Below Zero i another effective entry into the Jope Pickett series written by C.J. Box. Even if the plot is not the best idea, Joe Pickett and his family are too charming and interesting for me to mind that very much.
Joe Pickett is on temporary assignment as game warden some distance away from his beloved family. His daughter, Sheridan, starts receiving text messages from her former foster sister, April. The problem is that April was murdered six years ago and thought dead. Joe and Sheridan find enough information to begin their pursuit of whoever is sending these text messages. Another problem is that there seems to be connection to some deadly environmental crimes. A father and son who are traveling with a young teen-age girl are at the heart of all these questions. Joe is not sure if he is headed to a joyous and unexpected reunion or a heartbreak that will shatter his family.
I thought the plot was a sort of mediocre idea with a couple of villains I didn’t find all that interesting. The title refers to a debt that a former mobster believes he owes to his radical son who monitors carbon footprints and the like to justify his crimes committed in the name of protecting the planet.
Although I was anxious to determine if April’s supposed resurrection was the real deal, I was not that enthralled with the duo who may be in her company.
The chemistry within the Pickett family remains as engaging as ever, so the basic plot being a little lacking wasn’t too distracting.
Sheridan gets to accompany her father on an investigation, and there was something about that I found to be endearing. The children are growing up within Box’s world. The family banter was well-written as well.
Anyway, it’s an enjoyable, if flawed, enough of a novel. The suspense of what happened with April did keep me engaged.
As another novel comes to an end, a new one is on the verge of being explored. This time, my attention will turn to Marcia Muller’s The Dangerous Hour.
Doctor Who: The Time Splitters and Dimension 13 is a set of two audio novellas released from Big Finish Productions, and both are worthy beginnings to a new range.
Colin Brake starts off with The Time Splitters, which features the First Doctor and his companions, Steven and Dodo. Peter Purves returns to narrate this story with his usual reliably enjoyable delivery.
The Doctor and his companions arrive at Lunar University, which is based on the moon. Steven disappears soon after and finds himself eight years into the future. The university is abandoned by then, but that doesn’t mean that Steven is alone. There is another presence, and the Doctor and Dodo are having their own challenges as they try to rejoin him.
This is a pretty good story, and Peter Purves, who had portrayed Steven many decades ago on television, continues to deliver a riveting narration. Purves can still capture the spirit of the late William Hartnell’s performance as the Doctor even if he cannot really imitate his voice. This story is a little more complicated than what was usually transmitted in the original era, but it still works.
The sound design is also compelling.
I don’t know if this story can really be considered one of the best in the franchise, but it’s a solid enough contribution.
A couple of regenerations later, the Third Doctor finds another temporal catastrophe in David Llewellyn’s Dimension 13, which is narrated by the always compelling Jon Culshaw.
The Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Liz Shaw travel to Antarctica to investigate strange disappearances and time anomalies at a Shackleton Base. Another dimension has been accessed, and the Doctor finds himself in the position of having to save more than just the planet yet again.
Culshaw has become one of my favorite narrators and guest actors employed by Big Finish Productions and continues to justify my fondness with his delivery here.
Llewellyn is also another solid writer as well. He does a great job of capturing the characters familiar to fans and placing them in a new situation. An isolated base in Antarctica is a somewhat familiar trope of a setting, but it works yet again. Llewellyn knows how to ratchet up the suspense,
Unlike Peter Purves, Jon Culshaw is actually a gifted impressionist and can deliver a pretty convincing Third Doctor and Brigadier. He also does a fine job of straight narration as well.
Anyway, the release is a great addition to the massive catalogue of Doctor Who presented by Big Finish Productions.
Hard Boiled is a Chinese action film that was released in 1992 and directed by John Woo. It’s a ridiculous piece of cinema, but it isn’t bereft of merit. The screenplay was written by Gordon Chan and Barry Wong.
Chow Yun-Fat leads the cast which includes Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Anthony Wong, and Philip Kwok.
