Every year my vacation consists of binging on the work of an author I hadn’t known of before.
This year it’s Peter Grainger, a British mystery writer whose great creation is David C. “DC” Smith, an aging Norfolk police detective.
Each book has a mystery, which Smith eventually solves. But that’s not the point, my friend.
The point is Grainger’s sense of place, his sense of character, his sense of pace and his sense that policing is a team sport.
The stories take place in the fictional town of Kings Lake, which my map says is based on King’s Lynn. It’s near the bay where the North Sea coast pinches in slightly before making the wide sweep east that defines East Anglia.
Meet DC Smith
Smith, who already has an extensive (but untold) back story when we meet him, is Grainger’s Holmes, or Maigret. He is a precise man of precise habits. He takes his tea just-so and knows his coffee, his wine, and his way around a rock guitar.
The stories, as they unfold in time, mark the decline of cutback-era Britain, the rise of cloud technology, and the move of policing away from the friendly wave of the bobby and toward a more impersonal American model. Smith doesn’t like this at all, preferring to write his notes into an Alwych notebook, each case lined up on a shelf in his home office.
The cases are not straightforward. They don’t always end in an arrest. In the first one, Smith winds up speaking up on behalf of the defendant. There is a deep humanity in all his Kings Lake detectives, each with their own lives, quirks, strengths, and weaknesses.
There is also a meta-story, about Smith’s last years in the force, about his finding love as a widower, and about his past, which included a stint in Northern Ireland during the troubles. All is revealed slowly, at Grainger’s pace, as is the scenery, as are the local birds and plants, the coastal marshes and the urban grit.
As with Holmes, you get the impression that Grainger wants to end Smith’s story, and A Private Investigation seems to do just that, with his fate unknown. But again, as with Holmes, Grainger can’t quit his man, who like Michael Connally’s Hieronymus Bosch is next seen becoming a private detective, building a new life, while that of his old force continues with its own series.
What Happens Next
Grainger says he got into crime fiction after enjoying such TV detective dramas as Inspector Morse, which spawned the prequel series Endeavour.
I personally think there’s enough here to give Smith his own TV series, akin to the Endeavour shows. It’s a perfect part for Martin Freeman, best known for his role in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. He has the right sort of calm and, at 52, can easily age into the role.
Maybe Mr. Freeman can bring Mr. Grainger’s Mr. Smith with him on his next vacation. I guarantee him a pleasant journey.
