As you may know, when it comes to books, I like the three Cs: comedy, crime and classics. If you can combine at least two of those factors, even better, e.g. a comedy crime book.
It's the same with my crime series: a bit of humour is always welcome. After all, although there is a lot of murder in crime series and people sometimes get hurt, we, the viewer, know that it is, after all, merely a story for amusement - to take us away from thinking about our daily lives. So, if there is a bit of humour thrown in, all the better.
One series that combines crime with comedy is Psych, which ran for 8 series (or 'seasons' as the Americans like to say) from 2006 to 2014. The premise is that Shawn Spencer, a man who's never held a job down for long, pretends to be psychic in order to help the Santa Barbara Police Department. He knows he's not psychic, as does his father, a former policeman, and his best friend from childhood onwards Gus (Burton Guster). But the police don't.
On the police department side, we have a police chief (Chief Vick - a down-to-earth woman), an uptight head detective called Carlton Lassiter, whom Shawn calls 'Lassie' and drives round the bend, and the lovely junior detective Juliet O'Hara (or "Jules").
What makes it possible for Shawn to claim he is psychic is his hypervigilance and eidetic memory. Or in other words, he is very good at observing things and putting two and two together. And he has good recall when thinking back to a scene and remembering exactly where everything was. The fun we have is that we see the same clues that Shawn sees, so we have a chance to come to the same conclusions.
Another fun part are the escapades that Shawn and Gus get involved in: the disguises, the silly names, the stories they come up with, the quick talking. It's all very enjoyable and will definitely distract you from the world outside - even if it's just for a little while.
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