Columbo Under Glass: A critical analysis of the cases, clues and character of the Good Lieutenant

Columbo Under Glass examines the Good Lieutenant from every angle. It notes the “First Clues” Columbo finds that set him on the trail of the murderer and the “Final Clue” with which he arrests the villain. The book points out those occasions when Columbo has a “Sympathetic Relationship” with the murderer, and lists those rare instances when “Columbo Gets Angry.” Read about Peter Falk’s delightful expansion of the character and his unfortunate attempt to adapt two Ed McBain novels into Columbo episodes. You can find an in-depth discussion about Columbo’s morality code, check out “The Supporting Cast,” “Colleagues and Sidekicks,” and “The Thirty-One Hats of Michael Lally” and spend time with “Bert, Barney and Dog.” The book opens with capsule synopses of all 67 episodes (and of course the pilots and live TV show and play which preceded them). The episodes are extensively cross-referenced to a series of essays that truly put the great detective, his clues and character “under glass.” With a foreword by Mark Dawidziak, author of The Columbo Phile. Sheldon Catz has been a mystery fan in general and a Columbo fan in particular for as long as he can remember. He finally caught all of the original (1970s) episodes and began making notes on them in 1989. By coincidence, this was when the series returned from a 10-year hiatus and Mark Dawidziak’s book The Columbo Phile was first published. From 1992 to 2002, Catz served as chief writer and editor of The Columbo Newsletter, a quarterly fanzine where many of the ideas explored in this book were first introduced. When not writing about Columbo, he can usually be found at his day job, writing about the law (which is not nearly as much fun). He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife and daughter. Unlike Columbo, the Catzes have no dog (and no cat, either).