The Frenchman (Millennium) [Mass Market Paperback]

"Millennium" was an American tv series that was created by "X-Files" creator and scribe Chris Carter, and starred Lance Hendrickson for three years, 1996-1998, in which he played the moody, introverted, and psychic Frank Black. Black was a sexual criminal profiler, and now he's moved back to Seattle after ten years in Washington, D.C., and after recovering from a breakdown. After he has moved into his new house with his wife Catherine (Megan Gallagher) and child Jordon (Brittany Tiplady) he notices a headline in the morning paper in which exotic dancer Calamity, who worked at the Ruby Tip, is brutally murdered in her own home.

At heart, Black is an investigator, and something about this story catches his attention, and so he goes down to the police station to see if he can find out anything about the murder. Here he finds that his old friend Lt. Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich) is the head of the murder investigation. Black talks Bletcher into letting him help on the case as Black once worked for the FBI, something which will cause friction amongst the other investigators. As he investigates he learns that Calamity had a private session with "The Frenchman", an oddball amongst other oddballs, who mumbles poetry and constantly holds up signs to the women that seem to be written in French. Black also finds out that despite their not supposing to, the Ruby Tip actually has monitors in the booths, and that they now have a hazy video of The Frenchman.

Then there is a murder of a gay man, and the two murders seem connected, and Black's investigations will lead to a country hillside where gay men cruise to hook-up with others. Here he finds the killer, there is a pursuit, the killer escapes, but the incident inadvertently leads him to another victim. It is through the finding of this victim that a pattern will start to form that will lead to the capture of the killer.

This is a novelization of the pilot episode, and the book is printed on thick paper, wide margins, short chapters and paragraphs, lots of white space and empty pages, and a THIRTY-FIVE excerpt from the next book in the series, giving the impression that there is more here than initially seems. Therefore Elizabeth Hand's novelization really doesn't go into much depth in virtually anything, except for Frank Black, we really never get ANY detail on how anybody else looks; nor is there any detail on how the police investigate the murders. Black comes across as a rogue investigator whose techniques would get any case thrown out of court, and, despite psychically seeing some of the killer's delusions (which are done better on video) he remains a cipher as well. Thus this book is a good artifact of a show that is rarely seen here in America in syndication anymore, and Hand does a credible job as well, as this novelization is light years better than her awful The X-Files Movie: Fight the Future novelization. However as a literary speculative fiction writer, she probably considered this novelization a step down.

This novelization also saw series regulars Lt. Bob Giebelhouse (Stephen J. Lang) and Jack Meredith (Don MacKay) first make an appearance, although Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) makes an appearance in the tv episode, he and the Millennium Group don't appear in Hand's novel.

Although lasting three years, each season was completely different than the others. Frank Black went from chasing criminals with the help of the Millennium Group, to being chased BY them. The series also suffered from a continuing change of supporting characters, and creative personal. It didn't help that at the same time, there was another American series called "The Profiler" starring Ally Walker as Dr. Samantha Waters, which was a character who was also a psychic criminal profiler.

Both also had pretty rocky storylines, but both hunted extreme sexual serial killers, both had protagonists that were psychic, both fell apart at about the same time, and both only lasted about three years. Three stars for a good competent job, but Hand really doesn't do more than that, and adds nothing to episode itself.

There was another (not reviewed by me) book in this series called:

Gehenna (Millennium) by Lewis Garnett.

I found the Frenchman a facinating and heart stopping book that I couldn't put down. After renting it in the Library, I went out and bought a copy for myself to keep for years to come. Now I can read it over and over again whenever I want.

I liked this book alot! It was a great adaption of the Pilot Episode(also known as The Frenchman,Who Cares?) of Millennium and I like Elizabeth Hand's writing.