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Was browsing in a second-hand bookstore the other day, and came upon an Ironside book. A quite colourful-looking, chunky, hardback affair, that looked like it was written for children, which was something of a surprise. Why write a children's book based on Ironside? Still, I thought that I'd give it a go, and I was quite glad that I did. Sure, the plot is a bit simplistic, and the language is hardly sophisticated; but that's true of many a TV tie-in book, so I can't just blame the fact that it's for kids. It turned out to be a pretty good read, anyway.
I have a lot of TV tie-in books. Used to pick them up from all over the place, and one thing pretty much all of them have in common is their complete failure to bear any resemblance at all to the show that they're supposed to be based upon. 'Favourites' (or the complete opposite) include Poltergeist: The Legacy, where Derek and Alex manage to completely swap personalities (not bad for a white, middle-aged Dutch professor and his young, black American assistant/girlfriend); and The Invaders, in which "architect David Vincent" isn't an architect, is fighting an entirely different race of aliens, and is turned from an endearingly grouchy, borderline misanthrope into a gregarious, skirt-chasing, Captain Kirk clone. Generally I don't have much faith in the genre, put it that way. This book's different, though. For starters the dialogue is spot on. Absolutely perfect in many scenes, especially when Ironside is snapping at Ed and Eve. Mark's different pattern of speech is represented nicely too. I could really hear the characters saying the lines. The only drawback really is in the way that the story plays out. It's obvious from the very beginning who the thief is, and more or less how the crime is done, but the Chief continues to run down blind alleys and look up pointless leads, blaming unlikely suspects all the while. Surely Ironside would see the truth far more quickly? They sort of explain it away by saying that he identifies so strongly with the victim of the robbery that it could well be clouding his judgement, but that doesn't really ring true. I appreciate that the plot can't be too taxing, since it's a children's book, but it shouldn't really be at the expense of Chief Ironside's legendary mind. It makes the story awfully frustrating at times. Still, I am willing to forgive it to a certain degree. I've not seen such spot on characterisation in a TV tie-in book in a very, very long time. Bravo William Johnston. I looked him up in the episode guide, and unless he used a pseudonym, he never wrote any episodes. Seems rather a shame. If it hadn't been for the Chief missing the obvious, the book would have read almost exactly like an episode; and that does not happen often. Trust me, I have the entire series of A-Team tie-ins. Bullet-riddled bodies abound, especially in #9. It's like Rambo, but with jewellery and singing.
I have a lot of TV tie-in books. Used to pick them up from all over the place, and one thing pretty much all of them have in common is their complete failure to bear any resemblance at all to the show that they're supposed to be based upon. 'Favourites' (or the complete opposite) include Poltergeist: The Legacy, where Derek and Alex manage to completely swap personalities (not bad for a white, middle-aged Dutch professor and his young, black American assistant/girlfriend); and The Invaders, in which "architect David Vincent" isn't an architect, is fighting an entirely different race of aliens, and is turned from an endearingly grouchy, borderline misanthrope into a gregarious, skirt-chasing, Captain Kirk clone. Generally I don't have much faith in the genre, put it that way. This book's different, though. For starters the dialogue is spot on. Absolutely perfect in many scenes, especially when Ironside is snapping at Ed and Eve. Mark's different pattern of speech is represented nicely too. I could really hear the characters saying the lines. The only drawback really is in the way that the story plays out. It's obvious from the very beginning who the thief is, and more or less how the crime is done, but the Chief continues to run down blind alleys and look up pointless leads, blaming unlikely suspects all the while. Surely Ironside would see the truth far more quickly? They sort of explain it away by saying that he identifies so strongly with the victim of the robbery that it could well be clouding his judgement, but that doesn't really ring true. I appreciate that the plot can't be too taxing, since it's a children's book, but it shouldn't really be at the expense of Chief Ironside's legendary mind. It makes the story awfully frustrating at times. Still, I am willing to forgive it to a certain degree. I've not seen such spot on characterisation in a TV tie-in book in a very, very long time. Bravo William Johnston. I looked him up in the episode guide, and unless he used a pseudonym, he never wrote any episodes. Seems rather a shame. If it hadn't been for the Chief missing the obvious, the book would have read almost exactly like an episode; and that does not happen often. Trust me, I have the entire series of A-Team tie-ins. Bullet-riddled bodies abound, especially in #9. It's like Rambo, but with jewellery and singing.