JUNE 2018 - FILMS + TV

There were a few bits and pieces watched in the early part of June before the World Cup took over the TV...... an okay DVD, a disappointing trip to the cinema, an amazing bit of TV, a season 2 continuation and another series embarked upon.

The Handmaid's Tale (2017)

Season two just started and my son informed us that we needed to get caught up on the first one. Sound advice - binge watched 10 episodes over three nights. Pretty bloody terrifying glimpse of a possible future.

From Google....

Based on the best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, this series is set in Gilead, a totalitarian society in what used to be part of the United States. Gilead is ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property of the state, and is faced with environmental disasters and a plummeting birth rate. In a desperate attempt to repopulate a devastated world, the few remaining fertile women are forced into sexual servitude. One of these women, Offred, is determined to survive the terrifying world she lives in, and find the daughter that was taken from her.

The Limey (1999)

Bargain basement or charity shop DVD watched. An okay film, a bit dated. Slightly irritating that every time our crafty Londoner Terence Stamp utters a bit of Cockney Rhyming slang, me ol' China he feels the need to explain himself and translate - presumably for his American audience. What a load of Jack and Danny....

From Google....

The Limey follows Wilson (Terence Stamp), a tough English ex-con who travels to Los Angeles to avenge his daughter's death. Upon arrival, Wilson goes to task battling Valentine (Peter Fonda) and an army of L.A.'s toughest criminals, hoping to find clues and piece together what happened. After surviving a near-death beating, getting thrown from a building and being chased down a dangerous mountain road, the Englishman decides to dole out some bodily harm of his own.

Funny Cow (2017)

Cinema trip to my local library for this one and a bit disappointing if I'm honest. I do like Maxine Peake usually and Paddy Considine for that matter, but it kind of felt a bit like it was trying too hard to be relevant and cutting edge. Alun Armstrong and Stephen Graham also feature.

From Wikipedia....

Funny Cow is a 2017 comedy drama directed by Adrian Shergold, written by Tony Pitts, and starring Maxine Peake, Paddy Considine, Tony Pitts, Stephen Graham and Alun Armstrong. The original songs and score was composed by Richard Hawley with additional songs by Ollie Trevers. The film follows a woman making a name for herself in the stand-up comedy scene of working men's clubs in northern England.[2]

The film debuted on 9 October 2017 in the United Kingdom at the London Film Festival.

The Handmaid's Tale - Season 2 (2018)

More of the same, only the World Cup interrupted us after one or two episodes. Compelling viewing, I'm looking forward to getting caught up soon. Debating whether to take a punt of the book by Margaret Atwood.

From Rotten Tomatoes .....

Critics Consensus: Beautifully shot but dishearteningly relevant, The Handmaid's Tale centers its sophomore season tightly around its compelling cast of characters, making room for broader social commentary through more intimate lenses.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_handmaid_s_tale/s02/

The Sinner (2017)

A few episodes into this eight-parter and I'm enjoying it but not totally glued just yet.
My daughter watched it and enjoyed it enough to press gang me and her mum into taking a gander. Jessica Biel is pretty good, but I can't remember what I've seen her in before.

From Google.....

Young mother Cora Tannetti is overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage that leads her to commit a startling -- and very public -- act of violence, with no explanation as to why she did it. When Detective Harry Ambrose begins his investigation and grows obsessed with uncovering Cora's hidden motive, the two work together to try to get deep into her psyche to learn about the violent secrets that are hidden in her past. The eight-episode thriller -- which tries to uncover the "why" instead of the "who" or "what" -- stars Jessica Biel, who also serves as an executive producer, and Bill Pullman in the lead roles.

J.A. MARLEY - GODSEND (2018)

Synopsis/blurb....

Looking for page-turning action and well-placed suspense? Then you'll love the unmissable Godsend.

It has been eighteen months since Danny Felix pulled off the robbery of his life.  His plan brought London to a standstill, but at a heavy price.

Now, living a quiet life running a charter fishing business in the Florida Keys, Danny is trying to come to terms with the death and destruction he had unwittingly unleashed. However, the low profile is beginning to wear thin and he soon starts to crave the adrenalin rush of his former criminal ways. 
Little does he know that three very different women are about to enter his life and turn it upside-down. Soon Danny finds himself right back in the action.

But why has he been chosen? And does he have the appetite to pull off another job where the stakes are so lethally high?

A stop – start stop - start read for me having initially picked it up when in the throes of a house move. Eventually when I got back into it I quite liked it overall.

Our main man is Danny Felix and he’s living an off the grid existence in Florida. Little gifts on his doorstep inform him that his presence and location is known and that his tranquil life in the slow lane (if we ignore the ever increasing panic attacks) is at an end.

