2 (3) Those darned detectives.

FIRSTLY: ON THE BOX.

You can't shake them off, can you? Once you've started watching them there's no going back. Well, the chances are they're also watching you. So those discerning souls who kindly keep up with this (more or less) monthly session of scribble may have noticed that The Detectives have sneakily reappeared in the title. They're rife on the box, too. Banks, George Gently, Death in Paradise and True Detective are currently with us; mostly short series, but none the worse for that. NCIS is well into series 11 and may include the demise of Leroy Jethro Gibbs's father, Jackson, played by veteran actor Ralph Waite who died on 13^th February at the age of 85:

he is probably best remembered as the father of John Boy and siblings in The Waltons. 

A new Mentalist series will be starting shortly and there could be more of Lewis and Vera to come. Bring 'em on.

AND IN PRINT.

Robert Galbraith.

Thriller news of the month has to be Robert Galbraith's second Cormoran Strike offering, The Silkworm, which is due out in June. You can read about it on the net.

It seems unlikely that I shall obtain an exclusive interview with the writer, but I do have what I think is a blog first in this exclusive picture of him.

Well, I doubt you'll see it on the book cover.

J.K. Rowling.

The Harry Potter author has apparently said (in a recent interview with Emma Watson) that Hermione Grainger should not have married Ron Weasley. Hermione, she said, should have married Harry.

So what's new? In my experience, very few mothers think their daughter married the right bloke: they seldom think the bloke she will marry after that, or the one after the one after that, will be the right one either. For what it is worth, and that ain't much, I think both Harry and Hermione married well. Harry was orphaned as a baby and Hermione effectively became an orphan when she removed her parents' memories, so the two orphans needed the warmth and security of family life: and where in the wizarding world would they find a better family than the Weasleys? Anyway, Ginny Weasley was never going to get hitched to anybody but Harry – that was clear from the first moment she saw him – and Hermione was far too good a wizard to spend her life in the shadow of 'The Boy who Lived.' They were best mates and needed not invoke 'The Cure for Love' (see Robert Donat's 1949 film).

As for people who were made for each other, surely the most compatible pair to graduate from Hogwarts had to be Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. To my mind, that really would have been a marriage made in Valhalla.

What? No, I don't give a Wrackspurt or Nargle what you think.

Alex Grecian.

Believe I mentioned that daughter Jac bought me three thrillers for Christmas or Dad's Day or suchlike and I had just finished the Rebus one: a good Scottish tourist guide. The other two were by Alex Grecian and I am about halfway through the first of them, The Yard. This is a well written and informed narrative set in Ripper times. I am enjoying it and will get back to you.

LASTLY: THE ODDS AND SODS.

How else to describe The House of Commons?

Refreshing to see, with a Scottish referendum and a national election creeping ever near, that this masterclass in Lord of the Flies antics is being besought to modify its childishness. About bloody time too. But a word in your ear: if you're expecting a drastic change on the part of politicians, don't hold your breath.

AND THAT'S ALL FOR NOW.

Short month, short post. But I believe the cat Shadow is loitering around with a poetry look about him. Ne'er mind. He can wait until next month.