Rev. Robin Sage dies after eating a meal prepared by Juliet Spence, an expert herbalist who should know the difference between wild parsnips and deadly hemlock.Rev. Robin Sage dies after eating a meal prepared by Juliet Spence, an expert herbalist who should know the difference between wild parsnips and deadly hemlock.Rev. Robin Sage dies after eating a meal prepared by Juliet Spence, an expert herbalist who should know the difference between wild parsnips and deadly hemlock.
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Barbara Havers: Sir? How much did it cost?
[reaches into handbag]
Thomas Lynley: I don't think we should have this conversation in public.
[leads Havers to his office]
Barbara Havers: I don't believe you! I mean, how could you do that? You totally redecorated my house! I mean, who do you think you are interfering in *my life*?
Thomas Lynley: I didn't mean to upset you. I thought I was helping.
Barbara Havers: Oh! The Eighth Earl of Asherton patronizing the peasants!
[door knocks]
Barbara Havers: Go away!
Thomas Lynley: Come in!
Uniformed Police Officer: [enters and hands a folder to Lynley] You ah, might find these interesting, Sir.
Thomas Lynley: Thanks very much.
Uniformed Police Officer: [Looks at Havers then leaves]
Barbara Havers: Alright, explain. How does letting a bunch of decorators loose in my house help me?
Thomas Lynley: Oh, be honest. You never were going to sell the place until you had done it up and you're paying a mortgage on a flat you're not even living in.
Barbara Havers: That is my business, not yours!
Thomas Lynley: Well, I thought we had forged some sort of bond here, however bizarre! I thought showing some concern was permitted!
Barbara Havers: Concern? This is fascism! I mean, I don't even like Duck White!
Thomas Lynley: Concern because you're sitting night after night avoiding the inevitable. If I never done it, you never would.
Barbara Havers: You patronizing, sanctimonious...! Okay, I have been stalling. I am a coward. Now I'm panicking about leaving because the thought of coming home to nothing is more scary than coming home to a mother who doesn't know who I am. I keep putting off visiting my mum because she doesn't understand that I am dismantling her life and putting it into cardboard boxes. Now that is my problem and I don't need you to show me that I am an inadequate human being!
Thomas Lynley: Alright. What I did was inexcusable. I'm very sorry. But one thing you are not is an inadequate human being.
- ConnectionsFollowed by The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Playing for the Ashes (2003)
The producers decided to focus on his sidekick, who has depressions of her own that are more readily dramatized. Oh well.
The story? I'll tell you that it is remarkably well done, quite good compared to others in this series and in the larger collection of the branded "Mystery" offerings.
Why? The folks behind this one had some competence with cinematic storytelling. In the very first scene, we know that a woman is a particularly skilled cook and is nervous about what she is preparing, that her daughter has some special gloomy burden, in addition to and beyond loneliness. Also that there is a prettier, younger woman involved and some of our characters will be watching others. All this is conveyed visually without anyone having to tell us in words.
So in the first two minutes (after Diana Rigg reads some irrelevant tripe), you know you will get something better than usual.
The business between the male detective and his two women, and between them and the force the main thing in the books, is here gladly made secondary to the mystery. Its quite interesting. You cannot possibly guess what's behind the murder, but it is clever, so clever and cinematically so.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
- tedg
- Aug 10, 2006