Thieves re-united, Danny is sucked back into the game and before too long is planning on taking down a bunch of holy rollers and a drug cartel (sort of with their consent) and levelling the score with Harkness, a nemesis from the London days.

Cross, double-cross, triple cross, seventy year old strippers, a sympathetic priest, an inquisitive and seductive Hispanic police officer, an evangelist with a predilection for kinky pain and some political aspirations, our holy roller’s wife June, who offers more than just the missionary position, Harkness – a reluctant partner, but with trouble brewing between them on the horizon, a trusted Irish lieutenant, an alluring but dangerous drug boss, money laundering, skimming, fishing, BBQ,  confession, anxiety, romance, secrets, sex, dancing, ambition, friendship, guns, a kidnap, a heist, lunchtimes with happy endings, past history and a final reckoning.

Fast-paced once I let the book rip. Lots of angles being played and deception not too far from the surface. The book continually refers back to earlier events in the author’s previous work Standstill which introduced Danny Felix. I wouldn’t say not having read Standstill was a hindrance to my enjoyment, but it may have somewhat spoiled things for me if I do eventually read the series ass-backwards.

Decent characters, dialogue and action, with plenty of humour and banter – it’s not a book that takes itself too seriously. It’s not without a few darker moments though as the story unfolds and approaches the climax. I like reading about robberies and scams more than murder and this offered plenty by way of entertainment. The Florida setting was another plus. If there’s a third Danny Felix book on the horizon – deal me in.

4 from 5

J.A. Marley has his website here.

Read across April, May and June, 2018
Published – 2018
Page count – 294
Source – review copy from Bloodhound Books
Format - Kindle

THE SWEDISH SIX

Another Scandinavian half dozen that were acquired then buried....

Six from Sweden from Mari Jungstedt, Johan Theorin, Anders De La Motte, Peter Wahloo, Hakan Nesser and Hans Koppel

Peter Wahloo - The Lorry (1962)

I've read the first in the Martin Beck series and saw this one which is half of the double act on their own. It sounds quite interesting, but I've not read it yet.

From Per Wahloo - co-author with his wife, Maj Sjowall, of the internationally bestselling Martin Beck series of mysteries - comes a suspense novel about a former German soldier wanted for questioning about a murder in Spain.

Willi Mohr--former German soldier, starving artist, enigmatic drifter--is arrested by the police and subjected to a lengthy and perplexing interrogation. Unwillingly, he is drawn back to the previous year he spent in Spain, the mysterious death of a Norwegian couple he shared a house with and his tireless attempts to discover how they died. As the interrogation intensifies, Mohr realizes that his own secret activities have implicated him in a dangerous political situation. Exhausted, at the end of his money, worn down by the police, he takes decisive action that leads to a profound personal release.

Hans Koppel - She's Never Coming Back (2011)

Speculative punt - I quite liked the sound of it, but haven't cracked its spine.

Mike Zetterberg lives with his wife Ylva and their daughter in a house just outside Helsingborg. One evening, Ylva isn't home as expected after work. Mike passes it off as a drink with a work friend, but when she's still missing the next day, he starts to worry. As Mike battles suspicion from the police and his own despair, he is unaware that Ylva is still alive, just a stone's throw from his own home. Ylva has been drawn into a twisted plot of revenge and tragedy that leads back into her and her abductors' shared past...

Mari Jungstedt - Unspoken (2007)

Years ago (2011) I read something else by her which I liked - Unseen. Worth having a second look at her work IMO.

It is winter on Gotland, and fourteen-year-old Fanny is missing. She had no friends to speak of other than the horses she took care of at the local racing stable, and seems to have been an unhappy and isolated teenager, the daughter of an absent Jamaican musician and an instable Swedish mother. Is her disappearance somehow connected to the recent brutal murder of alcoholic photographer Henry Dahlström, who had won a large sum of money at the racetrack right before his death? Inspector Anders Knutas and his team investigate under pressure from the media. 

Fanny is finally found, strangled to death and left on a lonely heath, covered by moss and branches. At the same time, grainy but explicit photographs of the girl with a stranger are discovered, hidden in Dahlström's darkroom. Intrepid TV journalist Johan Berg, sent from Stockholm to cover the two deaths, pushes the investigation one decisive step ahead while still trying to resolve his relationship with Emma, which has been simmering since they first met during the investigation into a series of murders on Gotland this past summer. 

All evidence points to one of Fanny's coworkers at the stable, an American who has left the country for a short vacation. As Knutas and his team wait for his return to make the arrest, the inspector takes a well-deserved weekend off with an old friend, and at the lonely cottage in the woods, the pieces finally fit together. But this time, Knutas has gotten too close. . . .

