showing any details of Banks' love of jazz music and dealing with his wife and two kids subtracted from the power of the story.
I'm not sure if I would've read the Banks series had I seen the TV version first.

I guess the same could be said for many authors whose books are turned into films

I felt let down by how British TV  portrayed Inspector Brant  from Ken Bruen's books.

Feel free to add  your comments (at this blog) on how your favorite fictional detectives made the jump from text to film.

3/2/13

 I watched another episode (Aftermath) of the Banks series and  noticed some improvement. However, the Banks character is portrayed as a more violent man than the than I recall. BTW, Winsome's blonde hair was gone. 

3/11/13

 I've watched a few more episodes and the series is improving. I continue to feel that they've hurt the Banks character by not showing his family.

7/28/13 

 The Dry Bones that Dream episode  includes dialogue of Banks discussing Ella Fitzgerald with a  female witness who's a clarinet player, but  subtracting his family from the TV version remains a loss .

10/10/13

I'm looking for some new episodes of the Banks series, but maybe they haven't been produced.

1/29/14

apparently more episodes have been done but haven't travelled across the Atlantic

3/30/14

I've been amused by the Inspector Zen TV series so  read Blood Rain, and found a more tortured man but that ain't good for the small screen. Anyway here's one reason to watch the TV show.  

5/4/14

I've enjoyed the three episodes of Luther on BBC and picked up  Neil Cross' 2011 book  Luther: The Calling and noticed that one of Luther's favorite albums is Low by Bowie. About 1/3 of the way through the book and am enjoying the fluid writing and depth of the characters.

5/10/14

Episode of Banks' Wednesday Child had a bit more spirit from Banks but not sure what happened to Winsome. The main story about a father turning his son into a heroin runner and a local cabbie trying to save the boy was intriguing. Somewhere along the way the TV producers have focused more on the female detectivies lives than on the main character Banks.

5/25/14

Finally saw an episode (Piece of my heart) which included Banks' daughter Tracy.  I sound like a broken record but Robinson's books definitely include more interaction between Banks and his kids.

6/29/14

The level of melodrama in the Banks' Bad Boy episode was far more than I can recall in  all the books combined.

The scenes between Banks and his daughter Tracy look forced. I suspect the producers were clueless in this area. 

8/31/14

After watching the Dry Bones That Dream episode, I'm convinced the series needs more  Lorraine Burroughs ... DS Winsome Jackman. The character had a bigger role in the Robinson books. 

12/2/14

Inspector Banks ages and we hear more of his political viewpoints in Children of the Revolution. I'm about half of the way through and it appears a review of the early 1970's England looms. DS Jackman is a key player and maybe the TV producers will give her more air time.

12/5/14

so Banks gets the younger girl Oriana at the end. More coal miner politics, etc

12/23/16

The opening #DCIBANKS episode, A Little Bit of Heart, was  disappointing as the show becomes more about Banks and Cabbot's "romantic " tension and less about solving a mystery.

july 17,2017

from Nov 2016 : #DCIBanks fans in uproar as cop show cancelled after successful five year run.I'm really behind on this.

dec 16

Using the smart Hub to check out the #Bosch amazon series.  Some parts are what you expect , but I like some of the word play.

june 19, 2018

Not sure if #CBStrike was a novel, but I find the Brit Tv series worth watching

nov, 4, 2018

I watched the #CBStrike series w/o reading the books by JK Rowling writing as #RobertGalbraith and  found Strike,  the Brit Afghan war vet amputee, an interesting character, so I broke down and bought her latest "Lethal white". The only chick writer of whodunnits I 've read often is #LauraLippman , but I'm enjoying Rowling's latest despite the heavy emphasis on "relationships" and the use of various characters for cheap shots at conservatives.

Nov  10, 2018

Decent ending to #LethalWhite , and  the story didn't get too mushy , anti-Tory, etc.  Strike and Robin Detective agency is setting up for  a few more books in the series.

Aug 4, 2019

I caught up with a few episodes of #TheInformer  and was amused by the scene of African and Asian immigrants singing  Dirty Old Town, a tune written in 1949 by Ewan McColl about an English town and covered by a few Irish bands.

jan 12, 2019

The Deluca series set in Italy from from the 1930's to post WW2 by Carlo Lucarelli is on Amazon Prime with sub-titles. Solid conversion from print to screen.

