The many and manifest delights ofJonathan Creek, the British murder mystery TV series that's inarguably one of the best of its genre, continue with this two-disc set of episodes from its second season (first aired in 1998). As was the case in Season One, the stories concocted by David Renwick are marvelously ingenious. In the course of these six episodes (the seventh of the season, "Black Canary," is inexplicably not included), sleuths Jonathan Creek (the magician's assistant played by comic Alan Davies) and Madeline "Maddy" Magellan (the true crime writer portrayed by Caroline Quentin) are again confronted with a host of apparently inexplicable and unsolvable crimes: a killer who evaporates from a garage whose only possible exit was closely guarded ("Danse Macabre"); a man who is on two continents at exactly the same time ("Time Waits for Norman"); a fellow positively identified as a murderer… except that he'd committed suicide three weeks before the deed in question ("The Problem at Gallows Gate," a two-parter). Of course, we know that our heroes, relying on Jonathan's brilliant deductive powers and Maddy's sheer persistence, will eventually figure it all out--but getting there is at least half the fun. Renwick's writing is as clever as the plots themselves, filled with references to everything fromQuincyandKojakto Kafka and Bram Stoker, populated by quirky supporting characters (a blind trumpeter who isn't blind, a clock collector who's "temporophobic," a hack author named Emma Lazarus), and laced with amusing little touches. Most of all, there's the relationship between the two partners-in-crime-solving; more than friends but not quite lovers, Maddy and Jonathan are forever engaged in a semi-flirtatiouspas de deuxthat beggars the bogus bonds contrived by, say, the average sit-com. Charming, witty, and oh, so very British,Jonathan Creekdeserves a spot alongside the best of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle.--Sam Graham