|
|
DARK CORRIDORS A CLASSIC REVISITED From Feb. 17, 2000 |
|
on "Trial by Fire" plays an encore engagement on PBS' MYSTERY! in some areas starting March 1. Consult your local TV listings. |
 Juliet Stevenson |
Meet Frances Fyfield's Helen West
in PBS' 'Trial by Fire' on 'Mystery!'
By
RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
A MOTHER, taking her toddler for a stroll in suburban Branston Woods, is stunned when she nearly steps on a decaying human hand sticking up out of the leaf mold. You can understand her being stunned, of course, but she certainly has no reason to be surprised.
After all, don't the English run into things like this just about every time they go for a walk in the woods? Well, at least that's the impression you get if you're a regular reader of mystery novels by Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Minette Walters, Caroline Graham and most of the other British mystery queens. Collectively, they've sprinkled so many human body parts over the English countryside that the whole country ought to reek about as badly as Hannibal Lecter's pantry.
This time the corpse is the brainchild of author Frances Fyfield, whose "Trial by Fire" has been turned into a deft psychological mystery movie that encores on PBS' "Mystery!" starting March 1. (Check your local TV listings for the date and time in your area.) The film represents Fyfield's debut in the U.S. TV mystery marketplace.
Fyfield is really Frances Hegarty, a British Crown prosecutor when she isn't writing mysteries like "Staring at the Light," her most recent mystery novel. That's why it's no surprise that Helen West, her sleuth in several novels, including "Trial by Fire," is also a criminal prosecutor.
In "Trial by Fire," Helen West (Juliet Stevenson) and her live-in boyfriend, Geoffrey Bailey (Jim Carter), have just taken up residence together in Branston, a small town outside London, where he's the local police superintendent. Right away that dead body in the woods provokes discord between them.
It seems they can't agree on anything concerning the death of the woman whose body has been found--from the way the police are handling the investigation to the leading suspects in the case. To be fair, it's a tough case because all the evidence seems to point in one direction--at least until you start challenging all the conventional assumptions about murder.
For one thing, they learn the dead woman's husband didn't call the police to report her missing, even though she'd been gone for 12 days. Then there's the strong possibility that the woman was cheating on her husband, having an affair with one of the teachers at their teen-age daughter's school. But if the woman was killed by an angry husband or violent ex-lover, why was a piece of her jewelry missing when the body was found?
Fyfield has packed "Trial by Fire" with lots of creepy characters. Personally, I found the youngsters of Branston especially loathsome. I don't want to even think about what that town is going to be like when the kids are old enough to take over.
In the film's most nerve-wracking scene, one of those youngsters manages to get Helen West alone in a passenger car of a commuter train in the middle of the night--and puts the make on her. This kid is a real mental case who acts like he just came home from a few years on that desert island in "Lord of the Flies." Watching him bring himself off--in his pants--while rubbing his grubby hands all over Helen's sweater is like watching fur-traders bludgeon baby seals.
As you might imagine, Helen is terrified--and when it's over probably wishes she could spend the next month taking showers.
"Trial by Fire" also has a rather terrifying climax, too, as Helen finds herself trapped in a cellar that's jammed to the ceiling with flammable materials while the killer waits for the perfect moment to strike a match.
Like so many contemporary British mysteries, "Trial by Fire" is very little about clues that lead to killers, but very much about the psychological underpinning of the criminals, their victims and even their pursuers. Trevor Bowen's adaptation of Fyfield's novel concentrates on the dysfunctional lives of the people who live in this seemingly tranquil refuge from the seamy side of metropolitan London--and the conflicted people whose job it is to sort through all the motives, in search of a killer.
Fyfield's Helen West is a perfect example of the new kind of detective heroine emerging in mystery fiction at the turn of the 21st century. Many will compare her with Lynda LaPlante's troubled police detective Jane Tennison from the "Prime Suspect" series or forensic surgeon Samantha Ryan from the "Silent Witness" TV mysteries. Lots of them are springing up in U.S. mystery literature, too, like Christine McGuire's Asst. D.A. Kathryn Mackay or Patricia Cornwell's Dr. Kay Scarpetta. They're recognizably human characters with serious problems of their own and lives that don't always stay on placid waters. That's what makes them so endlessly fascinating.
If "Trial by Fire" is any indication, prosecutor Helen West has a rosy future in mystery television, if not in her private life.
© 2000 by Ron Miller
RON MILLER WRITES THE "CASE BOOK" COLUMN ON THE OFFICIAL PBS "MYSTERY!" WEBSITE. THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN BEFORE HE WROTE UNDER PAID CONTRACT TO THE PRODUCERS OF "MYSTERY!"
|
|
 |
You can comment on this column or contact Ron Miller with an email to: talkback@thecolumnists.com
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |