Tag: books

Film Review: Murder At West Point

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

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.

Sherlock Holmes Audio Review: Dr. Watson Has More Tales To Tell

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

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.

Book Review: The Man Of Bronze Finds Gold…Or Does He?

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

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.

Book Review: The Doctor And The Undead

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

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.

Book Review: Who Is More Dangerous In The Winchester House?

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Housemaid is the thriller that seems to have put Freida McFadden on the chart of literary prominence currently, and it’s actually pretty good.

Wilhelmina Calloway, who thankfully goes by Millie, is desperate for a job after a long stint in prison, and a position as a live-in maid with the Winchester family seems to be her ticket to a better situation. Nina Winchester appears to be at least a reasonable boss until she starts exhibiting signs that suggest that she is flat-out crazy. Millie’s options are limited, so she tries to make an increasingly puzzling and alarming situation somewhat bearable. What Nina and her seemingly dreamy husband do not know is that Millie does have a breaking point, and she may be more dangerous than they could ever imagine..

McFadden does know how to ratchet up the suspense and keep a reader engaged. Her prose is actually quite engaging, and it’s fun to see what twists she has coming.

Sometimes, the revelations rely a bit more on coincidence than I would like. I will try to avoid any real spoilers in this blog for the seeming few that have yet to read the novel. Also, it felt that the reader has to wait quite a while for some new nugget of useful information as to why some of these behaviors are occurring.

McFadden switches first person perspectives in this one, which actually works here. Fortunately, she does it by sections so one is not constantly having to adjust mentally to these shifts.

There are times when the story seems to drag a little, but I enjoyed the experience overall. I have read other McFadden novels before and have yet to be truly disappointed. Sometimes, the resolutions to her plots stretch my credulity a little more than I would like in this genre, but it’s not too distracting. In fact, I find these moments more amusing than maddening, so I guess McFadden can stay in the game as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, I have been aware of the popularity of this book for some time, and I did find it enjoyable enough to likely do add more McFadden novels to my shelves.

Well, as customary to this blog, I will give a brief glimpse at the next reading indulgence. Doctor Who novels are still being produced, so I thought it would be time to return to the doors of the TARDIS with a new one featuring the First Doctor. Paul Magrs has returned to the franchise with his contribution, Doctor Who: Dracula!

Book Review: Imposter Alert!

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Identity Theft is a recent Star Trek novel by Greg Cox that kind of tested my patience at the beginning and got better as my voyage through the pages progressed.

The crew of the Enterprise is sent to the planet Voyzr twenty years after they had helped the denizens end a civil war to attend a celebration of the peace agreement that has lasted. The problem is that a group of exiles have hatched a plot to assassinate the current leader of Voyzr since not everyone felt they received fair treatment. This group has gotten hold of a mind transference device and are able to abduct one Commander Pavel Chekov to have him replaced with a disgruntled and determined imposter. Chekov, now in the body of an alien, must escape his captors, catch up to the Enterprise, which has been sidetracked by another rescue mission, and stop an insidious plot to reignite a war.

I experienced a moment of exasperation when I realized that this was a mind-swap story, which is a pretty common plot in science fiction or fantasy. The novels tend to spend a little too much with somewhat nostalgic plots. Of course, the television episode, Turnabout Intruder, was heavily referenced.

As the story unfolded, I found myself more compelled by the idea of Chekov being the focus of the story. This takes place sometime just before The Undiscovered Country. The crew have already experienced the death and subsequent rebirth of Spock, the voyage to the twentieth century to find whales in order to save Earth and facing down a being who was impersonating God.

This novel focused on an older Chekov, who was able to use his Starfleet experience and the examples left by Captain Kirk to overcome the various obstacles to reclaim his body and foil the assassination plot.

Cox has written several Star Trek novels and is usually quite reliable. I should have had a bit more faith in his ability to make this somewhat overdone science fiction trope into something a bit more compelling.

