A place of Execution ... almost

We are huge Val McDermid fans here at chez speer. She is one of the very few authors we both read and really enjoy. Usually one or the other of us is the fan and the other one reads one to see what all the fuss is about. After said reading, the fuss still remains a mystery. Not with Val. I admit I was the first reader, but David believed the fuss after reading Mermaids Singing.

So we were thrilled that Place of Execution was coming to PBS. Even for readers not into her series or some of the other stand alones, this is a book that demands to be read. It is one of my absolute favorite books.

And what an incredible disappointment the series was. How do I hate thee, let me count the ways.

I was tentative about the job change for Catherine. She is writing a book, not doing a er uh whatever thingy she was doing in the tv version. Ok tv is visual, maybe it makes sense. But alarm bells are going off that the ending is in danger if it's not just her project.

And dear god, what in the world was the grandmother-mother- daughter "relationship" doing in the production? Daughter and mother--not in the book. Not even tangentially. Ok, trying modern Mom with the whole guilt thing. Whatever. Still not in the book. Not needed to tell the story about George.

And here we come to crux of the problem--the story is about Catherine. WTF. The story is most assuredly not about Catherine. It is about your life being changed by having all your beliefs pulled out from under you. George's career was based on the "result" he got by hanging Hawkin for murder. And Hawkin was not guilty. He was despicable and putrid, but not guilty of murder. George had been fed a pack of foma.

Where is the daughter Alison had after she was raped by Hawkin? The actual reason she left the village, not because her mum "thought it best." What? Really? The child is an integral part of the story.

And George has a son as well. Born on the day Hawkin was hanged. His relationship to his son and his wife are essential parts here. But we get Catherine's melodrama.

The investigation turns up a pic that Alison has defaced. She scratches out her cousin's picture. We believe she does it because he is getting sexually attracted to her, but that is not the reason. He is the only one not abused by her stepfather. He's too "old" for Hawkin to fancy. But the tv production throws that out there without a real explanation and then takes away the one in the book.

But the most heinous crime is that Catherine is one of the abused children too, but doesn't remember. Luckily my television survived the avalanche of things I threw at it at this point. Give me strength. The whole closed village closely related enough to pull off the false murder of Alison without ANYONE letting anything slip during the investigation is ruined by this bit of absurdity.

And where is the moral dilemma? Do you out Alison? Do you think Hawkin got what he deserved? Do you ruin innocent lives? Catherine, the real Catherine, cancels the project. This Catherine hands the decision off to someone else which is why this production wouldn't even have succeeded as an original idea. Every motive, every clue, every relationship was written as melodrama. It was a soap opera, built around the idea that Juliet Stevenson needed to chew the scenery.

When it is time to pull the plug on me in the hospital, give me two and half extra hours. I want the time back that I spent watching this. Val, the cast, the book, and the readers deserved better.