Knock Knock is a thriller directed by Eli Roth. He also shares screenwriting credit with Guillermo Amoedo, and Nicolas Lopez. The story was conceived by Anthony Overman and Michael Ronald Ross, which is a little confusing since this film is a remake of a film called Death Game. Keanu Reeves stars as architect and doting husband and father, Evan Webber. The cast also includes Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Ignacia Allamand. and Colleen Camp.

Evan Webber has the weekend to himself when his family take a little holiday to the beach, leaving him to work and attend some physical therapy appointment for an injured shoulder. A storm rolls in and bring two ridiculously attractive young women show up at his doorstep claiming to have been stranded by a taxi at a wrong address. Evan, being ever the gentleman, invites them in to dry off and make other arrangements for transportation. The devious pair of beauties have other plans when they seduce Evan into a threesome and stay into the next day. Then comes the psychological and physical torture at the hands of two women who are now claiming to be underage.

It’s an interesting idea to have a man fall victim to two bewitching women, but the absurdity is also a bit much at times. There is a morality lesson at the heart of this about Evan’s lapse in fidelity. It probably would have been more interesting if Evan didn’t fall for the initial charms for whatever reason. It’s just another jab at men in general by Hollywood, I suspect. There are times that the performances are engaging enough. The film very much earns its R Rating and probably deserved a mature designation. The sex scenes are pretty intense. After a while, the film also does get somewhat predictable. Some of the dialogue made me cringe as well, but that also could have been Keanu’s delivery at times. After a while, the mania exhibited by the two intruders gets to be more grating than terrifying.

Finally, this film has moments that are semi-compelling, but it fails to leave any real lasting impression that made the time worthwhile.

Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes is the latest contribution by Ace Atkins to the Spenser series. Of course, Spenser was created by the legendary Robert B. Parker, but since he has been deceased for over a decade, there was little reason to not have Spenser continue his escapades as a Boston private eye. Of course, the Parker estate has allowed various series created by the author to continue. Anyway, Atkins continues his efforts to keep us readers satisfied with new tales of the sardonic yet sensitive gumshoe.

Spenser has gone to visit Los Angeles to find a wandering daughter who has disappeared. He has teamed up with an apprentice named Zebulon Sixkill, who has made a decent life out there as a private investigator. Spenser’s search leads him to movie mogul, an obsessive ex-boyfriend of the missing girl’s, and a woman’s empowerment group led by a rather a creepy dude. Most other people would be daunted by such obstacles, but that would make for a most unsatisfying Spenser tale. Spenser does enlist some help from a couple of local tough guys with whom he has developed something resembling a friendship over the years. Chollo and Bobby Horse bring their own guns to the cause. Sixkill doesn’t hesitate to needle his mentor to keep him somewhat humble. The lovely Susan Silverman flies out from Boston to support her man as well, and of course keep his ego grounded.

There have been previous cases that have taken Spenser to LA before, so it’s not exactly new territory, but it is still unusual enough to have him outside of Boston to see this as a little bit of a treat to see the modern knight errant out of his usual kingdom.

Spenser novels are hardly ever all that profound, and this one is not an exception, but it’s a fun romp. Some elements are a little far-fetched, but I am in this for the jokes. Atkins is a talented writer and seems to be the right choice to continue the series. I am sometimes distracted by the notion, that Spenser would likely be in his seventies, if not eighties by now based on some of the biographical details created by Parker way back when. I would have liked to have seen Hawk turn up in this one, as was promised in a blurb printed on the very first page. Hawk, Chollo, Horse, and Sixkill together are always fun when they aim their collective macho wit at Spenser, but it’s all in good fun. I know there are likely some purists who would be critical of continuing something after the original author’s demise, but I am not one of them. Atkins does stay true to the spirit of the character. I also have a bit more respect for Atkins has a pastiche writer since he also has his own series of detective novels featuring someone named Quinn Colson. I have yet to read those books, but I will likely get to them before long.

If anyone who reads this blog is new to the character to Spenser, I would definitely say read Parker’s novels starting with The Godwulf Manuscript, but this Angel Eyes is an installment that it not really groundbreaking, but satisfying enough of a diversion nonetheless.

