[This one's
a murder mystery. As far as SPOILERS are concerned, I don't say
whodunnit but I do talk about the plot a bunch so if you want to go
in totally unspoilt do not read and that goes for the next three days
and all]
Dark Shadows:
The Tony and Cassandra Mysteries 1.1
The Mystery
at Crucifix Heights
written by
Philip Meeks
In have no
real interest in Dark Shadows.
Not a judgement on the show or the fandom, just something I never got
in to. However, the audios have a supernatural detective sub-series
starring Jerry Lacy as private detective Tony Peterson and Lara
Parker as the witch Cassandra Collins. I love supernatural detective
fiction and I picked up their adventures cheap in various sales. Now
they have their own box set series.
Its clear
that Big Finish are expecting to draw in new listeners with the box
set as Tony and Cassandra start the first story separated and not
talking to one another. In fact, the truth behind why they're not
talking to each other is probably more important to the story than
the resolution of the murder mystery. Actually, talking of the
murder...
This story
makes a lot of reference to Agatha Christie, mainly through Tony's
secretary Rita who spends much of the story (for complicated reasons)
undercover as an English aristocrat whose entire idea of the English
aristocracy comes from Christie novels. She even offers sage advice
based on the format of Christie mysteries. Its clear that Philip
Meeks wants to at least evoke the feel of a Christie mystery but,
sadly, the hour format doesn't really give him enough opportunity to
flesh out his characters before they die.
One of the
important things about Christie is that we usually get to know the
victim or victims as well as the suspects pretty well before the
murder happens. Given the time limit and the lack of a visual
element, an audio like this is at a distinct disadvantage. In fact,
at one point the team discuss suspects and mention people who have
not actually “appeared” in the story who are obviously not the
killer because, from a listener's point of view, they don't exist.
Of course,
the meat of the story isn't the murder of participants at an occult
auction but the renewal of Tony and Cassandra's partnership. Tony
is at the auction working undercover security whilst Cassandra has
been engaged by a mysterious third party to bid on a particular item,
a large preserved wing of unknown origin. We're introduced to other
bidders: a Swedish psychic child; a pompous crypto-zoologist; a
missionary sister from some Louisiana convent; and, a soothsayer
amongst others.
Then, as
they say, the murders begin...
To go back
to the Christie thing again. It isn't possible, as it theoretically is in a Christie novel, to work out who did it through logic and
considering motive. Its a twist ending because this is Dark Shadows
and the author (probably correctly) works out its more interesting to
study Terry and Cassandra's relationship through the idea that Tony
isn't sure she hasn't been the one killing people on behalf of her
client. Its not a bad thought for him to have given their past but
its also, obviously from the listener's perspective, not true as
we've heard unseen forces messing with Cassandra at various points
before this. So we know that Cassandra is innocent and we get to
enjoy how she reacts to the serious accusation after a few scenes of
more comfortable, friendly bickering with Tony.
Its the
relationship that sold this series to me back when it was an occasional divergence in the monthly range and Meeks perfectly
captures what made me fall in love with these two characters in the
first place.
Let's hope
the rest of the box set gives me as much to talk about without
needing to discuss whodunnit.
No comments:
Post a Comment