The Marlow Murder Club

I confess I haven't read the books. I am though a big fan of Death In Paradise from the same writer once it clicked with me early on that it is basically Scooby Doo for grown ups.

This drama immediately felt more Agatha Christie in its setting and set up but didn't take long to struggle with its identity. It felt the cast would be struggling with the script which lacked conviction. I can suspend belief to enjoy a storyline, but this veered into scenarios I just found irritably daft more than anything. A shame as the main characters (the 3 amateur sleuths and the contrasting police detective) looked set to make it enjoyable but it never really kicked into gear.

All in all it just felt diluted not knowing whether to go murder mystery suspense or comedic. Somehow Death In Paradise manages to stay true to its identity - there's conviction in the characters whether long term or cameo and no matter how ridiculous it gets. This however somewhat dragged its feet. I'd give a second outing a go but hope it just really goes for it more.

Having waded through too many sub-standard and lacklustre murder mystery dramas in recent times I was not optimistic that this would mount to much. How pleasantly surprised my wife and I were. Beautifully presented and shot along the River Thames and the small town of Marlow, this is well acted (on the whole), likeable and enjoyable. Don't expect this to be Morse or Lewis standard, it isn't as predictable as Death in Paradise and the acting, script and production is better than Sister Boniface, Madame Blanc and numerous other low key murder mystery farces. And don't get me started on the dreadful Johnny Vegas Murder series.....

This is an interesting and greatly enjoyable effort. There are features reminiscent of other who dunnits - forcexmple the inquisitive outsider and the police officer too dense to accept their input (Father Brown) - but the writer(s) have done a great job bringing some credibility to the outsiders (more than one, hence the 'club'). The way in which the 'club' emerges is believable, and the individuals each bring something to the table to make the story work. The actors work well to make each of their characters engaging. The police do not come out well (so far) and unfortunately their negligence and incompetence is also not beyond belief. The location is wonderful (oh for a lottery win) and I liked the way in which real local celebs are used to add gravitas to rhexstory (for example. Sir Stanley Spencer, who lived and worked in nearby Cookhan). Looking forward to more from the club. Soon.

I haven't read the original books but decided to watch the show anyway, especially when I saw Samantha Bond as the main lead - I find her to be a wonderful actress.

At first I struggled a bit to find interest in the plot line as it was quite stagnant and there were constant dead ends that began to put me off of watching it altogether. Majority of the acting was well done though which turned me away from turning off the show! It was all very natural and most of the actors did a wonderful job bringing their characters to life. There were however certain parts where I slightly disliked both the dialogue and mannerisms of a couple of the actors but in the end, it didn't bother me too much.

By the second part of the story I became a lot more interested by the sudden plot twists and the pace that the story was now going. It definitely picked up near the end of the show, as the plot was finally coming together which made the ending very satisfying.

I don't watch modern murder mysteries often (between 2020 and present time) as I find that they can sometimes be very lost in translation from the original books that they're originally based on, so I didn't have high expectations but was pleasantly surprised with The Marlow Murder Club! It's a very good show for both casual murder mystery watchers (like myself) and crime fanatics that like a gripping, intricate storyline.

Well that caught your attention but what do I mean by that?

My wife and have enjoyed Robert Thorogood's Death in Paradise for years and for the last couple of years Beyond Paradise as well. He's written over 100 episodes of Death in Paradise alone and it just amazes us that he continues to come up with different ways to kill people and (almost) stump the police until Neville or Humphrey or whoever eventually finds the solution. He's a brilliant writer or at least constructor of mystery scenarios.

And to be fair, the actual murder scenario in this two part series is very good. Yes, it was stolen from a very famous earlier piece that I won't name as it would be a spoiler but it doesn't detract from the plot. That isn't the problem.

Unfortunately, the problem lies with the investigation. The whole thing was such a disappointment that had us cringing at times because it was so ridiculous.

We're all used to the concept of an amateur or group of amateurs investigating and solving murders. It's a standard of the crime genre both in novels and on television series.

However, this only works if at least one or more of a number of conditions exist. Just to name a few:

1) the amateurs have some special expertise/skill that the police don't have 2) the amateurs have special knowledge of the crime that they can't get the police to take note of for whatever reason.