I am apparently in the mode of reading continued series from original authors who are no longer with us. Next up, Kyle Mills has continued the exploits of Vince Flynn’s super duper anti-terrorist operative, Mitch Rapp, with Lethal Agent.

The Devil‘s Due is the most recent Sherlock Holmes novel written by Bonnie MacBird. It take place in 1890 London at a time when anarchists are lurking within the city. A series is troubling murders has the attention of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Holmes figures out that a number of philanthropists are being killed off in alphabetical order. A loved one of the victim soon follows them to the grave. Things have changed for Holmes in that Scotland Yard is now being run by a new commander who has little appreciation for his deductive abilities. A journalist is also indulging in his own vendetta against the consulting detective. The case hits a more personal note when it appears that Mycroft Holmes may be on the list of potential targets.

Out of the several Sherlock Holmes pastiche writers, MacBird is one of the better ones. I enjoyed this novel since it did seem to remain pretty faithful to the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, just in case someone frightfully ignorant of classic and popular literature reads this blog.

I ended up enjoying this latest installment in MacBird’s series. I did find that the ending was a little more far-fetched than what is usual in even a Sherlock Holmes story. In spite of that, I was pretty engaged in the story. I want to make note of a character MacBird invented for this novel who I hope turns up again. The sixteen year-old street urchin known as Heffie was pretty cool. She is a sassy, tough sometimes agent of Holmes who has singular talents of finding out much needed information at the time. Holmes was sometimes employ a group of street orphans known as the Irregulars. Heffie seems to be even more productive. Anyway, it was rather fun when she turned up throughout the novel. There is girls’ school connected to all of this, and Heffie infiltrates this place at the behest of Holmes and finds out all kinds of dastardly deeds going on. MacBird is pretty good at throwing out many threads in her novels for Holmes to follow and they all get tied up rather neatly when the adventure is over.

The novel isn’t really flawless, but it was solid enough for to enjoy another new story featuring Mr. Holmes of 221B Baker Street and the good doctor who chronicles his escapades.

Next up is another continuation of a popular mystery series that was extended after the original author’s demise. Robert B. Parker’s Boston tough guy, Spenser, is back and still under the care of Ace Atkins in Angel Eyes.

The Third Doctor Adventures Volume 6 resurrects the Third Doctor with this recent offering from Big Finish Productions. Two new audio plays are featured in this set with Tim Treloar reprising his improving impression of the late Jon Pertwee’s version of the Doctor’s third incarnation. Katy Manning returns as Jo Grant. Nicholas Briggs returns o the director’s set as well as voicing the Daleks in one of the episodes once again. Fans of this era of Doctor Who should be quite satisfied with the tropes and traditions peppered throughout this set. Although Jon Pertwee made for a great Doctor, this was not really my favorite era of the show since I did not care for the decision to have the Doctor stuck on Earth in exile. The whole UNIT family thing was not something that revved my enthusiasm all that much. There were some decent stories, and Pertwee’s elegant bombast was entertaining enough for me to find quite a bit of enjoyment in spite of my reservations about some of the writing and production decisions of the time. Of course, Big Finish contributions even when revisiting some of the more problematic eras of the television series are almost always welcome.

The first of the two adventures here is Poison of the Daleks by Guy Adams. This is the real treat for the more avid fans of the era. John Levene returns to the role of Sergeant Benton of UNIT. Jon Culshaw returns to the mic, channeling the late, great Nicholas Courtney, as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Abigail McKern, Elli Garnett, Clive Hayward, Alexandria Riley, and Nicholas Briggs make up the guest cast. So this is another story where the audience is somewhat bludgeoned with dire warnings of the dangers of pollution. I am not for pollution, but sometimes in entertainment, a little more subtlety when addressing these social issues would be appreciated. So an air filtration company s hiding a secret portal to another world in which the Doctor, Jo, Benton, and the Brigadier are whisked off and find the Daleks waiting for them. The Doctor meets another genius scientist on this planet and immediately lets his ego overcome his manners. Actually, the barbs traded between him and Abigail McKern’s Skwoj are actually pretty amusing. In spite of my exasperation over the environmental hazard warning elements to the story, it turned out to be a pretty decent episode. It did represent the era well enough and added some freshness to the old characters. We got to see….or rather hear a bit more of Benton being a competent and heroic soldier here. Benton had some fine moments on the television series, but it was nice to have that explored further by Big Finish. The performances were all quite strong. I’m not necessarily a fan of the Daleks, but Briggs does a great job voicing them, and his enthusiasm can be rather infectious. There was plenty of satisfaction to be found here, but I preferred the second story a bit more.