Anders De La Motte - Game (2012)

My wife read and enjoyed this without feeling an overwhelming urge to get to the next in the trilogy. Hopefully it doesn't have a cliffhanger ending, which will probably piss me off if it does. I can't help but think of Keith Lemon and Celebrity Juice whenever I see this author's name.


"A taut thriller that will leave the reader excited for the next book in the series" (Kirkus Reviews) - the first novel in a groundbreaking international thriller trilogy about a deadly game that blurs the line between reality and fiction.

One Sunday morning after a long night of partying, Henrik "HP" Pettersson, a slacker with a lot of ego and very little impulse control, finds a cell phone of an unfamiliar make on a commuter train. Through insisting and slightly unnerving messages that refer to him by name, the phone invites him to play a game. HP accepts without hesitation.

The rules are that HP must complete tasks that range from childish pranks to criminal acts, as allocated by the mysterious Game Master. The Game starts out innocently enough and then becomes increasingly risky, threatening the safety of someone close to HP. He is determined to become a superstar, but when the dark and tragic secrets of his family's past are at stake, HP must make a choice. Will he suffer the humiliation of defeat, or will the need to win push him to the limit - no matter the cost?

The first novel in a fast-paced and riveting trilogy, Game will leave you guessing. Follow the rules, and everybody gets hurt...

Johan Theorin - The Darkest Room (2009)

Another author I know next to nothing about and who I have never read.

It is bitter mid-winter on the Swedish island of Oland, and Katrine and Joakim Westin have moved with their children to the boarded-up manor house at Eel Point. But their remote idyll is soon shattered when Katrine is found drowned off the rocks nearby. And the old house begins to exert a strange hold over him.

Hakan Nesser - The Mind's Eye (2008)

A few people whose views I respect rate this series. I bought a few and never got around to the. Pretty much the story of my reading life.,

The highly anticipated first novel in the Inspector Van Veeteren series in now available in English. At last, American readers will be able to enjoy, from its very beginnings, this addictive series by one of Europe's most beloved and best-selling crime writers.

Chief Inspector Van Veeteren knew that murder cases were never as open-and-shut as this one: Janek Mitter woke one morning with a brutal hangover and discovered his wife of three months lying facedown in the bathtub, dead. With only the flimsiest excuse as his defense, he is found guilty of a drunken crime of passion and imprisoned in a mental institution.

But Van Veeteren's suspicions about the identity of the killer are borne out when Mitter also becomes a murder victim. Now the chief inspector launches a full-scale investigation of the two slayings. But it may only be the unspoken secrets of the dead'"revealed in a mysterious letter that Mitter wrote shortly before his death'"that will finally allow Van Veeteren to unmask the killer and expose the shocking root of this sordid violence.

2 BY STEPHEN GREENLEAF

Wind back Wednesday and another couple of books from nearly 40 years ago and author Stephen Greenleaf.

They're a couple of PI novels from San Francisco in the late 70s, early 80s. I’ve enjoyed more than a few from another San Franciscan PI series – Bill Pronzini's Nameless, so I’ll be interested to see if Greenleaf and Tanner give him a run for his money.

There’s 14 books in the series in total, with Ellipsis the last one published in 2000. Greenleaf also has a handful of non-series books to his name.

There's an interesting article on the series over on The Thrilling Detective Web Site .....

Death Bed, in particular, has always struck me as one of the most powerful P.I. novels I've read, and the murderer's M.O. is one of the nastiest imaginable.

Grave Error (1979)

The first novel in Stephen Greenleaf's classic series featuring John Marshall Tanner, San Francisco ex-lawyer turned private detective.

When her husband begins acting strangely, the wife of a famous legal crusader hires San Francisco P.I. John Marshall Tanner to find out why. Tanner is convinced the case is a simple matter of blackmail. Certainly a man like Roland Nelson has made his share of powerful enemies in a career devoted to exposing fraud and corruption among the mighty.

But Tanner's investigation soon takes a tragic and personal turn. Suddenly Tanner finds himself on a trail of buried secrets, frustrated passions, and smoldering revenge as he races to stop a killer.

Death Bed (1980) 

Hired by dying millionaire Maximillian Kottle to locate Kottle's estranged son, San Francisco private eye John Marshall Tanner begins a quest to locate the former sixties radical who is also wanted for murder

PRESTON LANG - SUNK COSTS (2018)

Synopsis/blurb....

