Category: books

Spook Street by Mick Herron

On By Rick McIn books, TVLeave a comment

Spook Street (2017) is the 5th book in the Slough House series — and the best so far.

Herron is an entertaining writer. Most of the best lines are from boss Jackson Lamb who’s a bigoted, philistine, obese, spectacularly flatulent, alcoholic chain-smoker.

Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman plays Lamb in the TV series.

What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a retirement home for those who know too many secrets but don’t remember they’re secret? Or does someone take care of the senile spy for good?

These are the paranoid concerns of David Cartwright, a Cold War–era operative and one-time head of MI5 who is sliding into dementia, and questions his grandson, River, must figure out answers to now that the spy who raised him has started to forget to wear pants. But River, himself an agent at Slough House, MI5’s outpost for disgraced spies, has other things to worry about. A bomb has detonated in the middle of a busy shopping center and killed forty innocent civilians. The “slow horses” of Slough House must figure out who is behind this act of terror before the situation escalates.

Amazon

WOW ➙ Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

On By Rick McIn books, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

An awesome book.

Demon Copperhead is a 2022 novel by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and won the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Though Kingsolver lives in southern Appalachia, I can’t fathom how effectively she puts herself into the mind of the boy — Demon Copperhead. It’s a coming of age story.

Ground zero of the opium epidemic. Demon is born to a drug-using teenage single mother in a trailer in Lee County, Virginia. 

Since his mother is in and out of rehab, Demon is partly raised by the sprawling, warm-hearted Peggot clan. 

Almost everyone in this dirt poor place is drastically hurt by the Sackler family’s killer drug OxyContin.

“I don’t know a single person my age that’s not taking pills,” Demon says at one point.

The Sacklers paid a $6 billion settlement to avoid civil lawsuits. It’s fair to call them killers.

I listened to the audio book. Recommended, as the reader has the right accent and tone of voice.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Bonnie Dead by Andrew Raymond

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An excellent book.

A stolen child. A killer stalking the streets of Glasgow. A troubled detective running out of time.

Five years ago, DCI John Lomond led the search for notorious Glasgow child-killer ‘The Sandman’, until personal tragedy forced him off the case.

In Lomond’s absence, the killer was never found.

Now, with nothing but work left in his life, Lomond remains obsessed with the case – despite the nightmares it brings.

When a child is abducted in similar Sandman fashion from an affluent Glasgow suburb, Lomond is brought in to find them before it’s too late. …

Amazon

Sadly, the next 2 books in this series are not available in audio. Yet.

“Do not go gentle into that good night”

On By Rick McIn books, ethicsLeave a comment

Some of the most famous lines in poetry:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

Fight on to the end.

Read the full poem.

Dylan’s father was going blind when DT wrote this poem. Some suggest that dying of the light is a reference to darkness and being blind.

For me it’s always urged not to capitulate in the face of evil and wrongdoing.

If you see something wrong, take ethical action. Do something. Do not ignore it.

In the context of social media I often get the comment … “Why are you so negative?”

Typically from friends who don’t like me challenging some statement they’ve made that I consider wrong. (I’ll unfriend if you insist the world is only 5000 years old, by the way. 😀 )

Click PLAY or listen to the poet read it on YouTube.

Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie

On By Rick McIn books, movies1 Comment

This is the murder mystery adapted for the 3rd Hercule Poirot film by Kenneth Branagh , retitled as A Haunting in Venice.

I’m surprised as this book seems a bit simplistic compared with others in the Christie archive.

It begins at a Hallowe’en party.

A girl at the party claims to have witnessed a murder, which at the time she was too young to realize was such.

Though disbelieved by those around her, the girl herself is drowned in an apple-bobbing bucket and Poirot must solve a two-pronged mystery: who killed the girl, and what if anything did she witness? …

wikipedia

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Very entertaining. Translated from Swedish.

Don’t let her age fool you. Maud may be nearly ninety, but if you cross her, this elderly lady is more sinister than sweet. 

I’ve never cheered a homicidal lady more. 😀

En route to a luxury vacation in South Africa, Maud recalls half a dozen earlier times when her generally untroubled life was threatened by someone who ended up coming to grief. …

A guidebook to growing old without a single regret for victims who deserved just what they got.

Kirkus

This is book #2 in the series.

The Murder Rule by Dervla McTiernan

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This is the 4th book from the lawyer turned murder mystery author who’s one of the hottest writers working today.

Stand alone.

I would call it good, not great.

The premise is interesting. The ending quite good.

A young, law student infiltrates an Innocence Project group, volunteers trying to prove prisoners were wrongly accused.

BUT she has her own agenda related to a crime 20 years earlier. It’s slowly revealed.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

How to Travel the World for Free

On By Rick McIn books, travelLeave a comment

An intriguing book title:

How to Travel the World for Free: One Man, 150 Days, Eleven Countries, No Money! 

Published 2013, this is an entertaining read.

Author Michael Wigge must be a charmer in person.

… 25,000 miles—from Berlin to Antarctica—without any money!

Join Michael Wigge as he immerses himself into fascinating subcultures, rides with Amish farmers in old-fashioned buggies, sleeps on the street with the homeless, and, with the help from alternative lifestylers, learns to nourish himself with flowers.

Wigge had only 3 concerns during his travels: How do I get some food? How will I get to my next destination? Where can I sleep?…all without money!

This unusual travel diary combines adventure with humor and contains surprising revelations about when money is really needed—and when it’s not. A must-read for every travel and adventure fan!

With a Mind to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

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With a Mind to Kill is the 3rd Bond book by Anthony Horowitz — the only author approved by Ian Fleming’s estate to continue the 007 series.

It is M’s funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder – James Bond.

Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den – but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

Horowitz is a good writer and the plot is as absurd as Fleming.

In this one the master spy is resigned to retire — IF he survives this one final assignment.

Bond is tired.

related – Guardian review

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

On By Rick McIn books, TV1 Comment

Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, started the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy. 

I read it while in Tuscany.

Slow paced. Brunetti flawed. I’m enjoying the books. Five, so far. And I’ll read more.

  1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
  2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
  3. The Anonymous Venetian / Dressed for Death (1994)
  4. Venetian Reckoning / Death and Judgment (1995)
  5. Acqua Alta / Death in High Water (1996)

    A world-famous German opera conductor has died at La Fenice, and Commissario (Detective) Guido Brunetti pursues what appears to be a murder investigation without leads.

    wikipedia

    There was a German adaptation of the book.

    Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

    In fact, Donna Leon is an American who lived in Venice for decades.

    She wrote the first book as a lark. When successful, she wrote dozens more.

    Brunetti and his family don’t age. Each book uses 1990s technology. No mobile phones, for example.

    Her books have been translated into many languages — but NOT ITALIAN. 😀

    She’s convinced her Italian friends will be more critical if they could read them in their first language.