Columbo Phile: A Casebook (PDF) torrent

'The Columbo Phile: A Casebook' by Mark Dawidziak is, as stated on the cover, "A Complete and Illustrated History of Television's Finest Mystery Series'. Although this book is a terrific overview of the series, it would need to be updated if it were to ever go back in print as it was written before the revival of the series in 1989.

The first chapter, entitled 'The Plot Thickens or How Columbo Found NBC' is a history of how the series came to be. Most of the rest of the book is an episode guide. Each entry has comprehensive credits, cast listings, a plot synopsis, and a critical analysis of why the episode does or doesn't work. The last part of the book contains post-Columbo tidbits and even manages to hold its nose long enough to make a critical analysis of 'Mrs. Columbo' (a.k.a. 'Kate Columbo', 'Kate the Detective', 'Kate Loves a Mystery', or as the author succinctly puts it, 'The Viewers Hate Kate'). There's even an amusing compilation of classic quotes from the series.

This PDF scan includes cover images, complete text, photos, bookmarks, and hyperlinks on the table of contents.