Tender is the Flesh is a novel written by Augustina Bazterrica, Argentine author. Since she likely wrote this in Spanish originally, a Sarah Moses is credited as being the translator.

This little not so cheery tale takes place in a world where animal meat has been infected with deadly virus that kills humans. Since not everyone wants to be vegan over that, cannibalism has been permitted and institutionalized. There are groups of humans that are designated to be slaughtered cattle. The main character is a fellow named Marcos, who is estranged from this family, and he works in one of these slaughterhouses. Someone sends him a gift of a prime female head, as they are now called. Instead of doing what should come naturally in this society, anyway, he decides to feed her and treat her like a human being. Of course, the relationship becomes more intimate which places the girl he names Jasmine and himself at great risk from the authorities.

This is not a terribly lengthy book, which is fine. It’s not badly written. It does show the depths of human desperation when some well-established traditions such as eating meat goes awry. There is a social message in the midst of this tale that I am philosophically at odds with, but anyone who really knows me would find that unsurprising. Marcos is an interesting main character going through some family crises. A subplot involves his father slipping into dementia and a strained relationship with his sister. Bazterrica certainly does not hold back when it comes to the more gruesome practices. There is a rather surprising ending that might have even impressed the great Alfred Hitchcock.

For those readers with a taste for the macabre, this is worth the time, especially since it shouldn’t take much of it. Does it necessarily hit it out of the park for me? Not quite, but it does satisfy my interest in occasionally breaking out of my more typical literary indulgences.

Now that stepped a b it out of comfort zone, time to return to an old favorite. Bonnie MacBird continues her efforts to provide new cases for London’s best-known consulting detective as Sherlock Holmes tries to unearth secrets protected by The Three Locks.

Smile is a horror film written and directed by Parker Finn. Sosie Bacon stars alongside a cast that includes Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stacy, Kal Penn, and Rob Morgan.

Bacon plays an idealistic psychiatrist who witnesses a patient commit the most bizarre suicide she has ever encountered. She then begins to see people appearing in her house and in crowds with these strange, fixed smiles that resemble the one her patient wore when she sliced her own throat. Dr. Cotter begins to worry that she is losing her mind, but she discovers a strange thread of these deaths that followed these spooky smiles.

This latest addition to the horror film genre has some good points, but the conclusion is a bit of a stumbling mess. There were some moments that were effectively chilling. Bacon is a competent actress. The escalating moments of terror were well paced. A curse that is marked by the smile of strangers is an interesting idea, but I hope this doesn’t turn into a franchise.

Smile has a promising premise and some elements that work well enough. Some of the dialogue falls flat. Jessie T. Usher plays the fiancée who tries to be understanding. There was not much chemistry between them, but I suspect it had more to do with the writing.

The film is just uneven throughout. It’s not completely dreadful, but it seems rather forgettable in spite of a somewhat original concept. Par for the course when it comes to horror films in recent years.

Winterkill is a Joe Pickett thriller written by C.J. Box. It was first published in 2003. Joe Pickett is a game warden for the state of Wyoming in this story. He is a devoted husband and father with two daughters, although he and his wife have taken in a foster child who they admirable consider theirs as well. April, the child they have taken in after her father is killed and the mother goes off the rails, becomes the center.

Joe’s adventure begins when he finds a federal official has gunned down several elk which violates some hunting restrictions. When Joe arrests a hysterical Lamar Gardiner, he is unprepared for Gardiner’s escape. He later finds his suspect show with two arrows in the snow and near death. Joe Pickett gets involved in the investigation, but he is distracted and distressed by the arrival of his foster daughter’s mother. Also, a group of anti-government naturalists are in the area. In spite of the murder and mayhem circling around him, Pickett finds that he has to protect his family more fiercely than before.

I rather like Joe Pickett as a character because in some ways he tends to be one of the more stable of literary characters these days. He has a solid marriage and a sense of morality that stretches far and wide. It does tend to make him appear a bit uninteresting at times, however I am thinking the point is to place him in situations where his sense of morality is tested. Box also provides some fascinating settings. Nature itself often works against Pickett when he has a vital task to fulfill. The murder of Lamar Gardiner is actually somewhat resolved quite early, but Box still has some story to tell.

Joe Pickett is a reliable, likable protagonist, but he is not all that fascinating. Some of the situations he finds himself in are quite compelling. Fortunately, he is likeable enough for me to still be interested in his next adventures.

