Cute title. I ASSuME it’s yet another British Cozy Mystery.
I asked Perplexity AI to generate some possible Cozy Mystery titles:
“A Stitch in Time for Murder”
“Perilous Potluck and the Puzzling Murder”
“Murder in the Misty Marsh: A Cozy Whodunit”
“Curious Case of the Corpse in the Cottage”
“The Mysterious Murder of Miss Marigold”
But this book is actually by an Australian comedian. A black comedy.
I enjoyed the humour far more than the murder mystery.
He speaks directly to the reader, as well, which I found very entertaining.
Of course a group of possible suspects are all stuck in one place, like Agatha Christie.
Oddly, they are Aussies all trapped due to a snow storm.
I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
Watch it just for the cinematography. I sat in the 2nd row in IMAX so the images filled my vision.
YES a bit blurry, but it feels more like I was actually riding a sand worm. 😀
Dune (1965) is one of my favourite books. I read it for the 4th or 5th time in advance of seeing part 2 of the Denis Villeneuve adaptation.
The best character in Dune 2 is not my (alleged girlfriend) Zendaya, but Feyd-Rautha, Baron Harkonnen’s younger nephew. Perfectly played by Austin Butler.
What a transformation from Elvis to the epitome of evil.
Chalamet was inspired by Austin’s commitment to the role.
Casting is all good, however.
Javier Bardem as Stilgar, is better than in the book. And he’s great in the book. 😀
Stilgar given a larger leadership role on Arrakis in future books. So he’ll likely be back in the 3rd film.
As nearly all books were in 1965, the roles played by women are quite cliche. Powerful — but mainly in devious, backroom scheming.
In this movie, Zendaya is more independent than in the book. And she rides off into the sand at the end. Alone.
In the book she meekly follows Paul as his concubine.
Of course no film can include EVERYTHING in the book.
For the most part, I liked the changes.
It was better — for example — that Chani didn’t get pregnant. That’s quite confused in the books anyway.
In the Lynch, Paul’s sister Alia was one of the most interesting characters. She’s only hinted at in the Villeneuve – part 2. I suspect she’ll be central to the 3rd movie in the series.
Cal Hooper is a retired Chicago police detective who bought a derelict cottage in the west of Ireland precisely so he would never again have to chase down criminals or use his service weapon.
And things are quiet until the return ofJohnny Reddy, the absentee father of Trey, Cal’s now-15-year-old protégée and de facto child.
Johnny is a grifter. Gift of the gab but it’s all bullshit.
This time Johnny proposes a con to fleece a rich British nob named Cillian Rushborough.
He convinces his former neighbours to salt their river with gold — in order to convince the Brit to buy mining rights in their rural properties.
If interested, definitely get the audio book to enjoy the Irish lilt and local slang.
Nobody Walks (2015) is a completely independent novel even though its MI5 is the same as the one in Herron’s Slough House series. Jackson Lamb is mentioned.
Like the rest, the audio book is narrated by the excellent Gerard Doyle.
The suspicious death of his son brings an undercover spook Tom Bettany for MI-5’s Special Ops out of retirement with a vengeance.
Maybe it’s the guilt he feels about losing touch with Liam that’s gnawing at him, or maybe he’s actually put his finger on a labyrinthine plot, but either way he’ll get to the bottom of the tragedy, no matter whose feathers he has to ruffle.
But more than a few people are interested to hear Bettany is back in town, from incarcerated mob bosses to those in the highest echelons of MI5.
He might have thought he’d left it all behind when he first skipped town, but nobody ever really walks away.
… a fictional story that follows the life of an orphan chess prodigy named Beth Harmon from the age of eight to twenty-two during her quest to become the world’s greatest chess player while struggling with emotional issues, with drug and alcohol dependency. The story begins in the mid-1950s and proceeds into the 1960s.
The Queen’s Gambit is sheer entertainment. It is a book I reread every few years—for the pure pleasure and skill of it. — Michael Ondaatje (cover of Vintage paperback edition, 2003)
Will Ferguson is a Calgary based humorist and writer.
He and his older brother, Ian Ferguson, another funny writer, published this book in 2023.
The brothers were working together remotely during the pandemic on what would become their first fiction co-write, a comedic mystery featuring a sleuthing has-been actress named Miranda Abbott. …
Their heroine is a delusional actor whose fame has mostly faded. When she is recognized, it’s for playing the “crime-solving, karate-chopping” Pastor Fran, the titular character in a 1980s TV show called Pastor Fran Investigates. …
… part of the dynamic during those over-the-phone work sessions was simply to make each other laugh. …
The story follows Johnny Smith, who awakens from a coma of nearly five years and, apparently as a result of brain damage, now experiences clairvoyant and precognitive visions triggered by touch. …
The novel also follows a serial killer in Castle Rock, and the life of rising politician Greg Stillson, both of whom are evils Johnny must eventually face. …
… the first of his novels to rank among the ten best-selling novels of the year in the United States.
… set on the cusp of the 2nd World War, … raises dangerous questions about class, politics, art, love, and madness—and explores what happens when two powerful personalities, trapped at opposite ends of a social divide, begin to break the rules.
Vanessa Cole is a stunningly beautiful and wild heiress. Twice-married, she has been scandalously linked to rich and famous men.
On the night of July 4, 1936, inside her family’s remote Adirondack Mountain enclave known as the Reserve, Vanessa will lose her father to a heart attack—and meet Jordan Groves, a seductively carefree local artist.
Jordan is easy prey for Vanessa’s electrifying charm. But when Vanessa becomes unhinged by her father’s unexpected death, she begins to spin out of control, manipulating and destroying the lives of all who cross her path.
Moving from the secluded beauty of the Adirondacks to war-torn Spain and fascist Germany …
Click PLAY or watch an interview, late in life, on YouTube.
