Felse Investigates: Difference between revisions

# ''City of Gold and Shadows'' (1973, "Detective Chief Inspector Felse Investigates")

# ''Rainbow's End'' (1978, "Superintendent George Felse Investigates")

 

''Death and The Joyful Woman'' won an Edgar Award and was adapted into an episode of ''[[The Alfred Hitchcock Hour]]'', with Frank Overton as George Felse.

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[Amateur Sleuth]]: Dominic Felse

* [[Asshole Victim]]:

* [[Bluffing the Murderer]]:

** In ''Fallen Into the Pit'', Dominic, having figured out who the murderer is, but without any proof, tries to provoke the murderer into doing something incriminating by telling him he's found something that might be evidence.

* [[Book Ends]]: ''Death and The Joyful Woman'' both begins and ends with something significant happening to Dominic on his way home from his weekly piano lessons.

* [[Busman's Holiday]]: In ''A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs'', the Felse family's seaside holiday puts George on the spot when a murder is discovered.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: In ''The Grass Widow's Tale'', George stops in at a garage/petrol station he visited as part of the investigation in ''Flight of a Witch'', and reflects on how things have changed in the intervening years.

* [[Corporal Punishment]]: ''Fallen Into the Pit'' is set in a time when corporal punishment was still a common occurrence in English schools. Part of the establishment of Chad Wedderburn's character is that he's only resorted to using it once during his time as a teacher, the circumstances of which are described in detail.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: In ''Flight of a Witch'', {{spoiler|the murderer, when caught, turns his weapon on himself}}.

* [[Eureka Moment]]: In ''A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs'', Simon has a eureka moment concerning {{spoiler|the disappearance of Jan Treverra}} after George repeats a comment of Dominic's. Played with a bit in that Simon was actually present when Dominic said it the first time, but didn't realise its significance because he didn't have enough of the other pieces of the puzzle then.

* [[First Love]]: Dominic Felse, aged 14, falls hard for Kitty Norris in ''Death and The Joyful Woman''; they don't end up together, but they part amicably having both gained from their interactions.

* [[The Glasses Gotta Go]]: Invoked by Philippa in ''A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs''; she says of librarian Tamsin that "when she takes off her glasses she isn't bad-looking". She's kidding: Tamsin is undeniably good-looking, and doesn't wear glasses.

* [[Good Smoking, Evil Smoking]]: George Felse likes to smoke a pipe when winding down after a hard day's work.

* [[Ironic Nickname]]: "Pussy" Hart in ''Fallen Into the Pit''. Her real name is Catherine, abbreviated to "Cat", and thence to "Pussy". It's stated that the nickname has stuck specifically because it doesn't suit her; if she's a cat, it's not any kind that people would call "pussy".

* [[Literary Allusion Title]]:

** "a nice derangement of epitaphs" is from ''[[Theatre/The Rivals|The Rivals]]'', the [[Trope Codifier]] for [[The Malaproper]].

** "the house of green turf" is from "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen", a song by [[Gustav Mahler]].

* [[One of the Boys]]: Dominic's best friend, Pussy Hart, in ''Fallen Into the Pit''.

* [[Only a Flesh Wound]]: Averted in ''The Knocker on Death's Door''. One character is shot through the shoulder in the final showdown with the murderer. He is rushed to hospital, and one of the surgeons spends most of the night getting the bullet "out of the wreckage of his left shoulder". He's expected to be in hospital (and later, physical therapy) for months afterward, but to make at least an 80 percent recovery eventually.

* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]: Chad Wedderburn in ''Fallen Into the Pit'' is the withdrawn loner type. Whether he's also the type that's retained an aptitude for killing is a question that gets a lot of attention after the first body shows up.

* [[Single-Minded Twins]]: The Rossignol twins in ''Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Heart'' are never seen apart and act like two halves of a single person. Justified that their single-mindedness is not inherent, but an affectation they've adopted for effect (they're a musical double-act), and there's a scene where they drop it when nobody's looking (though even then the narrator doesn't name them individually).

* [[Taking the Heat]]: In ''Black is the Colour of my True Love's Heart''.

* [[Tempting Fate]]: Tamsin ''A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs'', while exploring a tunnel:

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: In ''Death and The Joyful Woman'', once it's clear the game is up, the murderer's calm composure splits wide open and a wild [[Motive Rant]] ensues.

* [[Year Outside, Hour Inside]]: The away-with-the-fairies version is discussed in ''Flight of a Witch'', which revolves around a hill with a legend of that kind associated with it, and modern young woman who goes up the hill one evening and comes down again four days later professing to believe it's still the same night.

[[Category:Mystery Literature]]

[[Category:Felse Investigates]]