It is time to move on to something a little more fitting to the upcoming Halloween festivities with Augustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh.

Out of Time 3: Wink is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Production written by Lisa McMullin and directed by Ken Bentley. David Tennant returns as the Tenth Doctor and is joined by Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor. The small guest cast is comprised of Joanna Van Kampen, Ayesha Antione, and Clive Hayward. There are plenty of cool sound effects to make up for the limited number of voices.

The Tenth Doctor encounters his sixth incarnation while in a city that is drowned in all-encompassing light. The locals have no sense of sight which makes them particularly vulnerable to the Weeping Angels. The Weeping Angels look like statues that are frozen in place when gazed up on. They displace their targets in time once they are close enough. Of course, the way to keep the Angels in place is to not blink or look away. The Sixth Doctor believes that winking at the Angels is a viable solution, but that still proves to be not as easy as he believes.

McMullin delivers a pretty competent script here. The performances are pretty sublime though. The Sixth Doctor is often considered to be more abrasive version, however these two Doctors work well together. There are plenty of the expected digs whenever one Doctor comes across another, but the disagreements end up not being too distracting. The Sixth Doctor gets in a very amusing line about his future incarnation’s more excitable exclamations.

The Sixth Doctor also benefits because his own cleverness his not overshadowed by the Tenth.

There is a bit of a fresh environment for the Weeping Angels to terrorize.

This episode comes out quite well, which is probably due to the performances of the lead actors. The guest cast is also well selected. The Angels tend to work better on the television screen, but the script is well written enough to make them still effectively creepy. McMullin also avoids having the two Doctors go all out with the insults but manages to still have a little fun with the contentiousness that tends to occur when various Doctors meet.

Timejacked is a Doctor Who audio boxset presented by Big Finish Productions. It has a trilogy interconnected stories that feature the Twelfth Doctor, who was first played by Peter Capaldi. Helen Goldwyn takes her turn in the director’s seat. Since Capaldi himself has yet to participate in Big Finish output, Jacob Dudman steps in with a pretty solid impersonation. Bhavnisha Parmar joins as the Doctor’s kidnapper turned companion Keira Sanstrom. Charlie Hamblett, Hannah Genesius, Harley Viveash, George Naylor, and Holly Jackson Walters make up the guest cast.

The first episode, Flight to Calandra, is written by Matt Fitton. The Doctor is relaxing in his university office since he has been hanging out as a visiting professor for the past hundred years or so when an unexpected visitor breaks in, needing a lift home to the planet Calandra. Keira Sanstrom finds that something has gone wrong with her planet’s history while the Doctor realizes that something has gone wrong with all of Time.

Lou Morgan needs two episodes to have the Doctor to sort this mess out, which is how she gets to present the Split Second and The Weight of History. The Doctor has two versions of Keira and a reality coming apart to complicate his existence.

Well, as much as I would prefer to have Peter Capaldi play this Doctor himself, Dudman does a decent enough job representing his version of the Doctor. It’s not a bad set. I actually rather liked the dynamic between the Doctor and Keira once they got past through the whole kidnapping issue. The dialogue between the two was rather humorous. Of course, this iteration of the Doctor wouldn’t be the most subservient and cooperative of kidnapping victims. That works out since Keira isn’t actually evil. She is a renegade Time Agent and needs the Time Lord’s help.

As usual, the postproduction work holds up. The guest cast is solid in their performance. Until Capaldi decides to contribute to Big Finish’s efforts, Dudman’s vocal talents have to suffice, and he does a good job.

The Fiends of New York City is a Sherlock Holmes audio drama brought to us by Big Finish Productions. Jonathan Barnes is the writer while Ken Bentley serves as director. Nicholas Briggs returns as the master detective with Richard Earl resumes his role as Dr. Watson. Lucy Briggs-Owen, Timothy Bentnick, John Banks, James Joyce, and Juliet Aubrey are included in the guest cast.

Holmes and Watson have been aware for some time of a new criminal organization operating in 1901 London under the leadership of someone with the unlikely moniker of the Seamstress of Peckham Rye. This story begins when an American claiming to be a former Pinkerton detective shows up on the door of 221 B Baker Street with a strange story concerning what would these days be called a serial killer. The new client has a suspect on his radar and wants Holmes to help prevent another grotesque murder. The problem is that Holmes has determined that he is not being told the whole story, and the case is a springboard to a bigger conspiracy. In the meantime, Watson is finding more about her new wife’s mysterious past. Adversaries old and new are converging on Holmes and Watson as usual.