Operation: Hellfire is written by Jonathan Barnes and takes this specific Doctor into a realm that was not really explored in the television series. The Third Doctor rarely went back into Earth’s past during the television years. I can only recall one story where he did that. Also, this story did not have the usual alien menace lurking in the shadows. There was an alien artifact from the Doctor’s home planet he had to find during the height of the Second World War. By the way, Ian McNeice reprises his role of a certain Prime Minister who led Britain through that particular kerfuffle. Mark Elstob, Terry Molloy, Samuel Clemens, Jeany Spark, and Beth Goddard join Treloar and Manning in this one. The Doctor is actually still serving his exile on Earth during this time, but a Time Lady enlists him to find a missing relic from Gallifrey. The Doctor and Jo are allowed to travek back in time to 1943 where spies are aplenty, and there is some subsect of Nazi occultists lurking in the shadows. Actually , they may not have been lurking in the shadows so much, but they certainly filled in quite nicely for the alien menace who is usually there in Doctor Who episodes. Anyway, I really enjoyed this one more than expected.

Overall, I think this one of the better sets in the Third Doctor Adventures range. Treloar does manage to pull off an impression of Jon Pertwee, that is convincing enough to serve the nostalgia fans have for this era. Even though Pertwee can no longer participate in these episodes, Treloar does him a great honor in the efforts to recreate the era with brand new adventures. Manning’s talent has yet to diminish in spite of her age. I can sometimes almost forget the woman is in her 70’s now. She may not sound exactly the same as she did in the 1970’s obviously, but her enthusiasm and affection for her time on the show makes up for it. Culshaw’s impression of the great Nicholas Courtney is a welcome addition since the Third Doctor and the Brigadier together is about as iconic as any other pairing in all of comic and sci-fi lore. In spite of my frowning on some aspects of the Third Doctor era, still enjoy revisiting it, especially when Big Finish continues to find a way to tell new stories. I have enjoyed all of the sets in The Third Doctor Adventures rage, but Volume Six turned out to be one of the better ones.

Open Season was first published in 2001 by C.J. Box and introduced Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett to mystery readers. Box has enjoyed a pretty long writing career, and he likely is still along way from being finished.

Joe Pickett accepts a position as game warden in Twelve Step, Wyoming and runs into trouble when he loses his weapon to a local poacher. Pickett survives the encounter, but the incident leaves a black mark on his career. Some months later, the poacher is found dead near a woodpile in Pickett’s backyard. Pickett finds himself enmeshed in local politics as well as a growing body count. There also seems to have been a resurgence of a species thought extinct. On top of that, his third child is on the way. Pickett has a very busy first outing in this particular novel.

For a first novel, Open Season actually works quite well. In many detective series, the protagonist often has a plethora of personal and self-destructive challenges. Pickett is pretty much a straight shooter and devoted family man. Some may label him as rather boring, but I ended up rather liking him as the story progressed. Pickett does end up displaying a formidable grit when the answers start flowing. I also liked his wife, who is certainly no pushover but has an unshakeable loyalty to her husband. Pickett has some struggles but has plenty of reason for others to envy him.

It should be interesting to see how Box’s writing flourishes as he continues to flesh out the Picketts as the series progresses. Box is already quite popular, but I imagine there are those slower than I am to sample his works, I would recommend to not put off a perusal of at least this novel. I plan to move forward and see how Joe Pickett and family face other challenges presented by the evil intent of some people and wilds of Wyoming.

