Finding TV fame: Father Brown, Sherlock Holmes, and why some fictional detectives fare better than others...

I was browsing the Internet this weekend, reading several crime fiction-related news stories and articles, when I cam across an interesting piece by Guy Somerset, Arts & Books Editor at the New Zealand Listener. As part of a review of two now-available DVD box sets of British TV series based on famous fictional detectives, Somerset raised an interesting question; why are some detectives more adapted than others? In his article he focuses on GK Chesterton's Father Brown and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (the stars of the respective DVD releases, the 1974 Father Brown series starring Kenneth More, and the modern Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch), noting the differing treatment of the two famous (at least in a literary sense) characters throughout TV/film history.

Somerset begins his article with: "Poor Father Brown. How it must rankle. It’s a good thing he’s a man of the cloth or who knows what evil might worm its way into his heart were he to dwell on all those classic detectives who have fared better than him when it comes to film and television adaptations. Dare one even whisper the words Sherlock Holmes?"

It's a topic which has intrigued me for a while - how some detectives, and therefore their books and writers, become more famous due to numerous adaptations, how some terrific characters aren't adapted for film and TV, or aren't repeatedly adapted, etc? Of course, when it comes to the film business (and probably TV too, by extrapolation), William Goldman's famous quote: "Nobody knows anything" is very appropriate.

Somerset mentions the likes of the much-adapted Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, as well. Sherlock Holmes has of course been adapted many times over. Could it just be that those characters have been around for so long? Well, no - because as Somerset points out, Father Brown hasn't fared so well. Dame Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Roderick Alleyn has been adapted for both British and New Zealand television, but I'm not sure how Wimsey and other Golden Age characters have fared. They're certainly not being regularly remade for modern films or TV shows like the drug-taking, violin-playing resident of 221B.

You can read Somerset's article in full here.

Why do you think some crime fiction characters have been remade more than others? Is it just that the most popular characters or authors have been most remade? Or does that become self-fulfilling (ie remakes generate more popularity)? What about modern detectives? Which more recent characters would you most like to see adapted for the big or small screen? Which older characters would you like to see given a modern twist in an updated film or TV series, ala Sherlock?

Miss Marple vs Carter Ross: it's your call for the World's favourite amateur sleuth!

The online vote to find the world's favourite amateur sleuth (ie someone not involved with the police, licensed PIs or other law enforcement roles) is coming to a rapid close, with the voting in the championship round soon to finish.

A month ago 64 amateur sleuths - some classic, some new, some known worldwide, some lesser known but remarkably popular amongst the voting bloc, some underappreciated, some overblown - began a knockout tournament on the award-winning Jen's Book Thoughts blog to find the 'world's favourite'.

Now we are down to two: Agatha Christie's Jane Marple vs Brad Parks' Carter Ross. You can vote for your favourite here.

I'm sure I'm not the only keen crime reader from outside the US who is a little surprised by one of the finalists. To be honest I'd never heard of Carter Ross prior to the tournament. Apparently there was something of a surge in support for the character (who is penned by an relatively new author who is getting some acclaim by keen readers who post and comment on crime fiction blogs in the United States), enabling Ross to beat Lisbeth Salander in the semifinal.

Bizarrely however, some commenters on Jen's blog over the past couple of weeks seem more surprised by Miss Marple's ongoing success - an overtly pro-contemporary viewpoint that may explain some of the 'interesting' voting results, where 'classic' sleuths, international sleuths, and US sleuths that are more beloved worldwide have fallen by the wayside, beaten by lesser-known (on a global scale) hometown favourites of recent vintage.

Being the curious person I am, however, I decided to get to know a little more about Carter Ross - clearly he's a character that has caught the zeitgeist, at least amongst voters.

Carter Ross debuted in Brad Parks' Nero and Shamus Award-winning debut mystery, FACES OF THE GONE (first published in December 2009). He is an investigative reporter in Newark who doesn't believe the story police are feeding the media about four bodies found in a vacant lot, each with a bullet in the back of the head. His paper prints the police's version anyway, leaving Carter all but alone to find the real story - a story that puts him in the path of one very ambitious killer.

You can read an extract from FACES OF THE GONE here.

Carter Ross has now returned in Brad Parks' second mystery novel, EYES OF THE INNOCENT, which was released in February this year. You can read more about that book here, and about Carter Ross here.

