Anybody else catch last night’s episode of Mentalist? You know that show about the guy who’s so sharp and observant that he solves crimes with what seem to border on supernatural powers? Sort of a modern day Sherlock Holmes. If I had super duper powers of observation, I would notice that all of the calendars in the house have little squares on them that alert you of birthdays, anniversaries and even most of the major Canadian holidays.
But I’m not that guy and could never be. I couldn’t even be say a writer for that show, all those clues and little known facts and psychological tricks and manipulations, frankly I don’t know how they come with that stuff… But I know someone who does.
Last night’s episode was written by one of my favorite crime scribes, Jordan Harper. I’ve been digging his stuff for years, and tune every time one of his episodes is on. In the last post I mentioned John McFetridge’s participation in this summer’s new series, The Bridge, and it dawned on me that a buncha fiction writers I love have been doing stints in TV.
Remember season three of The Wire when the writing staff included George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane and Richard Price? Of course the show already came intact with David Simon (which can’t help but have some residual Laura Lippman influence, right?). Kem Nunn spent time on Deadwood and the short-lived John from Cincinnati, (which contained echoes of his novel Tapping the Source ) and after a season on Weeds and True Blood, (itself based on the books by Charlaine Harris) it looks like Chris Offutt might be getting his own show, (hope, hope, hope) called Tough Trade about three generations of a Nashville dynasty trying to dig themselves out of a mess of debt and bad karma.
And if you’re thinking that you’ve heard of everybody on this list except Harper, do yourself a favor and get to know that name, I got a feeling about him. You can check out his short fiction in a couple anthologies, (plus he’s got an uber cool story in Blood, Guts, and Whiskey – available soon). Hey, Jordan, that whole dock situation in last night’s episode, was that a nod to season two of The Wire?
So when did the boob tube become the hot destination for our best and brightest crime writers?
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