May 17, 2020

  The character Det. Paddy Sheehan in the movie #Wetlands , a movie about small town Jersey life in the marshes oand swamps,  made a lot of bad bets on the Philadelphia Eagles,  and provided some comic relief in and up and down  Noir-styled movie about bi-sexual chick surfers, crooked cops, mid-level drug dealers, and hurricane movements. Sheehan  wasn't always funny and becomes a sordid character by the end of the flick. 

May 24 ,2020

 The 1978 TV mini-series presentation of Hammett's, The Dain Curse, was painful to watch at times and not even James Coburn could save it, but the appearance of #malachymccourt , brother of Frank McCourt, who wrote Angela's Ashes (1996), provided some comic relief whether it was intended or not.

June 7 , 2020

I checked out a few episodes of The Professor, a Belgian cop series. First episode was decent but the next few devolved into formula TV . One noteworthy part of the storyline was when Annelies  consented to a date at  a fancy restaurant with Daan, her police partner, but sent her galpal as a stand-in.

June 21, 2020

Red Line , a Czech TV mini-series, is a deep state, wild ride fictional tale through the splitting of Czechoslovakia, the Velvet divorce, into the Czech Republic and Slovokia.

March 5, 2023

I watched Season 1 (2016) of Spring Tide, a Swedish television drama series yesterday. Rolf and Cilla Börjlind used their crime novel as the source. It had potential but after a while it felt like a tutorial on what the viewer needs to understand about the homeless, the mentally ill, the evils of big business, etc. 

I got a chuckle that the Olsater family named its resident spider Kerouac.

May 29, 2023

I stopped the remote on The Fallen Sparrow, a noir-style flick from 1943 starring John Garfield, which was based on a Dorothy Hughes novel. Plenty of fast quips in the screenplay that were amusing but had me trying to follow a plot about Nazis, the Spanish Civil War, and NYC cops.

My eyes followed a thin, femme-fatale who looked familiar. Maureen O'Hara's name kept popping in my brain so I did some research and was correct. I never would've guessed that a young musician Anton was played by John Banner who later played SGT Shultz in Hogan's Heroes. Hugh Beaumont, Beaver's dad in Leave it to Beaver, played a Nazi spy.

Also, a nod to actress Patricia Morison.

Ken Bruen and his name dropping

I started a blog on Hub Pages about Irish detective noir writers and began with Ken Bruen. I made a few comments about his style of writing, and Hub Pages told me  they  unpublished until I made it less personal and more informative.. I read their long list of requirements and didn't realize that I had to be cyber teacher provide a syllabus and hold my students hands. On the less personal note, I didn't list my  trips to the bathroom. It was a work in progress which I listed in the Literature section, and I had not started soliciting for ads dollars  I had a few followers and FB likes in thefirst day.  Here it was:
I haven't read a Ken Bruen book in awhile and his most recent release Headstone should arrive any day now. Raymond Chandler books were my introduction to the detective noir genre and finding authors who reach or exceed that caliber can be challenging. Bruen captures barroom and street conversations as well as Elmore Leonard's better books.I find myself drawn to the way Bruen takes us into Jack Taylor's mind and what 's said and left unsaid. I laughed so hard a, at times, that I had to put the book down. If elements of Bruen's work can be considered stream of consciousness, then I definitely get it more than I ever grasped what James Joyce was going on about.BTW, I love the conversations Jack Taylor has with his mom's parish priest.I'm re-reading The Devil and love Taylor's encounter with Kurt at the airport lounge.
 continuing my too-personal  comments:
Headstone, his latest book, continues a fascination with black candles. Taylor  has more interaction with nuns, priests , and folks with Downs syndrome. Of course,  J - Jameson and X-, Xanax , remain constants. He takes on the nuns and priests of Galway and cuts the nuns just a little slack. The descriptions of the smoker's hut outside the hospital were excellent.

       
Bruen quotes himself:

" A lapsed Catholic is simply one who is hedging his bets."

I'm torn between  giving Bruen the middle finger  for nailing it or continuing  to exterminate  the strains of Catholicism in my guidance system. 

The Taylor character is definitely on life support. 

