Fingerprints, Bonanza, and the Chinese

One night, hubby and I were watching Bonanza—an episode we’d seen several times. (If you’re not familiar with Bonanza, it’s a vintage cowboy-ish television show set in the 1860s. You can read about here.) In this episode, Little Joe Cartwright was arrested for murder, but at the end of the show, he was proven innocent in court.

So, what does this have to do with cozy mysteries? Well, it wasn’t law enforcement that helped prove Little Joe innocent, it was Hop Sing, the Cartwright trusty cook. Like a good sleuth, he used his own wits to prove that Little Joe didn’t handle the murder weapon by demonstrating how fingerprints work. And what was fascinating to me about this was that Hop Sing claimed that people in his country had been using this technique for years. 

The first time I saw this particular Bonanza, I asked, “Really? Are they for real?” Everyone knows fingerprints weren’t used until Sherlock Holmes. (Just kidding.) But seriously, I did wonder if the writers of the show made this up, or if they had facts to back up their story. 

Out came my trusty laptop. I looked it up, and the writers of Bonanza didn’t disappoint me. China, in fact, had a lengthy history of using fingerprints (and hand prints).

The earliest example comes from a Chinese document entitled “The Volume of Crime Scene Investigation—Burglary”, from the Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 B.C.). The document contains a description of how hand prints were used as a type of evidence. Chinese officials pressed their fingerprints into clay seals to seal documents. And when the Chinese began to use silk and paper for documents, they used hand prints as a means to make contracts legal. In 851 BC, Abu Zayd Hasan, an Arab merchant in China, witnessed Chinese merchants using fingerprints to authenticate loans.

That means that though the story of Hop Sing, Little Joe, and the fingerprints was fiction, it could have happened. I just love cool historical facts, especially when they involve crime solving.

Hetty Wainthropp Investigates

I’ve discovered a new-to-me British cozy mystery series from the BBC called Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. The show aired on the BBC from 1996 through 1998. I watch it for free on Acorn TV, which I access through Amazon Prime for a small additional monthly fee. (My husband would argue that if I’m paying a monthly fee, the shows aren’t really free. Sigh. Must my bubble really be burst?)

Anyway, Hetty, played by British actress Patricia Routledge, is a retired pensioner who decides to become a detective after solving her first mystery, which (of course) she just stumbled into. To the chagrin of her husband Robert, after her first successful case, she gets business cards printed and takes out an ad in the paper to advertise her new detective business. Robert is irritated by her chosen new profession, especially when it bites into the family budget, but he often helps her investigate. Along the way, she gains a slightly delinquent teenaged sidekick name Geoffrey who becomes like a family member. Their relationships are entertaining and grow in warmth as the series continues.

Hetty is no-nonsense, bold, and forthright, but she’s also kind. She’s known to give hugs and make sure people have food to eat. I enjoy the interactions between her and other characters. She often refers to her “little grey cells,” which is a phrase Hercule Poirot used. Here’s a typical Hetty-like quote: “This is a real puzzle. Something's gone arsy-darsy somewhere.”

I'm enjoying it more with each program. The first few episodes were a little odd. The conclusions weren't as satisfying as they might have been. No one was arrested and carted away in handcuffs, which my cozy author self would prefer. But episodes are getting better. And the best thing for me is the shows are gentle, with no blood and gore. No creepy factor. Sometimes there’s not even a body. No terrible language. No awkward sexual stuff. And no bad language. I did have to turn on the subtitles because some of the British accents make the dialogue hard for me to understand.

All in all, I really like the series. We're going to watch all of them.  

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