Murder on the Moor

You may be looking for the Man from UNCLE zine The Murder on the Moor Affair.

Zine
Title:	Murder on the Moor
Publisher:
Editor:
Author(s):	Meg Lewtan
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	early 1980s (circuit story), as a print zine (dated 8.7.90)
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	The Professionals
External Links:
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another version of the cover

Murder on the Moor is a 230-page Professionals circuit zine that was self-published by its author Meg Lewtan.

Unlike most Professionals circuit stories, it sported a black and white illustrated cover. A few copies had a color cover.

In the zine, the author described it as a "saga of silliness, sin and sex."

The Historicals

It is one of three novels by Lewtan that are historical AU novels set in the Victorian Era:

• Bird in a Gilded Cage
• Murder on the Moor
• Luck of the Draw

The Author's Preface

The author's preface is long and very entertaining. It is excerpted below.

THIS IS NOT A HEALTH WARNING.

The author has given up writing warnings for readers who obviously do not heed them. She also refuses categorically to apologise for a single word, deed or scene in this story. If her readers haven't learnt their lesson by now, then they deserve everything they get as they peruse these pages of prodigiously purple, perversely passionate prose.

The setting and characters owe much of their existence to Mr Lewis Collins' role
in "Jack the Ripper" and the author's vision of this classically handsome gentleman
 (artistic licence is permitted and stretched to the limit here) portraying, in some
other lifetime, the role of Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights." (A 'very poor man's
 Heathcllff perhaps?). Additional inspiration was derived from Mr Martin Shaw's roles in "East Lynne" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles". The background is not entirely fictional (but readers are NOT encouraged to attempt to find the few scattered facts which support the tale) and the plot twists and turns like a tangled skein of wool.

Research was minimal and undertaken by a long-suffering, ever-enthusiastic, library employee who is terminally addicted to Martin Shaw, Don Johnson and slash. (Please note that while the author cannot understand such preferences, her own being Steve Alder in any shape or form, Lewis Collins, Anthony Andrews and Michael York, she is a tolerant person and will accept help from any quarter because she is unashamedly lazy when research is involved). Said employee verified the reference to the writings of R. L. Stevenson, investigated sundry diseases {including syphilis and diptheria), gleefully discovered books on Victorian murderers and their "tools of trade" and provided extracts on the life of Sigmund Freud at a moment's notice. A bowl of vegetable soup was offered in thanks for services rendered and the aplomb with which the research was conducted.

[snipped]

Comments and suggestions on this work are not solicited, requested or sought. The author does not have time to read them because the men who drive the pickup van from The Twilight Home for The Terminally Silly are hammering on the door and she cannot leave her barricade. Which gives her another reason for not writing a health warning because her Uzi Is running low on ammunition and those van guys are not going to leave empty handed. So, as the sun sinks slowly in the west and she loads the last clip, turn the page, read on and do not blame anyone but yourself for the state you're in when you finally reach the end.

Summaries

In 2000, two fans Cassie Ingaben and Dagger compiled an index of many of the circuit stories. They also wrote brief summaries:

• Dagger: Doyle, a doctor seeking to heal his own melancoly with a change of scenery, moves to a small country village. He treats the invalid wife of the local lord, Bodie, and becomes friends. Through their discussions, he begins to realize that Bodie needs healing as well and sets out to do what he can, in a very unconventional manner. The suspicious death of Bodie's wife causes Doyle to rethink the state of his relationship with Bodie. Much angst before they settle down to happily ever after.
• Cassie: 1891-doctor D, bereaved and mourning his stepbrother/lover, moves to the country where he is befriended by Lord B. D cures B's invalid wife and starts a relationship with B. B feels guilty for his wife's illness due to her pregnancy (stillborn) and has a stormy personality rocking B&D's relationship. Wife dies and B is suspected - but it really was the evil cousin- governess who tormented the raped-as-child wife till she committed suicide. After B gives welfare state to his workers (?) B and D move to London where B solves his psychological comflicts and becomes a psychiatrist himself. Happily ever after.

