If you’re like me, and you’re like the psychologist heroine of the Frieda Klein Series by Nicci French, you enjoy the cozy things in life. Described as setting up her home in a warren-like fashion, the sleuthing mental health practitioner loves her warm, closed-off rooms. Heat trapped in their confines. When the weather turns even colder, and I turn to British mysteries, I’m reminded of her. Although this post is not about the husband and wife team who write under the pseudonym Nicci French, I would definitely recommend their series about the unlikely but brilliant, pseudo-detective heroine. It’s good writing, with lots of twists and turns. Check out this link here for the first in the series. It would make a great TV adaptation but none so far. Speaking of which, my latest mystery watches have taken a turn for the Scottish. Starting with an excellent series about a young, brash detective solving all the crimes and breaking all the rules to do it. Instead of a young man or grizzled veteran of the force, however, it’s a young, blonde woman named Karen. Subverting the classic, renegade, macho cop stereotype, she’s not only in her twenties but making big moves in the Police Service of Scotland too. Her meal ticket is cold cases. Or, as she says in season two, the police prefer to call them “historic cases.” Much more hopeful. And she does it all with her trusty fanny pack by her side, or “bum bag,” as the Scots would say. Karen’s adventures are based on a series of books by Val McDermid. From my research, it appears there are significant differences between the novels and the TV adaptation. The first time Karen Pirie shows up is in a book called The Distant Echo, but she’s not the protagonist, she strides determinedly in at the end of it. It’s as if the character was so determined to become the heroine of her own story, the author had no choice but to comply.
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