Dan is a con man and a drifter just looking for a ride east. A strange woman in a business suit picks him up on the highway, and soon they’re going 70-miles-an-hour and she’s got a gun pointed at his head. Instead of shooting him, she hits him with a proposition to make some fast money. Against his better judgment, Dan sneaks into her office and steals the key to a safe deposit box. He thinks he’s made a clean getaway until he’s stopped on the way out by Kate, a sultry accountant who knows something is up and is looking for a way in on the score. 

Kate offers Dan a better deal, and the two figure out a way into the box. But there’s no money inside. What they do find is enough to track down a shady photographer who holds the promise of even more treasure. But deception, misdirection, and murder keep Dan on the run, as he begins to realize that Kate the office drone is not what she seems, and the lady on the highway who he double-crossed may be the most dangerous criminal he’s ever met.

Sunk Costs is the third book I’ve read and enjoyed from author Preston Lang. His debut The Blind Rooster was amazing and his second novel, The Carrier pretty damn good. Sunk Costs is his fourth and didn’t disappoint.

A con man, Dan meets a couple of like minded souls during the course of Sunk Costs, trading up one crazy lady with a proposition for a score for another slightly less deranged model, Kate and a better slice of the cake.

Steal a key, impersonate a dead man, access a safety deposit box and home free. If only life was that simple. Inevitably complications arise. There's no fortune in the box, just a further puzzle to solve. 

Chuck in the unwelcome appearance of a couple of additional parties claiming rightful ownership of the missing money and prepared to back their claims with violence, with crazy lady number one hovering in the background and some ongoing trust issues with Kate and Dan has his work cut out coming out ahead.

A fast pace, an easy languid style of writing, a great story, a shady character or three, some sprinklings of brevity throughout with a couple of scenes which made me chuckle. One in particular with Dan thinking on his feet and persuading the overly helpful neighbour not to assist with demolishing the non-existent wall in front of the bathroom, still cracks me up thinking about it.  

Not overly long - less than 200 pages of prose - just about perfect length for me. A great main character, Dan with not much of a back story,  just enough to show us he's been around the block a couple of times. A satisfying resolution - it couldn't really have ended any better in my opinion.

Preston Lang writes the kind of books that I want to read. All Due Respect publishes the kind of books I want to read. Hats off to both.

5 from 5

Preston Lang has his website here.

Read in June, 2018
Published - 2018
Page count - 206
Source - review copy received from Chris at All Due Respect (cheers)
Format - paperback

ANDREW BARRETT - THE NOTE (2017)

Synopsis/blurb....

A thrilling novella introducing Eddie Collins, CSI

Have you ever had that feeling of being watched but when you turn around no one's there?

I have.

It was raining, and I was working a murder scene around midnight when that prickle ran up my spine. If I’d listened to that feeling, if I’d thought back to my past, maybe I could have prevented the terror that was to come.

Back at the office, I found a death threat on my desk.

I had no idea who sent it or why they wanted to kill me.

But I was about to find out.

I’m Eddie Collins, a CSI, and this is my story.

Another Eddie Collins short-ish story from author Andrew Barrett after reading The Lift earlier this month. Longer than the last one, more detailed and with a bit more depth to the main character I liked it.

Collins processes a crime scene, has a row with the attending officer, recognises the victim and gets unnerved by a death threat back at his office. A short journey home to his isolated cottage, a cautious approach - but not cautious enough with an immediate ambush. Eddie starts to fear the death threat - Your going to die tonight - might be about to come true.

Domestic violence, a complaint, murder, mental health issues, familial problems, a gun, a bite or two, an old girlfriend, a trip down memory lane, a violent confrontation, a kettle lead, no coffee, some dodgy plumbing, a familiar but unwelcome police presence, some butting of chests, an armed response unit, a knife, more bloodshed, a taser and a relaxing cigarette.

Lots going on, a fast pace, some inner dialogue and humour, a decent story line, lots of connections between characters and events without being overly coincidental and a decent pay off at the end.


4 from 5

Andrew Barrett has his website here.

In addition to the couple of short Eddie Collins stories I've read, there are four novels in the series.
The Third Rule - CSI Eddie Collins Book One
Black by Rose - CSI Eddie Collins Book Two
Sword of Damocles - CSI Eddie Collins Book Three
Ledston Luck - CSI Eddie Collins Book Four

Read in June, 2018
Published - 2017 originally (2018 by Bloodhound Books)
Page count - 51
Source - review copy from Bloodhound
Format - kindle

SIX FROM NORWAY

I've not read too much crime fiction from Scandinavia over recent years. More intent on stock-piling than actually reading them. I have six different authors from Norway to get my teeth into at some point....

