Wed 20 Apr 2016
PETER LOVESEY – Waxwork. Pantheon, US, hardcover, 1978. Pebguin, US, paperback, 1980. First published in the UK by Macmillan, hardcover, 1978. Adapted for TV: (1) Episode 4, Season 1 of Screenplay, 19 August 1979. (2) Episode 1, season 1 of Cribb, 13 April 1980.
Mystery fiction written before the turn of the century is doubtless an acquired taste, one that I’ve never developed. Yet with smooth and consummate ease Lovesey continues to show that not only can detective stories be successfully set in the days of Queen Victoria, but he also blends the details of this long-ago era into an essential part of the crime and its solution.
In this, his latest, all Britain eagerly awaits the salacious details as a beautiful woman is accused of poisoning a blackmailer and is committed for trial at Old Bailey. Sergeant Cribb‘s task is to close out the investigation — some details remain that could yet contradict the lady’s guilty plea.
From a technical sense, this had to be one of the most difficult tales to tell of any in recent months, and as the jiggery-pokery at length slides effortlessly into place, one can only sit back and applaud with admiration.
Rating: A.
Bibliographic Note: This was the eighth and last recorded case to be solved by Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray, a pair of London-based policemen.
April 20th, 2016 at 2:35 pm
I don’t remember reading this one. Not even my review of over 37 years ago brings back any memory of it. I liked it then, though, and since I still like well-plotted detective puzzles, I suspect that I’d like it again now.
April 20th, 2016 at 3:01 pm
I read it fairly recently, and it does stand up very well. It was popular enough to be adapted for TV, and subsequently a TV series. Lovesey and his wife did actually contribute some original scripts to the show (not to mention a couple of short stories in recent years), so WAXWORK wasn’t strictly speaking Cribb’s last case.
April 20th, 2016 at 3:35 pm
Thanks for the info, Bradstreet. I’ve added the TV adaptations to the credits at the top of the review.
While I was looking on IMDb for the dates and so on, I discovered that Lovesey was given credit as a story consultant for the British TV series ROSEMARY AND THYME. Of the three seasons, I bought one on DVD to sample, but I’ve never gotten around to watching it. Given Lovesey’s reputation as a throwback to the Golden Age of Detection, I’ll have to move it further up in the queue.
April 20th, 2016 at 3:40 pm
I’m also fairly sure I have a DVD set of the CRIBB series, but if so, it’s been boxed away for so long that I have no idea where it is.
April 20th, 2016 at 5:23 pm
The Cribb series was well done despite budgetary limits. It confirmed me as a Lovesey fan, and I remain one to this day.
April 21st, 2016 at 12:32 pm
Lovesey’s a terrific crime author, but he has never really become a household name. It’s only recently that his publishers seem to have made a concerted effort to get his paperbacks on the shelves of mainstream bookshops. The Peter Diamond books deserved to be turned into a television series, but unfortunately the first books coincided with the rise of a number of gruff-but-decent-middle-aged-cops on TV.
Had CRIBB been made a year or two later it would probably have looked a lot more expensive. BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, which came out about the same time, showed executives that giving their stuff a filmic gloss paid dividends. You’ve only got to look at the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. Same company, and only two or three years later, but much classier looking. I love the CRIBB series, but the film/video mix does mean that it shows its age.