  Sgt Brant, a London cop character, makes me laugh & wince simultaneously. Jason Statham did a so-so job of playing him in the movie Blitz. I re-read that and some passages are pulled directly from the book. I wonder if Bruen was involved in the script process. I moved on to re-reading Vixen and the Angel character sends shivers. 

I've seen mixed reviews on whether an author should promote  his favorite artists through his novels. Most of Bruen's author referrals have provided me with solid reading material. I've had to google some of the musicians he's mentioned.


11/19/12 : I finished The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders, a book mentioned in one of Bruen's books. Some interesting insight into police work and corruption in Italy in the late 20th century. Theconcept of using an artificial leg as bomb was intriguing. The sub-title of the book could have been; in Praise of Older Women. The reader needs to read every word because marshall browne doesn't waste any.

11/27/12; I'm going to try the next  in the Anders series, ship of fools.  The ending of the last book was a little conntrived. but Browne keeps the reader interested.   Back to Bruen. Sometimes, I wonder if Bruen and Elmore Leonard  tape record bar conversations. the banter is that authentic.

12/15/12: finshed Anders #2 - Ship of fools. Interesting plot about one man trying to kill multi-national mergers by killing their CEOs. The effects of hypnotism could've been developed more.Some of the plot twists are far fetched and I wonder how well Interpol plays with local and national police forces. Enjoyable read.

4/2/13: Ken Bruen's London Boulevard was a gangster 's tale with minimal police involvement .  Mitchell, a  gangster just released from prison, lives a fast life in which  the butler of a Sunset Blvd-like home proves to be more of a criminal  than his known associates and enemies. No shortage of smart-ass quips and one liners. Slainte (health) is   toasted to but not  seen often in this violent tale.


6/21/13-  Maybe I need to find another Marshall Browne book. 

7/17/13

 I watched some of the movie Blitz last night and remain flabbergasted at how they  stereotyped Bruen's character and nabbed very little of his fast-paced wordplay.  well, I guess bruen bank account is fatter.

4/26/14

London Blvd, the movie , was disappointing , too. Colin Farrell as Mitchell and Kierra Knightley as Charlotte the reclusive actresss, didn't do much for me. Anna Friel as Briony , Mitchell's sister, was ok.

6/12/14

Any suggestions from NI or R of I as to which Irish actor should portray Jack Taylor.

6/14/14

Bruen uses Jack Taylor to introduce us to another Irish cop  Shea making his way to NYC in the  Once Were Cops. I finished the book in a few hours.  The language flowed easily and I re-read a few sections  to catch the witty remarks. The ending  was slightly irritating but as the narrator pointed out numerous times, it's difficult to stop killing, to stop the darkness.   The dynamics between Shea and Kebar, his first New York partner,  were excellent,  and  having Kebar shove  a well dressed Shea into the mud  a  minute after their introduction was a nice touch by the author.

11/29/14

guess it's time to  read Bruen's recent releases. saw this line from  interview

Alcoholism doesn't run in my family, it bloody gallops,

12/21/14

Character Jack Taylor:

“There’s God and then there’s the Irish version.”

12/26/14

Iain Glen as Jack Taylor was ok.   The episode Pikemen was decent but it's difficult to transfer Bruen's wit to the small screen.. The Magdelin Martyrs episode was better. Decent job in the scenes with Taylor and his mother.

1/4/15

Purgatory, the latest in the Taylor series, was decent not great but almost anything by Bruen is difficult to put down. Perhaps, a little more on the frightening Kelly (C33). The commentary on the rich Reardons' marriage had me laughing out loud. His comments on the feckin Irish Catholic bureaucracy is brutal and noteworthy.

7/9/15

A quote from a Bruen book:
“It’s said the difference between one friend and none is infinity.” 
― Ken Bruen, The Guards

8/22/15

Green Hell, #11 in the Taylor series, was a bit thin but still a good read. Maybe one more Taylor then he disintegrates.  The goth chick avenger is an interesting character. Love this comment when a preppy American tells Jack,"I'm an atheist". 

See how that flies when a fecker shoves a gun in your mouth at three-thirty in the morning."

11/8/15

 Yep, Jameson and Black Bushmills won a few rounds in my younger days.