Next up, a return to 221 B Baker Street is in order. Although the creator of Sherlock Holmes is long deceased, other writers over the decades have attempted to add their own flavor to the consulting detective. One of the better authors is Bonnie MacBird who has recently written The Devil’s Due. Once again, the game is afoot.

Enola Holmes is a film recently released on Netflix and is based on a series of novels by Nancy Springer. Harry Bradbeer is the director of this film with Jack Thorne credited as the screenwriter. Millie Bobby Brown plays the title role, who is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. Henry Cavill and Sam Claflin play the better known Holmes brothers. Helena Bonham Carter, Burn Gorman, and Louis Partridge are also included in the cast.

With older brothers already living in London, young Enola Holmes has her mother all to herself as she comes to age. Enola’s intellect is about what’s expected from this particular Holmes family. One day, she awakens and finds that her mother has disappeared. Sherlock and Mycroft believe that they need to send Enola to a boarding school. She has other ideas and makes her escape so she can search for her mother. Along the way, she encounters a young runaway viscount who has an assassin on his trail. She must dodge the efforts from her brothers to find her as she tries to fulfill her own mission.

I had a bit of a mixed reaction to this film, but I think it works out fairly over well. In order for me to get any enjoyment out this, I had to let go of my purist tendencies when it comes to Sherlock Holmes.

So Enola Holmes likes to break the fourth wall and speak directly to the viewers. I found that to be a nice touch for this type of film. There is quite a bit of humor. Although I have my doubts about the decision to cast Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, I thought Millie Bobby Brown was quite engaging in the lead role. I was not that keen on how Claflin’s Mycroft Holmes was presented. Mycroft was quite a bit more rigid and somewhat crueler than he was presented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I think this takes place before the good Doctor Watson enters the scene. He wasn’t a part of this story.

So, it actually turns out to be a charming film. It looks great visually. Victorian London is well realized by the set designers and so forth. They got the right actress in the lead. It’s not all that faithful to Doyle’s creation, there is enough to enjoy for me to forgive that. I ended up enjoying it a little more than I expected.

Murder on the Blackboard is a comedic murder mystery that was first released in 1934. Willis Goldbeck adapted the story for the screen from the novel by Stuart Palmer. George Archainbaud directed the film. RKO Radio Pictures is the distributing studio. The cast includes Edna May Oliver, Bruce Cabot, James Gleason, and Gertrude Michael.

Oliver plays teacher and amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers, who featured in several mystery novels by Start Palmer. Ms. Withers gets drawn into the investigation when the music teacher is found by her. Then the corpse is whisked away once she goes to the police to report the dastardly crime. Of course, Ms. Withers isn’t going to let the police do their job without her input.

The film is not devoid of charm, but there is not that much to keep one fully engaged. Oliver is a talented comedic performer and carries the film fairly well considering some silliness peppered throughout. The murder itself is not all that original. The body disappearing when Ms. Withers goes to the local constabulary seems a bit trite and overused even for a film released in 1934. It may be amusing to run down one of the novels penned by Stuart Palmer. It is very far from being a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s far enough from being an utter cinematic disaster for me to not regret sitting through it.

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin first came to life as a newspaper serial and was then released as a novel in 1978. It takes place in San Francisco and introduces the readers to the denizens of 28 Barbary Lane. The first major character we meet is a young woman from Cleveland who arrived in San Francisco as a tourist and decided to stay. She meets many of her neighbors in the apartment complex run by Anne Madrigal. There are lots of intersecting stories going on here. There are a lot of threads to follow in this volume. It’s a twisted path to read this thing sometimes.

Now, this is not really my genre of preference, but I can see why this got so popular. It seems to have been some kind of precursor to the 90’s drama Melrose Place.

It’s a fairly easy read with very short chapters for the most part. I suspect that my reticence about this is more due to my literary tastes not quite aligning to this sort of fiction. I also didn’t really feel drawn to any of the characters. There were some interesting and sometimes shocking moments, especially toward the end. For the most part, I just felt like I was just plodding through this thing trying to remember all of the various storylines and what happened when I last saw this person or that.