Gunnar Staalesen, Karin Fossum, Jo Nesbo, K.O. Dahl, Anne Holt and Jorn Lier Horst

K.O. Dahl - The Fourth Man (2007)

Dahl is an unknown quantity - this has sat on the pile for a fair few years, along with the second in the series.

In the course of a routine police raid, Detective Inspector Frank Frolich of the Oslo Police saves Elizabeth Faremo from getting inadvertently caught in crossfire. By the time he learns that she is the sister of Jonny Faremo, wanted member of a larceny gang, it is already too late. He is obsessed. Suspected, suspended, and blindly in love, Frolich must find out if he is being used before his life unravels beyond repair.

Gunnar Staalesen - The Writing on the Wall (1995 - probably later in translation) 

Enjoyed something from Staalesen about a year ago - Wolves in the Dark, but I've not rushed back to him.

In this crime drama, set in Bergen, Norway, detective Varg Veum's adventures take him into a dark world of privileged citizens who have been drawn into cross-dressing, drugs, and prostitution. When the local judge is discovered dead and clad only in women's lingerie in a luxury hotel, Varg is called in to explain the judge's death. Soon, when a teenage girl suddenly goes missing and her parents ask that he find her,Varg finds that all of the clues lead him deeper into Bergen's criminal underworld.

Karin Fossum - Don't Look Back (2002)

Another author I thought I might have read, but I was wrong  - confusing her with Sweden's Karin Alvtegen, doh....


Beneath the imposing Kollen Mountain lies a small village where the children run in and out of one another's houses and play unafraid in the streets. But the sleepy village is like a pond through which not enough water runs - beneath the surface it is beginning to stagnate. When a naked body is found by the lake at the top of the mountain, its seeming tranquility is disturbed forever. Enter Inspector Sejer, a tough, no-nonsense policeman whose own life is tinged by sadness. As the suspense builds, and the list of suspects grows, Sejer's determination to discover the truth will lead him to peel away layer upon layer of distrust and lies, in this tiny community where apparently normal family ties hide dark secrets. Critically acclaimed across Europe, Karin Fossum's novels evoke a world that is terrifyingly familiar. Don't Look Back introduces the tough, ethical Inspector Sejer to British readers for the first time.

Anne Holt- 1222 (2007)

Another speculative punt in the dark. I've heard of this series, but only bought this one which I liked the sound of.

1222 metres above sea level, train 601 from Oslo to Bergen careens of iced rails as the worst snowstorm in Norwegian history gathers force around it. Marooned in the high mountains with night falling and the temperature plummeting, its 269 passengers are forced to abandon their snowbound train and decamp to a centuries-old mountain hotel. They ought to be safe from the storm here, but as dawn breaks one of them will be found dead, murdered. With the storm showing no sign of abating, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. But Hanne has no wish to get involved. She has learned the hard way that truth comes at a price and sometimes that price just isn't worth paying. Her pursuit of truth and justice has cost her the love of her life, her career in the Oslo Police Department and her mobility: she is paralysed from the waist down by a bullet lodged in her spine. Trapped in a wheelchair, trapped by the killer within, trapped by the deadly storm outside, Hanne's growing unease is shared by everyone in the hotel. Should she investigate, or should she just wait for help to arrive? And all the time rumours swirl about a secret cargo carried by train 601. Why was the last carriage sealed? Why is the top floor of the hotel locked down? Who or what is being concealed? And, of course, what if the killer strikes again?

Jo Nesbo - Phantom (2012)

Read a few Nesbo's but only one Harry Hole so far - The Bat - 5 1/2 years ago!

When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong - fleeing the traumas of life as a cop - he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn't help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo (and the careers of some of the city's highest officials), and into the maze of his own past, where he will find the wrenching truth that finally matters to Oleg, and to himself.

Jorn Lier Horst - Dregs (2011)

Liked the cover, liked the blurb, bought the book, shelved it, forgot it.

Meet Chief Inspector William Wisting, Head of CID in Larvik, Norway, the latest unforgettable import from Scandinavian crime fiction. An experienced policeman who is familiar with the dark side of human nature, he lives in challenging times for the Norwegian police force, meeting them with integrity and humanity, and a fragile belief that he can play a part in creating a better world. A police report of a shoe containing a severed foot washed up on the sand introduces CI William Wisting. Soon a second is washed up, but it is another left. Has there been some kind of terrible accident at sea? Does it indicate the killing and dismembering of two victims? Is there a link with the unsolved mystery of a number of disappearances in the Larvik area in recent months? In this gripping police procedural, Wisting gradually gets to the bottom of the mystery with the help of his all too human colleagues and his journalist daughter, Line.