Reactions and Reviews

1991

An MD with a touch of Freud befriends emotionally deprived English aristocrat who is otherwise the epitome of virtue, a 'revolutionary' landowner, and industrialist. Analysis a la Freud hampers otherwise successful love affair. There is, of course, a 'murder'; the aristocratic suspect is proven innocent in a tear-jerking inquest. Again, much soul-searching, a lot of analysis, a physical and emotional breakdown. After this the aristocrat, with help from his true love, rises to new heights and becomes an eminent psychiatrist. Love abounds!

I agree that "Murder on the Moor" was a bit off. Still, I translated enough cases of study for a local psychiatrist to find the descriptions quite amusing in contrast to the real thing.

2006

Defining what it is you like about stories isn’t always easy, but it’s a lot easier than sticking to that definition. A few days ago a few of us were ‘chatting’ about whether or not it was possible to establish a definite or fixed set of criteria for classifying the stories we liked. And if applied consistently, would these criteria enable you (almost) to predict the kind of story you would prefer? And were there common denominators between the stories that one liked, even though those stories might at first appear to be very different? I’ve always thought I preferred the stories which came under the label of gritty realism; day-to-day realism; non-sentimental; non-slushy; non ‘curtain-buying’ fics; stories where the characterisations are true to the Bodie and Doyle of canon; stories which might contain some degree of wistfulness, sadness or have an air of melancholy about them. In my earlier days of reading Pros I’d happily read stories which probably couldn’t be described in this way, such as The Hunting by Jane, but lately I think I’ve become much more picky, less easy to please and probably less likely to be satisfied by that type of story. I’m currently half way through reading Murder on the Moor by Meg Lewtan... and surprise, surprise, I think I’m enjoying it....even though it’s definitely not gritty; it’s definitely not in character; and if the lead players were heterosexual then it might even be considered rather Mills and Boonish. But, despite all of this, I like it very much. Why? I think Meg Lewtan writes very well. She gives the story a lot of atmosphere, a believable historical background and provides the reader with lots of time-consuming (for ML) historical detail. She creates a Bodie I happen to like whatever the context he’s in: hard-to-fathom, mysterious, strong, enigmatic, and most important, head-over-heels for Doyle. And I think the story benefits greatly from being 'internally consistent’ ....in the sense that the writer rejects any temptation to take the easy route and inject any 'modernisms' into the story - for example, allowing the two main characters to slip into modern vernacular would be all too easy, but she resists doing this...the story is consistently and firmly grounded in a time when the works of Freud are becoming more widely known; when doctors administered laudanum on a kitchen tabletop rather than (something else) in a sterile hospital theatre; when homosexuality was considered not only a crime but a moral outrage; and where the two main characters address each other as ‘Sir’ and ‘Doctor’ in parts of the story; and despite these challenges - of writing in a different age - the author still manages to write about two very unlikely, upright, Victorian men, who happen to fall passionately in love, in a believable way...

She gives the story a lot of atmosphere, a believable historical background and provides the reader with lots of time-consuming (for ML) historical detail. Yes. One of the aspects of MotM which pleased me most were the worlds she created. My favorite world was that of Bodie's study. I want to move there! When I'm old enough to lose my mind for real I hope that I'll escape to that study, able to watch B and D together. I thought that the history she created for Ray was amazing, as was Bodie's household. Really really well done. I'm not an expert on the scientific movements of that era, so I have no idea how accurate the story is, but it didn't bother me one way or another, it was just interesting to see D and B excelling and being radical at their chosen fields (a characteristic we recognize from the CI5 universe).

She creates a Bodie I happen to like whatever the context he’s in: hard-to-fathom, mysterious, strong, enigmatic, and most important, head-over-heels for Doyle.

His portrayal is very attractive to me, although there were moments when I winced away (I'm sure you know which one in particular...) I never tired of Bodie, although Doyle did sometimes wear on me. I started to wonder - for all of his logic and formal scientific-procedure attitudes towards life - at how much he got wrong. A few twists fooled me, but even though love is blind, I didn't buy into some of his misconceptions about Bodie. For a while, reading between the regular text and the journal entries during his descent, I even wondered if perhaps he was going to end up being an unreliable narrator!

