Category: books

A Man Called Otto – Tom Hanks

On By Rick McIn books, moviesLeave a comment

I like everything Tom Hanks does. And I really liked this film, as well.

A Man Called Ove is a novel by Swedish writer Fredrik Backman, first published in English 2013.

An odd book, it launched Backman’s career as a major novelist.

That said, I’ve tried to read it twice and got fed up both times.

The premise is enticing:

Ove is a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him ‘the bitter neighbour from hell.’ However, behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. …”

Age-59, Ove’s wife recently died. And he’s not handling it well.

The Swedish film adaptation looks more entertaining than the book.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Tom Hanks plays the role in the Hollywood adaptation. To mixed reviews. I thought it was excellent.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie

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One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is one of the better Hercule Poirot books.

Shorter. Fewer potential suspects.

Soon after he visits his dentist, Poirot is investigating the death of the dentist.

More people are dead, and the investigation widens, as Poirot slowly finds his way to the true stories behind the murders. …

A Canadian reviewer felt that “the pace is swift and talk – curse of the English detective story – is kept to a minimum”.

The title based on the olde English language nursery rhyme.

Of course there was at least one TV adaptation.

This is the final novel appearance of Chief Inspector Japp. 

Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

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Read this book for:

  • the humour
  • Leo Johnson’s commentary on the book DRAFT chapters. He’s a beta reader.

The story is not easy to follow, IMHO.

Four strangers are sitting in the reading room of the Boston Public Library quietly working when a woman’s scream pierces the silence.

Later, a body is found, and the four characters quickly become friends as they work to piece together what happened.

That’s the premise of Sulari Gentill’s mystery, titled “The Woman In The Library.” 

The 4 seeming strangers are:

  • Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Aussie writer
  • “Freud Girl”
  • “Heroic Chin”
  • “Handsome Man” (Cain)

The author uses those nicknames when she doesn’t yet know who they are.

The whodunit is which is the murderer.

So far, so good.

The confusion for me is that this tale is being written by another Aussie author, Hannah Tigone — who’s getting emails from beta reader Leo Johnson, an American who knows Boston well. And American idioms.

Finally, the real author is Sulari Gentill, yet another Aussie author.

If my math is correct, there are 3 murder mystery authors. YOU sort them out. 😀

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

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I’m not a huge fan of these books. I prefer the TV series, actually.

But if YOU like them — this is one of the best.

A World of Curiosities is the 18th novel in a series featuring the fictional character Chief Inspector Armand Gamache.

The 2022 crime mystery follows the investigation of a series of murders in Quebec.

We learn that Gamache decided to go into Homicide after being one of the responding officers in the1989 École Polytechnique massacre. Fourteen women were murdered; another 10 women and 4 men injured. The killer was a 25-year-old white male who legally purchased a lightweight semi-automatic rifle, systematically planning to murder women at his former school.

Canadians mark the day of the killings with a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. 

Curiosities is a sequel to Penny’s 2021 book The Madness of Crowds.

… features siblings Sam and Fiona Arsenault, whose mother Clotilde was killed after subjecting them both to sexual abuse in their younger years. …

Wikipedia

Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen

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Adler-Olsen is a Danish crime fiction writer best known for his Department Q series.

Purity of Vengeance is the 4th book in the series. (2018)

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark’s #1 crime writer. The films based on his books are popular.

The lead detective, Carl Mørck, is just a jerk. BUT less a jerk in this book. Perhaps he’s getting better.

I do like his sidekick, Assad.

In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark.

More than twenty years later, Detective Carl Mørck already has plenty on his mind when he is presented with the (cold) case of a brothel owner, a woman named Rita, who went missing in the eighties …

But when Carl’s assistants, Assad and Rose, learn that numerous other people disappeared around the same weekend as Rita, Carl takes notice.

As they sift through the disappearances, they get closer and closer to Curt Wad …

jussiadlerolsen.com

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Culper Ring trilogy by Brad Meltzer

On By Rick McIn books, governmentLeave a comment
  1. The Inner Circle
  2. The Fifth Assassin
  3. The President’s Shadow

I’m not much of a fan of thrillers, especially political thrillers.