Gun smuggling in Hong Kong is at the center of the chaos in this film. Chow Yun-Fat portrays a jazz-loving, hard drinking inspector for the Royal Hong Kong Police. He comes across an undercover cop while in pursuit of a major gun smuggler named Johnny Wong. Inspector Yeun has some scores to settle with Wong but does not want to jeopardize this newly discovered colleague. Tony Leung plays the undercover detective named Alan and is also pretty good. Of course, what follows is a plethora of acrobatic fights and shoot-outs that culminate in some gruesome deaths for both cops and killers.
The movie attempts to have a somewhat nuanced plot, but the crazy amount of violence makes it hard to keep it all straight. At times, I was losing track of for whom I was supposed to cheer other than Chow Yun-Fat.
Chow Yun-Fat is rather fun to watch. I remember this guy from a few decades ago, and I understand the appeal. He’s not a bad actor in spite of some dubious dialogue at times. He does not have the hardened look of someone who can be quite so lethal, but he sells it quite effectively regardless. He was a great choice as the lead for this one.
The fight scenes were pretty well staged as well even if they required a massive amount of suspense of disbelief. The action sequences did seem drag on quite a bit, particularly the final confrontation at a hospital. Woo was definitely out to test his audience’s tolerance for all the insane amount of gunfire and assorted bangs and flashes depicted here.
There were some attempts at some interesting character moments between Inspector Yeun and Tony Leung’s undercover cop character. Although there were some moments of cringey dialogue, not all of it was worthy of derision. It’s also likely some of my reservations with this film may have to do with my lack of viewing of Chinese cinema. I’ve seen the occasional snippet of this genre, but my experience here is pretty sparse.
A family member describes it as the greatest action movie of all time. I would not go that far, but the overall experience was amusing and enlightening. Although I have some objection to the politics and governing practices of China, it was still worthwhile to get a taste of their culture with this style of cinema.
Also, I initially described this film as being ridiculous, this time I meant that with some affection. If there is a good chance this film isn’t going to induce some kind of seizure or panic attack, I would recommend seeing it. You may want to bring some ear plugs to muffle the noise, however.
The Gold Coast is a novel that is a little hard to categorize in the recognized genres. Nelson DeMille is primarily known as a suspense or thriller writer, but this one has a bit more meat to it.
John Sutter is a married Wall Street lawyer who lives on a prestigious stretch of shore on Long Island. He and his wife have an unusual and rather strangely kinky marriage. Anyway, their lives take an unexpected turn when a reputed Mafia don moves in next door. Frank Bellarosa certainly knows how to make an impression. A peculiar friendship develops between the two men, and Sutter gets a glimpse into a world darker than he can imagine. His life and marriage were already complicated enough before Bellarosa’s arrival, and these new developments are about to take him into deeper waters in which he may never be able to escape.
DeMille is known to give his protagonists a certain bit of wry sarcasm that is kind of distinctive and common. The novel is written in first person from Sutter’s point of view, and he tuns out to be an interesting guy even if his profession sounds a bit stuffy.
In this edition, DeMille has penned an introduction in which he considers this novel one of his best works, and he is probably right. I have not read many of his works, but I have been exposed enough to them to determine that he does have talent. Many of his characters do sort of run together because it seems most of them have a similar sardonic manner. Fortunately, DeMille is actually rather funny in his prose, so it’s not that annoying or distracting.
The story does have a slow burn at the beginning. There is a lot of exposition describing the layout of the Gold Coast and the particulars of Sutter’s marriage. There is a sense of authenticity in that Sutter’s situation is rather complicated, which is more often true in real life, particularly when it comes to those with wealth and large assets. This means that DeMille does a great job of making totally fictional characters at least plausible.
Although I could probably have lived without the gratuitous sexual shenanigans between Sutter and his wife, this novel was a good start to the reading journey of 2026. I did enjoy it very much even though it took me a little longer than I prefer to get through it.
I should also mention that this novel was published in 1990, so it was kind of nice to get a reminder of what the country was like back then and in an environment and lifestyle that I will likely never be able to touch. DeMille does a great job of sparking the imagination and nostalgia which is one of the many great joys of being an avid fiction reader.
Now, I will be turning into some more familiar territory on my next reading selection. It has been a few months since I checked in with game warden Joe Pickett and his family. This will have a somewhat ironic title since my neighbors and I have just endured quite a blast of frigid weather. C.J. Box is about to continue the exploits of Joe Pickett with Below Zero.