I am still not a huge fan of this Seamstress woman being this dangerous new opponent, however I did find myself more drawn in than I have been recently in this range. Briggs’ version of Holmes was actually pretty good here. Richard Earl continues to display one of the more impressive versions of Dr. Watson I have heard. The story was somewhat complicated but not in a way I found off putting. The cast was expectedly well chosen.

Juliet Aubrey plays the Seamstress, and I have no issue with her actual performance. I just find this designation difficult to take seriously.

Barnes is one of Big Finish’s more reliable writers in spite of some of my reservations about the direction of this range. He at least manages to pull off a competent entry here.

The performances and postproduction work are considerably more than competent which helps settle some of my doubts about this series.

I am a Big Finish fan overall, so I will look forward to seeing the next installment of their Sherlock Holmes series regardless.

Akata Witch is a young adult fantasy novel by Nnedi Okorafor. It was first published in 2011 and is the beginning of a trilogy.

The main protagonist is a young girl named Sunny Nwazue, who was born in the United States, however she is living in Nigeria with her parents. She has some struggles in her new school until she meets a group of other misfits. Sunny sort of stands out since she is albino and has to be cautious of the sun. She finds out that she carries latent magical abilities. A serial killer who targets children also lurks in the community, and Sunny and her friends are enlisted to help find this evil fellow since he also has a few magical abilities of his own.

This turns out to be a fairly engaging novel. Okorafor is a competent writer, however there was not much that really resonated with me in this one. To be fair, this kind of fantasy novel is not one I would choose if left to my own devices, but I am part of a book club. I had some trouble really getting into this one. I do appreciate some exposure to a culture that is different from my usual encounters. It also is for young adults, and I am a long way from that.

Anyway, there is not a lot I have to say about this one. It’s not bad, but it just didn’t grab my attention as well as I hoped.

Next up, I will be returning to more familiar rugged territory in Wyoming with game warden Joe Pickett. CJ Box continues Pickett’s adventures with Winterkill.

Stranded 4 is a Doctor Who audio boxset from Big Finish Productions and concludes a saga where the Doctor and his friends are trapped on Earth in a house with a malfunctioning TARDIS and Time in disarray. Paul McGann returns as the Eighth Doctor. He is joined by a guest cast that includes Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Rebecca Root, Tom Price, and Colin Baker. There are four episodes directed by Ken Bentley.

Matt Fitton starts off this collection with Crossed Lines, which has the Doctor and young Robin meet while some of the residents of Baker Street contend with conflicting memories and time streams. The Curator is on hand to help, but he is not quite the man encountered earlier by Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair in previous episodes. Colin Baker, who is best known as the Sixth Doctor, has the role after Tom Baker’s earlier performance. Colin does quite well, but that’s really no surprise. This is probably an episode that needs another run through the player to better understand it, but it was still enjoyable enough.

Just when we thought that Sgt. Andy Davidson was doomed in the previous set, writer Lisa McMullin decides to not allow that to last with her contribution, Get Andy. The Doctor is trying to rescue his apparently deceased friend from a rogue timeline but ends up in dire trouble himself. In the meantime, the mysterious traveler known as Mr. Bird comes to Andy’s aid; however, that doesn’t go as planned either. There are two storylines that are quite compelling. Andy is a somewhat comically optimistic character, and Tom Price does a great job with it. The Doctor is about to die in this one, and Paul McGann always delivers a compelling performance. His efforts to say his apparent good-byes to his companions is pretty moving. This may be the episode I enjoyed the most here.

Roy Gill continues the story with The Keys of Baker Street which has the remaining residents of the Doctor’s house facing what is left of reality. Colin Baker returns as the Curator in a final bow as that character. Hopefully, Colin Baker has plenty of bows left as the Sixth Doctor. Some effective sound design is presented here. This episode actually has the Doctor solve the problem of the shredded reality.

