Good news for TV mystery buffs

For fans of TV mysteries, there’s been s burst of good news.
“Elsbeth” (shown here) has bee:n renewed … “Grantchester” has a new-season date … and “Miss Scarlett & The Duke” (sort of) has a new Duke (sort of). Details include:
— “Elsbeth has been one of the few bright spots in the strike-shortened season. The writer/producers of “Good Wife” and “Good Life” moved their quirkiest character to New York to solve crimes.
That’s Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), a lawyer with an odd personality, a sweet spirit and an obsession with details. The show (10 p.m. Thursdays) has manged the difficult feat of solving murders while remaining bright and entertaining; critics have approved and now CBS has renewed it for next season.
— “Miss Scarlet & The Duke” is set in Victorian London, with Eliza Scarlet (Kate Phillips) taking over her late father’s detective agency, often getting help from police detective William Wellington (Stuart Martin), nicknamed The Duke.
But Martin missed one episode in the third season and was seen only occasionally in the fourth, then announced he was leaving. Now the show – shortened to “Miss Scarlet” – has added a new police detective.
Alexander Blake (Tom Durant Pritchard) is a former soldier. He has nothing against female detectives … but feels the police shouldn’t be working with any private eyes.
— “Grantchester,” like “Miss Scarlet,” is a British show that airs on PBS’ “Masterpiece.” Its ninth season starts June 16.
And like “Miss Scarlet,” it’s done some recasting. James Norton and Tom Britney starred in four seasons apiece, as crimesolving vicars. Now Rishi Nair – an England native with family roots in India – will take over.
Both of the new stars have been busy in England, but have done little that has reached American audiences.
Nair is best known in England for four seasons as a lawyer and family member in the “Hollyoaks” soap opera. Pritchard played the best friend of a frantic young doctor in “This Is Going to Hurt,” a mini-series that aired in the U.S.