The Pale Blue Eye is an intriguing period gothic thriller written and directed by Scott Cooper. It was based on a novel written by Louis Bayard. Christian Bale stars as a retired detective who is asked to look into the mysterious hanging of a military cadet in 1830. Another cadet with the familiar name of Edgar Allen Poe, played by Harry Melling, is on hand to assist in the investigation. Other cast members include Gillian Anderson, of X-Files fame, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall, and Lucy Boynton.
As mentioned before, it is 1930, and a West Point cadet has been hanged. The detective is a retired alcoholic named Augustis Landor and is asked to start an investigation. A young but shrewd Edgar Allen Poe is enlisted to assist in this investigation. Also, a cow and a sheep turn up butchered.as well. Then, a second cadet is found hanged and mutilated. There seems to be some involvement of black magic, and Landor and Poe find their investigation taking them into the darkest of paths where there is little that is as it seems.
This turned out to have some interesting ideas, although I am not sure it was necessary to include Poe in this otherwise piece of fiction. The cast was well chosen so that certainly helps. The twist is a little too unexpected but not that bad. Some of the annoying plot holes are somewhat diminished by the talent of the cast. Bale is almost always quite compelling to watch and helps me forgive a lot of poor movie making decisions.
The set design and atmosphere were pretty well constructed. It has a great look and seems to fit the genre well.
The film is a bit on the gruesome side, but that doesn’t particularly bother me unless it fails to serve a purpose or just feels like it’s just there to test my stomach exclusively.
The film failed to keep me enthralled throughout, but it was not devoid of some worthy aspects to keep me at least mildly interested.
I suspect, unsurprisingly, that I would enjoy the book better if I happened to come across it. The movie didn’t really motivate me to seek it out.
Doctor Who: The Second Doctor Adventures: The Potential Daleks is another pretty interesting audio collection from Big Finish Production which was directed by Nicholas Briggs. Michael Troughton returns to the recording booth as the Second Doctor, originally portrayed by his father Patrick. Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury reprise their longtime roles of Jamie and Zoe. Emma Noakes continues her time aboard the TARDIS as Raven, the Doctor’s fellow Time Lord, who is thought to be working on behalf of the High Council of the Time Lords to handle the renegade.
Briggs and Mark Wright split writing duties on the three interconnected episodes in this particular set which also feature the Daleks, who is also voiced by the versatile Mr. Briggs.
The guest cast is also comprised of Clare Corbett, Jacqueline King, Lara Lemon, Callum Pardoe, and Gary Turner.
Nicholas Briggs’ script, Humpty Dumpty kicks off the collection. The old nursery rhyme seems to be the catalyst for a temporal disaster. The planet Skaro is about to be resurrected a million times over. This is the planet where the Daleks originated. The Doctor and his companions will be split between two time zones as they begin a final battle.
This isn’t the first time a common verse is a significant clue to a nightmarish plot in a Big Finish story, but the device is compelling yet again due to the reliable talents of Briggs. The performances are as usual just as compelling. Troughton continues his efforts to breathe new life into his father’s Doctor Who legacy and does an admirable job. Troughton’s impression of his father still sounds a little off at times, but he generally gets the job done.
Padbury and Hines are portraying older versions of their characters, so they don’t have to bother with trying to sound several decades than their actual ages. They still sound great in spite of their understandable vocal variances.
Mark Wright, who is also producer of this release, follow up with Secret of the Daleks. The TARDIS has followed a space/time corridor created by the Daleks to a peaceful tropical world. The inhabitants seem peaceful enough, but there is a menace lurking underneath the paradise. A confrontation with the new Dalek Emperor is imminent, and one member of the Doctor’s party has a secret of their own.
Wright cranks up the action in this script quite effectively. As usual, some of the action moments are a little hard to determine just on audio, but it’s still enjoyable. Noakes gets to show off her versatility as an actress in this one when she gets to do her own take on the Doctor as well. It turns into a bit of a jumble of a plot, but in all the right ways.