Oh yes, it certainly wasn't a story without faults and some of the emotional yo-yo-ing between them got a bit tedious. But overall I found it so readable, a story you could drown yourself in and I really cared what happened to all the characters. I've often heard people say that they liked a story despite the fact that it was AU, but I think I can honestly say that I liked this story because it was AU. I've rarely read a CI5 story where there is such an array of 'other characters' and with such an interesting backcloth. The bit which particularly upset me was the scene with the McClaren character, not sure why, maybe it was written with such understanding of people, poor families, a man without hope who just wants to see make sure his family will survive without him. That kind of thing.

Thinking about it a bit more today I also thought how much the author has drawn from classic stories like Rebecca (the awful housekeeper [equals] Alice Brierly); Bodie as Mr.Rochester in Jane Eyre and Doyle his 'Jane'; Bodie's wife as 'Rebecca'. So it's not original, but I enjoyed it very much.

And, my last thought, at the moment: I loved Doyle's journal entries. Even though the story was written in the third person these entries gave us an intimate look at his thoughts on Bodie; his growing interest and attraction in Bodie; his desperation; loneliness; etc. etc. I thought they were a interesting mechanism to keep the reader up to scratch with developments and bring all the different threads together.

Anyway, it's a good feeling when you get into a story so much that you don't want to put it down and it's a feeling I'd almost forgotten.

I finally, finally read this story and - yes! I agree! It's not at all the CI5 lads, but there is something endearing about them anyway. And they're a bit mushy and overly soppy in alot of ways, and they talk about it all the time (which as you know is one of my bugbears!). And I was a little cynical about the way they both just happened to be so ahead of their time, and especially that Bodie single-handedly kicked off nineteenth century social reform before dashing off to become a brilliant doctor... but for all that I really enjoyed this fic, and like you I had to keep reading it until it was done.

And it is odd, because by all my own accounts I shouldn't like this at all, and there is a little bit of me that squirms away from it, I must admit - but still there is something there that makes it right. It could be the internal consistency (no matter what it consists of it is consistent) but I wonder if it might also be (for me, at least) the level of devotion that Bodie and Doyle have. No matter what happens, and despite all the h/c and angst that we go through, there is nothing about these two that make me worry about their future together - even if they'd separated they'd still have belonged together somehow in this fic. If that makes any sense at all... Yeah, I think that might be part of it for me. In the eps the lads belong together, there's something between them that makes them click and I want to see that in a fic as well. And sometimes, no matter how well it's written, that isn't there in a story. And sometimes, no matter the occasional grammatical glitch or step-out-of-character or bizarre plotline or situation, the writer makes you feel that it is the Bodie and Doyle that we know and love from the series, and that makes, as they say, all the difference...

I couldn't understand why I'd got the piece I'd written in my LJ weeks ago, suddenly appearing on my email list! But seconds later, mystery solved as I read your note. Thanks for reading it. I can't quite remember *what* was at the heart of my fondness for this story - it *might* have been, as you say, that they belonged to each other, though I'm not sure as many other stories have that feeling too, yet I don't remember them as being that special. I suppose the historical setting made it stand out from other stories; the eye to period details; the good writing; and I think maybe most of all, Doyle's journal - I grew to love his entries (sorry, don't know how else to phrase that)and I enjoyed and appreciated them for allowing me into Doyle's mind; voicing the progress of his thoughts about Bodie and his developing friendship and love for him. And I really loved the other characters and how we saw Bodie's positive qualities through them. The qualities which led, partly, to Doyle falling in love with him. But having said all that, I think if it had been a story about a man and a woman I wouldn't have touched it with the proverbial bargepole. No sir. Too slushy, but there was something very endearing and appealing about it being Bodie and Doyle.

I am a big fan of Meg Lewtan, despite the fact that in many of her stories, if not most, she does all sorts of things that I generally don't like and doesn't do all sorts of things that I generally do like. And yet ... she often does them, or not, in a way that works for me, for whatever reason. You've described some of the reasons, actually; I think another is that despite the "romantic" aspects of her stories (and one thing I like about her is how unapologetic she is about that - I love her prefaces!), she really doesn't make B and D into soft, weepy romance heroines, particularly with regard to sex.

And Murder on the Moor has always been one of my favorites of hers. I also really love Another Turn of the Rack, despite the fact that, again, it doesn't remotely fit the template of the kind of story I am drawn to, and there are many aspects of it that defy any sort of credulity. And yet ... *g*