Still, it wasn’t like it was an awful reading experience. Maupin is an interesting writer, but I just tend to like following one person trying to resolve one or two problems in my fiction reading. For those with more agile imaginations, I would still recommend giving Maupin a try.

I will be returning to my more familiar literary preferences but with an author I have yet to read. Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett was first introduced in Open Season by C.J. Box and has since appeared in several more mysteries. I will start from the beginning and see how this goes.

Original Sin is a Doctor Who audio play which was adapted by John Dorney from a novel which was written by Andy Lane. Sylvester McCoy stars as the Doctor and is joined by Lisa Bowerman as Professor Bernice Summerfield. Yasmin Bannerman and Travis Oliver play Adjudicators Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej who ended up joining the TARDIS crew in the range of Doctor Who novels known as The New Adventures. Andrew French, Philip Voss, Amrita Acharia, Robbie Stevens, and Jot Davies make up the guest cast. Ken Bentley directed this episode.

The Doctor and Bernice are drawn to Earth in about the thirtieth century where the law s being enforced by Adjudicators. Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester are looking into a rather alarming increase in murder and find a dangerous conspiracy. Behind the curtain is someone who has waited a very long time to meet the Doctor again.

This turned out to be quite good. It was fun to hear a different character dynamic in audio. The cast is well chosen. I had read the novel by Andy Lane some time ago and enjoyed that as well. Big Finish is pretty reliable when it comes to this range and being faithful to the source material. McCoy is in fine form in this one as usual. Bowerman continues to impress with the development of the character that was first created for the same range of novels by Paul Cornell. There was quite a bit of time to get to know Forrester and Cwej in this piece. They are conducting their own investigation apart from the Doctor and Professor Summerfield. Bannerman and Oliver seem to have pretty good chemistry. Of course, the music and the sound effects were well realized, but Big Finish almost always gets that right. Quite a few cast members play several parts and do so quite effectively.

I wouldn’t mind if Big Finish revisits Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej in future releases.

Thin Time/Madquake is a Doctor Who double bill audio release from Big Finish Productions. This release is directed by Scott Handcock and features Peter Davison as the Doctor. Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and George Watkins return as Tegan, Nyssa, and Marc respectively. There are two stories in this release that continue from the release where the Doctor has left his companions on a planet as he flies off in the TARDIS racked with guilt over his tendency to place his companions in constant mortal peril. Marc is a Big Finish creation as a companion. He is a former Roman slave who was almost completely converted by the Cybermen in a recent release. Obviously, that was not something he could just shake off all that easily. The guest cast includes Dona Kroll, Kate Isitt, and Nicholas Khan.

It is Dan Abnett who presents the first story, Thin Time, where the Doctor turns up in London 1892 and finds certain inconsistencies in established history that may be the work of another alien presence. It turned out to be a pretty interesting piece. There is a nice unexpected encounter which is quite a treat for the fans. Davison is actually quite good here. It takes place in an isolated domicile with a small group of people, which in my opinion, provides the most interesting setting for the Doctor. Really, it’s the final scene that makes me smile the most, but the rest of the episode works pretty well too.

Madquake is written by Guy Adams and features the companions in their own little caper. Marc is not coping well with his recent encounter with the Cyberman which ended up with him still somewhat enhanced after their attempt to convert him. Tegan and Nyssa are at odds a bit over the Doctor’s abandonment of them. The serenity of the planet where they have been marooned is interrupted by the arrival of the Slitheen. So, the companions have their moment to shine without the Doctor coming to steal the victory. The Slitheen are not really my favorite of the Doctor’s adversaries, but it was kind of fun to have that connection to the revived television series of 2005. The performances from Fielding and Sutton were quite engaging, as expected. I am still getting used to Watkins as Marc.

I liked some of the ideas and dynamics explored in this release. There was an attempt to do something a little different yet still in keeping with the Fifth Doctor era. I am interested to see how the situation with Marc comes to a resolution. Yeah, this turned out to be a pretty enjoyable release from Big Finish.