He also delves into the mind of the would-be assassin named Ryjo, who finds himself experiencing the special comradery Chekov has experienced serving with his friends for a couple of decades. Ryjo ends up being instrumental in saving the lives of several of his crewmates when their unexpected rescue mission goes seriously awry.

This novel turned into a nice surprise in that I enjoyed more than I expected when I first started out. I always have fun revisiting the Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk, and Cox helped make sure that I will return when the next installment hits the shelves.

Next up, I am going to see what all the hype is about concerning Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid.

Book Review: Diamonds And Jessica Fletcher Are Forever

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Queen’s Jewels is a novel that is part of the Murder, She Wrote range and is an adequate literary diversion. Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain are credited as co-writers. Since Jessica Fletcher is a fictional character, I think we can trust that Bain deserves full credit on this one.

Jessica Fletcher is invited to lecture on a cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2, which is making a transatlantic voyage from London to New York. She has been aware of a jewel theft that has occurred in Europe in which the owner was murdered. The mystery seems to have followed her aboard the ship, and she encounters old friends who were former intelligence officers and an insurance investigator. Although Jessica is reluctant to get involved in another mystery while on a working holiday, another murder onboard compels her to use her gifts of observation and deductive to piece this particular puzzle together.

Nothing too spectacular in this one. There is a bit more depth in some of the characters than we would see in the television show. It does seem to be a good choice to write this in first person perspective from Jessica’s viewpoint. Sometimes I struggle with imagining Angela Lansbury saying some of the dialogue, but the effort is valiant enough.

There were probably more recurring characters than I would have liked. We had Michael Haggerty, Inspector George Sutherland, and Dennis Stanton all in one book, which sort of felt a little too gimmicky.

It is another cruise ship murder trope, but it was still a fun read. It did manage a few interesting twists and surprises at the end.

The effort to write a blog on this novel is probably not all that relevant, but I hope it’s a fun read as well.

Now, I am going to move on to more serious literary contributions such as the latest Star Trek novel from Greg Cox entitled Identity Theft.

Book Review: Butchery In The Bayou

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

The Butcher and the Wren is a debut thriller from Alaina Urquhart and is a promising introduction of a new voice in the genre.

Dr. Wren Muller is a talented forensic pathologist in Louisiana and is understandably troubled when a string of corpses turns up in her lab and seems to be the work of one killer who uses a variety of methods to hone his brutal craft. The perspective throughout the novel shifts from Wren’s to the murderer known as Jeremy. As the story unfolds, the reader starts to realize that Wren has a more personal connection to the psycho than she wants to acknowledge. Wren has a tragically complicated past as well and her reasons for wanting Jeremy taken down go beyond than just doing merely her duty.

Urquhart is a pretty good writer. She apparently has worked as an autopsy tech for some time and has some authority when the science is addressed.

Some of this feels a little cliche, however there may not be much to be done for the author to avoid it. Some of the revelations are presented a little clumsily at times. Wren is happily married, but I was not impressed with how the husband was written and how he was kind of passive when he understood the danger his wife was facing. He was concerned and seems to be a super nice guy, but I was kind of bored by him. There is a follow-up to this novel, so I hope I like him better if he shows up again.

Overall, the novel was pretty good and kept me interested enough to likely obtain the sequel. Jeremy is a pretty awful, sadistic lunatic, but he is not that unusual for this genre.

The lead character, Wren, is a standard troubled heroine and does little to stand out among her literary counterparts.

It’s still not a bad first novel, and as mentioned before, I am still interested in how this story resolves itself in the next volume. Urquhart still did a capable job of entertaining this particular reader and quite a few others. I would still recommend crime fiction fans to give her a try, so those are my thoughts on The Butcher and the Wren.

Next up will be another murder mystery, but with a more familiar heroine. Jessica Fletcher is set to relate the unraveling of the mystery surrounding The Queen’s Jewels with the help of author Donald Bain in my next read from the Murder, She Wrote novel series.