 “The whiskey kicked like a mugger.” ― Ken Bruen, Blitz

9/3/16

 The Emerald Lie, the latest in the Jack Taylor series,  brings back the Goth chick, takes more jabs at the Catholic clergy, and ,of course,  has me LOL  about the Irish  compliment: "patting your shoulder while sticking a boot up yer feckin arse ." I'll finish the book  sometime today. #kenbruen

9/10/16

Bruen dangled just enough rope for one more Taylor book. Who knows maybe a long  lost  Taylor nugget is introduced.

9/17/16

Name dropping with no reference to #Bruen . #jessejames , a name most often associated with the famous American outlaw. It is  also the name of the #Steelers (NFL) starting tight end and  an Ocean Cruising Club port officer  fighting piracy on the water between Trinidad and Grenada.

12/4/16

This quote from Bruen's book #headstone could be applied  24/7 to numerous people ansd issues.

“By the holy, Jack Taylor. I was beginning to think you were a rumor running around as a fact"

7/9/17

  re-read #kenbruen  Priest yesterday and had a sad chuckle about older widows "adopting" or latching onto a parish priest.

12/9/17

#kenbruen may have one more #jacktaylor book left. His latest  in the Taylor series, Ghosts of Galway. I laugh aloud when he refers to Jameson as the J. I used to refer to  it as the The Reverend. Anyway, here's an important life lesson from  one scene.Two characters with pistols: one says here are the duel rules, shoots the other and says I lied. Plenty of snappy banter.

12/15/18

I finished #Bruen 's latest book , The Galway Silence, in  a few hours yesterday, and always enjoy the comments on drinking #Jameson in a bar. Bartender says "Ice?" customer replies  "Not if you want to go on breathing"

june 15, 2019

 #Bruen  quoted a line from a  #saragran  book so I rolled the dice on a chick book  Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway . I can see why Bruen liked it. Claire  detects at her own pace and doesn't hide her predilections.

july 7

 I finished #kenBruen 's "Dispatching Baudelaire" in a few hours yesterday and revisited hisopening note, "there are few more dangerous animals than an Englishman off balance", which turned out be an accurate forewarning. 
#Baudelaire (1821-67) a poet, who was quite fond of laudanum and an STD carrier.

oct 13

“You don't know hell till you stand in a damp dance hall in South Armagh as the crowd sing along to "Surfing Safari".” ― #KenBruen.   South Armagh is in Northern Ireland

feb 16 2020

I finished  "Galway girl," the latest in the #jacktaylor series from #kenbruen and was reminded of how religion and whiskey are connected in some places. Taylor was  mourning in a Protestant church in Galway and planned on buying Bushmills because it was a Protestant's choice instead of Jameson. Years ago in a Fells Point bar in Baltimore, MD , a mick chastised me for not drinking Jameson since I certainly must've been raised Catholic. I replied I wasn't aware of the religious affiliations of whiskey brands and the bar is out of Jameson.
The myths are based on Jameson being brewed in the mostly Catholic Republic of Ireland, and Bushmills  being located in mostly Protestant Northern Ireland. 

Nov 27, 2020

#Bruen 's latest, Galway's Epiphany,  has some more drinking booze jokes. When Jack Taylor is offered sherry, he replies, "Sherry is what you drink in Lent, for bloody penance.

March 6 , 2021

“Your life is in some bizarre state when priests are throwing abuse at you on the street.”

― Ken Bruen, The Magdalen Martyrs.

This spurred indirectly a memory of  a Friday night when I stayed off the Jameson so I could be awake and presentable at a Saturday morning funeral of a close friend's grandmother. I didn't sleep a wink and didn't utter a word during the 8AM Mass, and the padre, who I'd never met, made a point of telling me I was the strong, silent type. I smiled at him. He was making polite ,small talk and my batteries were on empty.

July 17, 2021

“The country was still smoking like #BetteDavis in her prime.” ―  #KenBruen . I'm not sure if KB is referring to both Irelands or just the North.

March 12, 2022

Another Bruen quote catching my attention: ‘Good grief, are those hooks in your lips?’ ‘It’s fashion, Dad.’

April 28, 2024

Reading Galway Confidential, Ken Bruen's newest book: Jack Taylor coming out of a coma or: "as a Galway wit called it, a comma".

May 12, 2024

I finished Galway Confidential, Bruen's latest and perhaps thinnest book. "If you want a good solicitor in Galway(Rof I), get a Protestant one"-- perhaps a hangover from colonization