Troughton may not always sound like vocally identical to his late father, but he brings a similar enough energy in his performance where it isn’t too distracting. I can still recognize and imagine the Second Doctor in the midst of this chaos seemingly on the edge of panic but holding on to that heroic determination to defeat the monsters. The humor of that era is also quite intact.
Finally, it takes the combined writing talents of Nicholas Briggs and Mark Wright to bring this collection to a conclusion with War of the Morai. The Doctor and his friends are back in a region known as the Vanishing Point where they try to help some old allies known as the Morai to avoid the ruthless intentions of the Daleks. A friend who was thought to be lost has returned, and the mysterious Raven must make a choice.
This story refers back to a previous boxset in which I shall have to listen to again to remember the significance of the Morai.
It was still a fine conclusion, and there were some interesting character moments. Noakes also was a delight as a recurring character. She was basically an original companion created by Big Finish and seems to be an amusing and interesting foil to the Second Doctor. There were also times when Raven and Zoe were forced to collaborate, and an interesting dynamic was forged there as well. Raven had a typical haughtiness displayed most of the Time Ladies the audience have met over the years, but Noakes brings in something more than that as well. Really, the writers gave her a depth for Noakes to play in, and she uses that quite nicely.
As a reminder, this range takes place after the Second Doctor’s trial just after he was sentenced to be exiled to Earth with a new appearance but before that sentence was actually carried out. Jamie and Zoe had been sent back with most of their memories of the Doctor erased but have returned to fight alongside him after they had lived their lives in their respective time zones. I am not a fan who was all that interested in what has become known as season 6b, but Big Finish has won me over in this one. Although it seems that something in this range has concluded, there is a new series in the works and there are certainly more adventures and troubles awaiting this version of the Doctor.
Sherlock Holmes Untold is another collection of audio dramas from Bog Finish Productions and probably the best release in this range. Jonathan Barnes has written the eight episodes in this collection, which were directed by Ken Bentley. Nicholas Briggs returns to the microphone as the most famous of Victorian detectives, Sherlock Holmes. Richard Earl returns as his superb version of Dr. John Watson. Other cast members include John Banks, Luke Barton, Jack Holden, and Anthony Whitelock.
It is 1913, and Prime Minister Jasper Cranfield is on a train with his assistant. He learns that Dr. Watson has somehow gotten aboard and wants to arrange a meeting with a mutual acquaintance. Since the journey will take a while, Watson starts to relate some cases involving Sherlock Holmes that have yet to be published. There is a common thread running these latest towels. Holmes and Watson face madness, murder, and blackmail through these tales, but there is something more menacing awaiting the arrival of this train.
I would normally do a bit of a summary of each episode, but since they are connected by one big story and there only one author, I will instead give my thoughts on this thing as a whole.
It is fantastic. Barnes manages to come the closest to the channeling the methods and style of Arthur Conan Doyle than many other Sherlock Holmes pastiche writers.
Briggs is not yet my favorite Holmes, but I am getting used to his style. Richard Earl continues to prove how perfectly cast he is as Watson.
Some familiar characters show up and are not used wastefully.
The thing with these episodes is that elements were mentioned in the original Doyle stories, and Barnes took these scant references and expanded on them to full episodes. He also created one threat running through all of them. A secret society known as the Lighthouse is the latest shadowy group to darken the door to 221 B Baker Street.
The sound design is excellent as well, but Big Finish hardly ever has a problem there.
Barnes expertly spreads out the clues as to the nature of the threat facing Holmes and Watson among a diverse set of episodes. He tends to write a compelling piece of audio drama, but he really outdid himself with this set.
Although no one can be better than the creator of these beloved characters, Barnes gets closer to the mark than any writer has in quite a while.
A Working Man is the standard Jason Statham action film directed by David Ayer. Ayer co-wrote the script with a certain Sylvester Stallone. The film also stars Michael Pena, David Harbour, Arianna Rivas, Andrej Kaminsky, and others.
Levon Cade is a hard-working construction foreman who also happens to be a former special operations commando. He also happens to be pretty close to his boss and his family. When the daughter gets kidnapped to be trafficked into some kind of sex slavery operation, Cade reluctantly decides to dust off his old lethal skills and begins the bunt. He also has to contend with a custody issue concerning his daughter. It seems that his late wife’s father has some issue with Cade’s former occupation and is drastically limiting his time with his own kid. Cade will have to put his personal troubles aside and kill his way through the Russian mafia in order to keep a promise to a friend.
