This popular book series rolls on with #4 being just as charming as the rest.

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman.

Thursday Murder Club are British pensioners living in a retirement village who solve murders as a hobby.

Quite humorous. Very insightful regarding elderly life in the U.K.

Shocking news reaches them—an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

The gang’s search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters—as well as heartache close to home—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust. …

One important and touching side story is Elizabeth’s husband Stephen declining with dementia.

While still in full mental capacity, Stephen wrote himself a letter explaining his medical condition. Elizabeth must read it to him every day as he’s already forgotten.

On the down side, the murder mystery is absurdly simplistic.

We don’t yet know who will play whom in the upcoming film adaptation.

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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.

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

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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.

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I don’t know why I keep reading this Department Q books.

The lead detective, Carl Mørck, is just a jerk.

I do like his sidekick, Assad.

This 3rd book in the series (2013) has an evil serial killer of children who preys on extremely religious families. They trust God more than the police.

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

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Crooked House is one of Agatha Christie‘s favourites of her books.

I’d agree. This is a good one.

An unreliable narrator. It kept me guessing.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Charles Hayward is in Cairo and falls in love with Sophia Leonides, a smart, successful Englishwoman who works for the Foreign Office. They put off getting engaged until the end of the war when they will be reunited in England.

Hayward returns home and reads a death notice in The Times: Sophia’s grandfather, the wealthy entrepreneur Aristide Leonides, has died, aged 85.

Due to the war, the whole family has been living with him in a sumptuous but ill-proportioned house called “Three Gables”, the crooked house of the title.

The autopsy reveals that Leonides was poisoned with his own eserine-based eye medicine via an insulin injection.

Sophia tells Charles that she can’t marry him until the matter is cleared up. …

I haven’t seen the 2017 movie adaptation.

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Excellent.

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

The first book in the series is The Keeper of Lost Causes. (2013)

Carl Mørck used to be one of Denmark’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself.

So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of cold cases for company.

His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead…yet.

I particularly enjoyed Mørck’s sidekick, Assad.

It was adapted in a 2013 Danish film.

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I really enjoyed Kenneth Branagh‘s 2nd Agatha Christie adaptation ➙ Death on the Nile (2022).

Belfast was excellent, as well.

So I was keen to see Haunting in Venice (2023), loosely based on Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie.

Though not as good as Nile, I do have a lot of respect for the 3rd film. It feels true to the Agatha Christie formula.

Film students should study the cinematography and audio.

Branagh portrays the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. An ego trip.

Tina Fey is Ariadne Oliver, Poirot’s friend and a crime novelist (something like Christie).

Having lost faith in God and humanity, Detective Hercule Poirot lives in retirement in post-war Venice, employing ex-police officer Vitale Portfoglio as a bodyguard.

On Halloween, novelist Ariadne Oliver convinces Poirot to attend a séance at the palazzo of opera singer Rowena Drake and help expose medium Joyce Reynolds as a fraud. …

Gathering the other guests together, Poirot exposes _______ as the murderer. …

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