Book Review: Terrorists In The Suburbs

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

An Unlikely Hero is a pretty decent thriller from Tierney James and kicks off a range known as the Enigma Series.

Tessa Scott is lovely housewife three children and in a somewhat trained marriage. Terrorists are camped nearby, and a bomb ends up in her backyard after her family leaves her behind while they head out for vacation. A secret government agency known as Enigma foil the plot and neutralize the bomb, however Tessa is swept up in the operation. The team is led by the mysterious, tortured Captain Chase Hunter, who awakens some temptations for the surprisingly resourceful Tessa Scott. Meanwhile, her husband and children become unwittingly targets themselves, and Tessa is going to need some help protecting her loved ones as well as her own life.

I actually met this author during a book signing recently and decided to take a chance. There is a little bit of a cliche setup here with the characters, but I actually started to be more forgiving of that the more I delved into this novel.

The relationships between the main characters does take some atypical turns for this genre of novel. In spite of how the novel begins, there is the affirmation of marital commitment and forgiveness woven into the stories, and some of the characters are a bit more redeemable than expected as the story unfolds.

There are a few scenes that feel a bit bogged down with exposition, but it’s not as challenging as reading something from a century ago.

In spite of the genre and the violence depicted, I got the sense that Tierney James is someone of faith, which did come out in a way that was subtle yet profound. I certainly found that to be pleasantly surprising.

There are times when Tessa and Captain Hunter sort of irritate each other in the midst of their forced alliance, and the banter between them was rather witty. I also found some of the other team members’ reaction to Tessa’s presence in this caper to be somewhat interesting. A cantankerous elderly neighbor of Tessa’s gets swept up into the chaos as well, and he turns out to be more relevant than expected as well.’

‘Some elements of the plot seem a bit ludicrous, but that’s to be expected. I found it to be more enjoyable than I expected. The author has an acknowledgement to those who work in the shadows to keep our nation safe, and I certainly can concur with that sentiment.

It has been a while since I have joined Jack Reacher on one of his exploits, so I think I will next see how authors Lee and Andrew Child have dropped him In Too Deep.

Book Review: The Dirt On Mrs. Dart

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Dirt is an interesting crime novel from the late Stuart Woods and features Stone Barrington, who is a somewhat strange combination of attorney and private investigator.

This is a pretty lengthy series which is still continuing with the aid of ghost writers. This particular novel was written by the man himself and published in 1996.

A syndicated gossip columnist named Amanda Dart is being harassed by faxes that expose some of her extracurricular activities. Her reputation is on the line, and Amanda isn’t used to being the one on the receiving end of embarrassing revelations. She turns to Stone Barrington for some help in identifying the perpetrators. Barrington is an ex-police detective who retired early and joined the legal profession. He now works somewhat unique cases for a law firm and does well. Stone contends with some dangerous people to help his seductively headstrong client, but he is certainly no stranger to trouble. An old friend gets murdered during the investigation, and Stone is even more motivated to run these miscreants down.

The plot itself is pretty compelling. Amanda Dart is certainly not in a panic about her situation, but she is kind of hard to sympathize with. Barrington is pretty sharp and fairly interesting as a lead character, but there isn’t that much to make him stand out in the pantheon of fictional detectives.

I am not sure if this is a regular component in a Stuart Woods novel, but I was caught a bit flat-footed by the gratuitous sex going on, particularly at the beginning. At the risk of coming off as a bit prudish, I found some of these scenes a bit jarring and distracting. I think Woods would have done better to allow more to be left to the imagination.

Even Barrington was displaying some remarkably poor judgment when it came to a couple of these liaisons.

As far as writing style, Woods is competent with his prose. It’s an easy read but not so much so that it seems insulting.

Other than the random sex scenes, there is not much that I will find memorable about this particular literary venture.

A couple of months ago, I was in a bookstore where a signing was occurring, and I went ahead and bought one from a local writer. I think it’s time to allow author Tierney James to introduce me to a An Unlikely Hero.