This is a by-the -numbers action film without any real depth, but Statham is still kind of fun to watch. Rivas plays the kidnapped girl and is kind of a spunky type, so she was kind of interesting. Statham’s acting range is pretty non-existent, but some of the side characters sort of make up for that.
There are some pretty good fight scenes and Statham performs those quite convincingly even if the choreography itself is somewhat unbelievable. It’s really just standard action film shenanigans.
It’s another film that manages to be entertaining without offering much to stick to the memory. Even if Statham doesn’t display much variety in his performances, he does possess a strange charisma in his stoicism.
The Sea Magician by Kenneth Robeson features an early version of a superhero known as Doc Savage. This series was written for a couple of decades in the mid-twentieth century and is probably one of the earlier versions of a superhero.
Doc Savage is a super genius with super strength and throws himself unhesitatingly into the fight against evildoers. Of course, he has the color of bronze and is immensely powerful. He is one of those protagonists who seems so virtuous and powerful that he runs the risk of being rather boring.
In this little volume, Doc Savage is investigating the disappearance of one of his associates when he learns of an invention that apparently produces gold from seawater. It begins with the hapless assistant looking into tales of a specter resembling King John lurking around a marsh in England known as the Wash. Doc Savage finds a troubling conspiracy is afoot and many people are needing rescue before the end of this caper is in sight.
This was a pretty fun diversion, although I am not sure I am going to be going out of my way to collect this series. I doubt this will be the last Doc Savage adventure I enjoy.
There is some enjoyment to be found in this short novel, but that may be more due to the stirrings of nostalgia it evokes. The author is apparently a pseudonym because it seems a certain Lester Dent was the main writer of the novel series. The series does have a somewhat interesting publication history, which I discovered in Wikipedia.
I didn’t really dislike the novel, but I had some trouble with staying interested due to Doc Savage not really having any interesting quirks or flaws. Sometimes, a hero’s weaknesses can make the story a little more compelling although there is a risk of that indulgence being overdone.
I will say there is a certain richness in the prose that is often missing from more recent works that I appreciated.
In spite of my reservations which I expressed here, I didn’t hate this one or the concept. I may try a few more in the series as I come across them as I peruse the used bookstores.
Before all of that, I have plenty of other unread volumes to go through. The next selection will be Nelson DeMille’s The Gold Coast.
Doctor Who: Dracula! by Paul Magrs is a surprisingly good addition to the BBC novel range, and it features the First Doctor which is kind of exciting.
The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan to an English seaside called Whitby, a place where another otherworldly creature arrived from a far-off land and terrorized the citizens. The Doctor and his friends attend a play that depicts the period where Count Dracula hunted among those residents. New murders are occurring around them, and an ancient evil may have returned. Fortunately, the Doctor and his friends have the help of a certain Abraham Van Helsing and his eager nephew. The undead count may have returned or there is another dark threat on the scene.
I found this to be a little better than I expected. Magrs does well with depicting this version of the Doctor in print. I found it an interesting choice to have Dracula encounter the First Doctor.
It’s a nice blend between the traditional story and something new to menace the TARDIS crew.
Magrs has been writing various Doctor Who stories for years and is usually quite interesting as a contributor, and he has not lost his touch.
I am not sure that Magrs has ever written anything with the earlier Doctors, but he did a pretty good job here. His prose was easy to read without feeling too elementary even though the target audience is for younger readers.
There were some unexpected plot twists that were pretty well orchestrated.
I could also almost imagine the late William Hartnell uttering some of the dialogue as well.
Obviously, this isn’t going to be considered a great literary feat, but it is a fun read and one of the better Doctor Who novels I have read in a while.
I am staying in the realm of fantasy or science fiction with another long-time series. I have heard of Doc Savage, a very early template for a superhero. I happened to have a novel written by Kenneth Robeson, which is actually a pseudonym according to some research I have done. Anyway, the Man of Bronze uncovers the mystery of The Sea Magician.
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