'Bookish' Goes Meta in the Two-Part "Deadly Nitrate"

A quick apology before we dig into Bookish's second case of its first season. Due to a confluence of occurrences last Sunday (my birthday, several inches of snow followed by several more inches of ice), I did not manage to get a recap up for the first half of "Deadly Nitrate." Longtime readers of Telly Visions will probably recall my deep dislike of recapping two-part mysteries, to the point that I actually insisted on doing every-other-week recaps for Vienna Blood and Van der Valk because I was so annoyed by it. However, it was (and is) unfair of me to lump Bookish in with that group of feature-length mysteries cleaved in twain; Mark Gatiss (and his co-writers) actually penned the series to be six hours of three two-parters, not three 90-minute single episodes that someone else chopped in half.

Moreover, "Deadly Nitrate" opens with a delightfully meta conceit: a film, Lovelorn in London, is being shot on Archangel Lane, with affianced actors Sandra Dare (Joely Richardson) and Stewart Howard (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) starring as two neighboring shop owners who fell in love and are now ending things. The crew is right in front of Book's Shop, so he's spending the day watching the production, while Trottie is being an extra in her "Cake Shop."

Unfortunately, it's Trottie and the other extras, Linda (Shaniqua Okwok) and Barbara (Anna Munden), where the case begins: Barbara dies after eating chocolates she stole from a delivery box that were laced with strychnine by a crazed fan. Initially, they are assumed to be for Sandra, but they turn out to be sent to Stew. Inspector Bliss rolls up with Sgt Morris; the latter cannot really complain about Book's involvement in this one, since the case is squarely centered on his and Trottie's joint abodes. Production is immediately shut down, and Stew's assistant, Billy (Michael Workeye), who brought up the box from the mail, is sacked over it.