Just One More Thing: Murder by the Book

A retrospective by Forrest Humphrey

The Detective genre can be a hard one to stand out in, but for decades, television's most beloved detective pulled it off. Peter Falk's “Columbo” managed it by changing the question any detective story asks. We aren't trying to figure out “who did it” but “how will they get caught?” You see, at the start of an episode/film, we are shown exactly who killed who and how it's done, and the real meat of the story is watching the titular detective piece together the evidence and close in on the murderer by the end.

1971's “Murder by the Book” revolves around a pair of famous mystery writers, played by Jack Cassidy and Martin Milner. One partner, Jim, does most of the work (Milner) and the other, Ken, handles the publicity (Cassidy), and eventually, the one doing the real work decides to split up and work on his own. Furious at being cut off, Ken stages a 'perfect' murder. He invites his partner out to a lakeside cabin for a weekend relaxation, but after seeing his former friend out, he returns to the office and ransacks it. After they arrive at the cabin, he convinces Jim to call his wife and lie about still being at the office to cover for being out relaxing, and during that phone call, Ken kills Jim, his wife hearing the gunshot. She calls the cops, who search the ransacked office with Ken's plan seemingly going off without a hitch, his alibi of being miles away seemingly bulletproof.

Enter Lieutenant Columbo (Falk). With his rough coat, cheap cigars and seemingly bumbling personality, he seems utterly incompetent. However, Columbo is in fact quite a brilliant detective beneath it all, and thus the main thrust of the episode gets going: Watching Columbo interact with Ken and unraveling the alibi and finding out the truth. Falk's portrayal of the likable and brilliant detective had already proven itself in a pair of pilot films but this was the first proper episode in what would become a beloved, long running franchise. Between Falk's charming character and the twist I mentioned earlier, even a relatively simple episode like this is entertaining for the basic but fantastic twist on the old murder mystery formula. Its a game of cat and mouse where's you love watching the killer slip up and Columbo close in, and its still novel and fun today.

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