And didn’t manage to get through all 3 books.

Beecher White is an interesting character, however. A government archivist in Washington D.C.

I did enjoy enjoy reading about the archives and historical anecdotes.

Author Brad Meltzer is interesting, too.

His novels touch on the political thriller, legal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, …

… Meltzer counts former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush as fans, and both have helped him with his research. …

The Culper Ring books imagine that a secret spy ring, founded in real life by George Washington, continues to exist today. 

Though they didn’t work for me, many others really enjoy these books.

Of the 3 books, I felt the first — Inner Circle — was best. And I did finish that one. 😀

You could try it and see if you want to continue with the trilogy.

Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

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Not a bad book, actually.

Copenhagen Deputy Detective Superintendent Carl Mørck returns from vacation to discover that his tiny cold case unit, Department Q, has been reshuffled, and a citizen’s complaint has reopened a 20-year-old case on which all the relevant documents have disappeared. …

Kirkus

Six rich students are suspected of killing Lisbet Jørgeneon and her twin brother two decades ago.

But they were never seriously investigated as a young man admitted he had murdered the two. And is still in prison.

Reluctantly at first, Carl (the jerk) and his likable Syrian assistant, Hafez el-Assad, AND his new secretary, Rose Knudsen start building a case against the students, some of whom are now rich and influential.

A popular Danish film was adapted from the book.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The River we Remember by William Kent Krueger

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William Kent Krueger (born November 16, 1950) is an American novelist and crime writer, best known for his series of novels featuring Cork O’Connor, which are set mainly in Minnesota.

I’ve read them all. Excellent.

In addition, he’s written several books of historical fiction. More ambitious and literary than the Cork O’Connor series.

His 2023 book — The River we Remember — is very good. A bit slow for my liking.

Memorial Day (or Decoration Day, as it was still called in 1958) takes on new meaning for the residents of Jewel, Minnesota, when its wealthiest—and least-liked—citizen is murdered and a war veteran is suspected of the crime.

The brutish victim, Jimmy Quinn, is found floating in the Alabaster River, shotgunned and chewed up by catfish.

Suspicion immediately falls on Noah Bluestone, a veteran who is doubly persecuted for being a Dakota Sioux and married to Kyoko, a Japanese survivor of Nagasaki.

The sheriff, Brody Dern, a highly decorated and traumatized war veteran who spent time in a Japanese prison camp, thinks about letting whomever killed Quinn, destroyer of people’s lives, go free. …

Kirkus Reviews

FICTION: The latest from the Minnesota author may be his best work yet. 

Review: William Kent Krueger’s ‘The River We Remember’ takes us back to 1958 Minnesota

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

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Good Girl, Bad Blood (2021) is the second novel in the three-part A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series of young adult crime fiction.

The first book in the series, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2020), became a multimillion-copy New York Times bestseller. …

the novel explores the themes of The Use and Abuse of Social Media, Questions of Identity, and The Pursuit of Truth and Justice. …c

SuperSummary

Not as good as the original, but I still enjoyed this Young Adult novel.

18-year-old high school student Pippa Fitz-Amobi is not nearly so good in this one.

I enjoyed the smart phone driven plot. The podcast clips.

She investigates by crowd sourcing through her true crime podcast entitled A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

Click PLAY or watch the author on YouTube.

Silver Tears by Camilla Läckberg

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Though I didn’t read the 1st book in the series, Silver Tears is entertaining and stands alone.

Läckberg’s 2nd novel about the brilliant economist — Faye Adelheim.

A scandal-filled page-turner sure to delight the beach-read crowd.

The plot careens at breakneck speed through steamy sex scenes, startling revelations, and flashbacks to Faye’s very dark childhood riddled with rape and murder.

What the story lacks in believability (there are poorly planned murders, successful executives who spend inordinate amounts of time drinking without any repercussions, and a heroine who fails to learn from her own mistakes), it more than makes up for with soap-opera–level drama and fireworks.

It all begins with Faye having set up house in Italy with her mother and her daughter, Julienne.

Faye had framed her ex-husband, Jack, for killing Julienne, though Julienne is secretly still alive, and now Jack has escaped from jail. …

Kirkus