In all honesty, Carter Ross sounds like an intriguing hero, and I would be very keen to read some of Parks' work (I'm not sure how available they are here in New Zealand yet). However, I am still a touch uncomfortable with such a brand new character, who's only featured in two books, winning his way through the 'world's favourite amateur sleuth' ballot. For me it raises questions of 'ballot stuffing' and perhaps not getting a representative enough voting bloc this time around.

Unlike last year, where most of the favourite detectives who got through to the final rounds were longstanding or classic characters that had received much acclaim over long series - meaning that even if you had other favourites (eg I thought Dave Robicheaux should have done much better, as did many crime authors I've spoken to) then you could understand why the quarterfinalists and semifinalists etc had made it through - the amateur sleuth voting seems to have skewed more towards characters who are perhaps more recent and popular amongst groups of keen crime readers in the USA, rather than the wider reading public. Not that's a bad thing, just different - and an observation I think is kind of interesting. As they say, sometime voting tells you just as much about the voters as it does about what they're voting on.

Anyway, if you're a Carter Ross fan or a Miss Marple fan, make sure you do have your say (the voting is open worldwide), and head along to Jen's Book Thoughts to cast your vote.

As for me, I'm going to try to get hold of one of Brad Parks' books - they certainly sound good.

Have you read any Carter Ross books? If so, what do you think? Does Miss Marple deserve to be named 'world's favourite amateur sleuth', or has her time passed? Thoughts welcome.

Nancy Drew KOs Jack Reacher!

Okay, so that's an unexpected headline. But it's not some cross-over mystery from Lee Child and Carolyn Keene, no it's courtesy of the online poll to find the world's favourite amateur sleuth.

As I said earlier this month, following her popular 'World's Favourite Detective' online vote last year (won in the end by Michael Connelly's terrific creation Harry Bosch, over Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe in the final), award-winning crime fiction reviewer and book blogger Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts has now launched another worldwide vote - this time to find the favourite amateur sleuth.

Like last year, the vote is in the form of a knockout tournament bracket, similar to the FA Cup or Wimbledon etc (for those in Europe) or the NCAA basketball tournament (for those in North America). It started with 64 sleuths, who were put into 32 pairings. Voters chose their favourite from each pair, the winner goes through, the loser is out.

Due to the vagaries of a random rather than seeded draw, and some interesting voting, there have already been some terrific sleuths (eg Wiki Coffin) knocked out far too early (in my opinion), and there have been some early head-to-head battles between sleuths that perhaps both should have been making it further through, while others of lesser quality, influence, or importance have sailed through 'easier brackets'.

The results of the second round (32 sleuths cut down to 16) were announced earlier this week, with perhaps being the biggest headline the one above - Jack Reacher (an early favourite to win it all) is gone! Certainly Nancy Drew would have been a pre-tourney favourite to make it at least as far as the Sweet 16, if not the Elite Eight/Final Four (to continue the NCAA vernacular), but at Reacher's expense? Wow. I was feeling bad for Nancy being up against Jack, and undeservedly being gone too soon, but with this voting group, it seems it was vice versa.

Amelia Peabody was likewise knocked out by another favourite, Jane Marple (harsh draw there for Peabody), while in another shocker, Harlan Coben's immensely popular Myron Bolitar also fell by the wayside in the second round, being pipped 51% to 49% by Gordy Schultz.

So it's a topsy turvy poll this time around - with plenty of fireworks left to come, as Round Three (you can vote now, here) is underway. And again, two all-time-classic sleuths that could deserve to be in the semifinals or final are head to head; The Hardy Boys and Jane Marple.

Here's the line-up for this week's vote:

• Ellie Foreman vs Goldy Schultz
• James Qwilleran vs Nancy Drew
• Lord Peter Wimsey vs Stephanie Plum
• The Hardy Boys vs Jane Marple
• Carter Ross vs Amanda Pepper
• Benni Harper vs Flavia de Luce
• Lisbeth Salander vs Annie Darling
• Brett Kavanaugh vs Amlingmeyer Brothers

Wow - that's a tough top half of the draw still, even with Reacher and Bolitar already knocked out! Nancy Drew, Wimsey, Stephanie Plum, the Hardy Boys and Marple all on one side of the draw, talk about lop-sided. The path seems pretty clear for someone like Salander or Flavia de Luce to whip through the bottom half to the latter rounds.

Happy voting!

Who do you think should be named world's favourite amateur sleuth? What do you think of the voting and results thusfar? Of the upcoming battles?