Mark Gatiss Will Play a Bookshop Owner Who Solves Crimes in Alibi Drama 'Bookish'
It is a truth universally acknowledged that in the world of British drama, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to solve crime. No, really; in many of the U.K.'s popular dramas, you don't need to be trained as a detective or honestly have done much more than watch a few episodes of Law & Order before you can just jump right into chasing murderers in your spare time. Move over, Miss Marple. If little old ladies can solve murders, so can the rest of us.
Do you regularly read stories about a variety of crimes? You're covered. (Magpie Murders.) Talk about sins in your sermons? Good enough. (Grantchester.) Are you a priest or a nun? God's work is truly never done. (Father Brown and Sister Boniface Mysteries.) Do you like to cook? Even criminals have to eat! (Whitstable Pearl). What I'm saying is that, truly, the only remarkable thing about the upcoming series Bookish, which will follow the story of a bookshop owner who also solves crimes, is that it doesn't appear as though anyone's done it yet.
The series hails from Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss, who is also writing and starring in the six-part drama. Set in post-war London in 1946, Bookish follows the story of Gabriel Book, an antiquarian bookstore's unconventional and erudite owner, who uses the thousands of books at his fingertips to help the police solve various cases. (Why he's allowed to do this is something the show will likely never address in any real way, so let's just go with it.)
