Unbound (2018) – #44 in the series.
This one features more Teddy Fay, one of our favourite characters. And not someone you want to mess with.
Teddy’s wife is killed by a drunk driver. He takes a leave of absence to grieve — and considers revenge.
One thing leads to another, as always in the Stone Barrington, books. And we end up well entertained.
Among the Wicked (2016) is very popular with fans. And was quite well reviewed.
I found it to be poorly written. Repeating points unnecessarily, for example. A pet peeve of mine.
Pacing too slow.
But the plot is interesting.
Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called upon by the sheriff’s department in rural, upstate New York to assist on a developing situation that involves a reclusive Amish settlement and the death of a young girl.
Unable to penetrate the wall of silence between the Amish and “English” communities, the sheriff asks Kate to travel to New York, pose as an Amish woman, and infiltrate the community. …
Kate infiltrates the community and goes deep under cover. In the coming days, she unearths a world built on secrets, a series of shocking crimes, and herself, alone… trapped in a fight for her life.
The Underground Man (1971) is an interesting read — looking back from 2026.
One in the series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer.
The slow pace. The odd, jilted dialogue. The attention to details.
Interesting.
But — ultimately — you have to conclude this is a BAD BOOK.
The plot is confusing and dumb.
The ending inconclusive.
As a mysterious fire rages through the hills above a privileged town in Southern California, Lew Archer tracks a missing child who may be the pawn in a marital struggle or the victim of a bizarre kidnapping.
What he uncovers amid the ashes is murder—and a trail of motives as combustible as gasoline.
If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald.
Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at.
It was adapted as a TV movie in 1974. You can watch the entire thing on YouTube.
Peter Graves is Lew Archer.
The movie is not very good. 😀 Worse than the book.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Night Manager season 1 was excellent.
I was less impressed with season 2.
All the right pieces — but to me it seemed they tried too hard. Perhaps a bit more humour would help.
Set eight to ten years after the events of the first season, Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) is living a quiet life as “Alex Goodwin,” a low-level MI6 surveillance officer in London. His peace is shattered by a chance encounter with a mercenary from his past, pulling him into a new mission in Colombia.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Recommended.
Deadly Equation (2024) is #4 in the entertaining AJ Docker and Banshee series.
A trauma patient’s dying request of AJ Docker leads him and his retired police dog, Banshee, to embark on their latest adventures.
Partnering with his patient’s sister, they embark on a quest to uncover powerful research that could alter the course of humanity.
Shadowy enemies pursue them in Washington DC, in a race to capitalize on the information, while a new threat reveals itself at Doc’s hospital. A greedy corporation is attempting to take over the emergency room, threatening the quality of healthcare nationwide.
Doc has to fight a billion dollar company to save more patient’s lives, as well as the careers of competent medical professionals.
Very good.
Clifton Chronicles:
Archer is a terrific story teller.
I’m finding the A.I. mode summaries on a Google search increasingly useful:
The Clifton and Barrington families through the late 1960s and early 1970s. The novel is known for its intricate plot, multiple character storylines, and trademark cliffhanger ending.
The book explores several intersecting storylines for the main characters:
The narrative builds to a climax featuring two major court trials—a libel case in London and a politically charged show trial in Leningrad—which leave the fates of the characters hanging in the balance at the book’s conclusion.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Over 3 weeks, I spent many enjoyable days in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. I’d be happy to go back anytime.
It’s a very inexpensive tourist destination.
My base was excellent Secret Garden Hostel. I enjoyed many a great meal on their rooftop restaurant.
The historic centre is terrific in the day — but my favourite moments were wandering at night.
I finally made it up to the top of a central hill to see the 41m-tall Virgin of Quito. Taller than Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
This is still a developing nation. Most people don’t use seatbelts. Dogs roam free.
Certainly Ecuador has a proud culture. Citizens do not try to emulate American culture.
I’ve never been much of a fan of KFC. But in Asia last year — and in Ecuador, I’ve been a regular customer. It’s the only western fast food franchise I’ve seen. Burger King is here, somewhere.
Wow. This is one intense survival story.
Maurice and Maralyn Bailey were a British married couple who, in 1973, survived for 118 days on a rubber raft in the Pacific Ocean before being rescued.
… At dawn on 4 March 1973, their yacht was struck by a (dying) whale and severely damaged.
After transferring some supplies to an inflated life raft and dinghy and salvaging some food, a compass, and other supplies, the Baileys watched as Auralyn disappeared beneath the waves.
To survive, they collected rainwater and when their meagre food supplies ran out, began eating sea creatures such as turtles, seabirds and fish caught by hand or with safety pins fashioned into hooks.
Their adventure was turned into the book 117 Days Adrift (1988).
The story was retold in Maurice and Maralyn (2024) by first time author Sophie Elmhirst. The book was published in the United States in 2025 as A Marriage at Sea.
Amazingly, they returned to sailing, purchasing a new yacht called Auralyn II.
Maralyn Bailey died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 61. Maurice Bailey died in December 2018 at the age of 85.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Ryan Van Duzer is my long distance cycling guru.
Here he sums up the reasons why it’s worth planning a cycling holiday.
For me, I find it very relaxing. Life is simple. It can be an inexpensive holiday, as well if you wild camp in a tent.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Stranger (2015) is another excellent, but short, novel by the master of the intriguing plot.
A stranger shows up at a bar tells Adam Price a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne.
… But that is only the beginning of Adam’s problems.
Corinne explains that there is more to her deception than appears on the surface, and wants to meet Adam alone to discuss it. She never shows up for the meeting and seems to have disappeared.
More secrets are discovered to have been revealed or leveraged by The Stranger, threatening to not only ruin lives, but end them
The novel was made into a British television limited series of the same title that was released on Netflix in January 2020.
It looks like the TV show is very loosely based on the book.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 