3) the police are incompetent 4) the police refuse to listen to the amateurs on the grounds the amateurs are indeed amateurs and should leave it to the professionals. This usually works best in period pieces and/or where the police are prejudiced against women or race.

5) The police have already investigated the "crime" and have concluded the death was accidental or suicide and don't want amateurs muddying their closed investigation.

6) A small town police force is involved which lacks the resources to do an investigation properly.

7) The novel or show is being done for comedy

I'm sure there other scenarios as well.

Here's a few examples of where amateurs investigating a murder actually do work:

The classic without compare, of course, is Sherlock Holmes who has the intellect and skills that the police don't have where even the police will admit he is their superior and welcome his assistance. That certainly doesn't apply here. Technically, he's an amateur but nevertheless an amateur whose involvement is credible.

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple where the murders usually occur in a small town where the police are out of their depth and where Miss Marple's special gift for understanding human nature from her advanced age gives her the insight to eventually work out the motive and who the guilty party is. That's not the case here.

Father Brown, where the local detective invariably arrests the wrong person week after week (a formula in its writing and borderline light comedy) and where Father Brown needs to investigate to insure an injustice isn't done.

J. K. Rowling's (Robert Galbraith) Cormoron Strike The Cuckoo Calls where the police have concluded the death was suicide and where the brother of the deceased pays a private detective to investigate. That's certainly not the case here in any sense. Strike, again, an amateur but at least he is a PI and his involvement is paid and against the wishes of the police who feel the matter is closed.

The 2012 series The Betchley Circle with murders set in post war London where a group of ex Betchley Park women (whose special intellectual gifts were recognized during the war but are ignored post-war) end up investigating as the police think a women's place is in the home. Not the case here.

Agatha Raisin where again the senior detective is an idiot and Agatha finds herself investigating to find the real killer and indeed eventually sets up her own private investigation business. Helps that the series is a bit of a comedy and never to be taken too seriously. Again, not really what's going on here. I'm not an Agatha Raison fan but at least it was better than this series!

Here we have three real amateurs (a dog walker, the wife of the local vicker and a retired archaeologist!) taking it upon themselves to investigate even though the police force is well resourced and are quite willing to listen to any facts the women have in order to further their investigation. They continually put themselves in danger for absolutely no good reason even though providing the facts to the DS at the police would have served to solve the crime eventually as she was happy to listen to any facts they had found but constantly begged them not to put themselves into such danger.

It just doesn't work and had us pounding our heads on nearby walls in total frustration at how ludicrous it all was. We only continued to watch because the actual mystery of the murders was intriguing and we wanted to know the who and the how. It was just so annoying to have it being investigated by these three women when this would have been great as a two part Death in Paradise episode or even as a standalone series with the young and inexperienced female DS solving it eventually!!!

If it had been played for comedy, it might have worked. If the local police had been idiots, it might have worked but that wasn't the case. If the lead DS had been a bigotted 64 year old male who hated women it would have worked but not when the lead DS is a woman herself keen to hear what the 3 amateurs had to say; it didn't work! If the women had had some sort of special skill set the police lacked it might have worked but not this dog walker, housewife and retired archaelogist.

It occurred to me early in the second episode when the three women strut into the police station wearing their special badges as newly appointed police assistants that this really should have come with an R12 rating: restricted to those under the age of 12 as that seemed who it was aimed at. Better yet, more believable as a tv series aimed specifically at teenagers based on three young teenage girls investigating where the police had proved themselves to be idiots and the kids were going to be the heroes; that would have worked wonderfully for a teenage audience..

The final scene with Judith is just absurd. She really had to sit in that house alone knowing what was going to happen? She couldn't, say, have had her friends and a few policemen waiting in the back room for the killer to arrive and confess? No, no, no, she had to face the killer by herself, unarmed and simply hoping throwing something in his face would be enough to turn the tables on the killer? How stupid are we supposed to be?

I'm sorry to have to be scathing but this deserved it. I can only assume that those few people who have given it a high rating early after it went to air are those who are either teenagers themselves or perhaps are the inevitable fake reviews that turn up from time to time on IMDB to encourage people to watch. Sorry, I'm probably being unkind to teenagers in saying that as nobody in their right mind, teenagers included, could watch this and felt it worthy of such praise as I was reading in those reviews.