Which brings us to the conclusion written by John Dorney, Best Year Ever. The Doctor and his friends are now in what is apparently the genuine 2020, but of course that wasn’t a great year in any reality. Everyone is coping with the year of COVID 19. Liv Chenka and Tania Bell, played by Rebecca Root, figure out their relationship since one is a traveler in time and space and the other isn’t. This ended up being a rather tame final story for a lengthy saga. It was basically a character piece no real action that is typical of a Doctor Who episode that concludes a series.

I am just glad this thing is finally over. There were some interesting moments in the stories. The high points tend to include Colin Baker’s performance. Big Finish will find more to do with Paul McGann’s version of the Doctor. I ca understand Big Finish’s interest in changing the pace and maybe slowing things down a little, but at times it moved a bit too glacier-like for my taste. None of the stories turn out terribly. Unfortunately, it was a struggle to consistently stay interested. Anyway, all of time and space is available to this Doctor once again, so the pace should pick back up.

Enemy at the Gates is another addition to the Mitch Rapp series by Kyle Mills. Rapp was initially created by the late Vince Flynn, but his estate has allowed the series continue.

A new president has taken up residence in the White House, however Mitch Rapp does not enjoy the confidence of this one as he did with the predecessor. Rapp has been staying in Africa with his girlfriend and her daughter lately. He is more of a free agent than ever before; however, he is still willing to do a favor for CIA Director Irene Kennedy. Kennedy has become aware of an information leak coming from one of the highest offices of Washington DC. Rapp is then tasked with searching for a virologist lost in the jungles of Uganda after an attack from another fanatical terrorist with a cult following. Rapp also has to protect the nation’s first trillionaire from a growing number of threats. Rapp has his usual cadre of dangerous friends come to his aid. He also comes to face to face with a shocking betrayal.

Mills is obviously taking his cues from current events and figures; however, he does add his own variations, so it doesn’t appear that he is doing little work when it comes to creativity. The character Nick Ward is obviously a representation of Elon Musk, yet Mills avoids making him a carbon copy. The other aspect I enjoyed is that Rapp’s completion of an initial mission is by no means the end of a story. Mills also seems to be taking a break from sending Rapp after ISIS leaders for the moment. Rapp changes very little as a character, but it does help him seem a little fresher with a broader variety of adversaries.

As I reflect on this particular novel, I find that I consider it to be one of the better additions to the series. Of course, no one does better than the master, Vince Flynn, but I think he would be pleased with what Mills has done with his character in the recent years. Mills remains faithful to Flynn’s vision while still presenting new challenges for Mitch Rapp.

Next up, I will be reading a new author to me. Nnedi Okorafor takes her readers to Nigeria to introduce us to the Akata Witch.

Edge of Evil is a mystery novel by J.A. Jance that was first published in 2006 introduces her readers to Ali Reynolds, who has become another popular series lead character for the prolific author.

Ali Reynolds starts off her adventure here with getting fired from her job as a television news broadcaster. She learns that her second husband has been embroiled in a couple of affairs. She learns of her best friend being terminally ill and then apparently killed in a car accident. She and her son from a previous marriage take off to Arizona to see where she can be of some help. The best friend may have committed suicide; however, Ali has her doubts about that. Her son has set up a blogging account for her to reach out to those who may be in need of a friendly ear. As Ali adjusts to these major changes in her life, she finds that there are new dangers she has never considered before.

I am more familiar with Jance’s other characters, J.P. Beaumont and Sheriff Joanna Brady; however, I think I can find some enjoyment in the Ali Reynolds tales. The mystery itself was not that original, however Ali’s situation and how she overcomes some of these personal challenges is rather inspiring. In spite of the tragedies depicted in this novel, there is some humor. Ali has a spunky likability which I can appreciate. I also appreciated that she seems to have an overall respectful and loving relationship with her adult son. It’s too bad that Jance chose to create a difficult marriage for Ali, but I am sure that particular challenge will unfold in the following novels.

This isn’t really a game changer for the mystery genre, but Jance doesn’t aim for that. It’s still worth the time to explore this initial entry into now well-established series. I have enjoyed many of Jance’s works over the years, and this particular novel did not disappoint. I am glad to welcome Ali Reynolds novels to my overcrowded bookshelves.

Several years ago, Vince Flynn was taken way too soon by cancer, but his character Mitch Rapp was allowed to continue his efforts to save our country from ongoing terrorist machinations. Kyle Mills continues the missions of Mitch Rapp with Enemy at the Gates.