Favourite Discoveries of 2016 (I)

As per usual I have asked my fellow Euro Crime reviewers to come up with their favourite crime fiction discovery of the past year - be it book, film or tv series.

The first entry comes from Norman Price.

Norman's Favourite Discovery of 2016

The former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan was allegedly once asked what he feared most; his answer “Events, dear boy, events”. Well we have certainly had plenty of those in 2016.

My own personal events in which I had very close encounters with some of the most expensive equipment owned by the National Health Service lead to my discovery of the pleasure of sitting through a marathon DVD session. The total immersion in a series, in this case Vera, was a great help in taking my mind off my more serious health problems.

My wife and I had both read The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves and really enjoyed the characters and excellent plot, with the result that we decided to get the complete DVD set and watch it over several nights. Our old DVD had broken down years ago so we purchased a basic TV and DVD player combination and settled down to watch.

Fascinating plots combined with superb acting by Brenda Blethyn and David Leon as the main protagonists Vera Stanhope and Joe Ashworth made it a pleasant way to spend our evenings together. The last series without David Leon was not quite as good because the spiky interaction between the solitary Vera and the family man Joe was missing. But I would highly recommend the DVD of Vera.

I am trying to get back to reading, but if my concentration is not up to scratch one of my presents during this festive season was the complete set of the Inspector Morse series. That should last me the rest of the dark winter nights.