Slough House (2021) by Mick Herron is terrific.

I never tire of the hilarious dialogue.

Jackson Lamb is one of the great characters of fiction, all time.

… an unsparing look at the corrupt web of media, global finance, spycraft, and politics that power our modern world.

“This is a darker, scarier Herron. The gags are still there but the satire’s more biting.

The privatization of a secret service op and the manipulation of news is relevant and horribly credible.”—Ann Cleeves, author of the Vera Stanhope series

At Slough House—MI5’s London depository for demoted spies—Brexit has taken a toll. The “slow horses” have been pushed further into the cold, Slough House has been erased from official records, and its members are dying in unusual circumstances, at an unusual clip. No wonder Jackson Lamb’s crew is feeling paranoid. But are they actually targets?

With a new populist movement taking hold of London’s streets and the old order ensuring that everything’s for sale to the highest bidder, the world’s a dangerous place for those deemed surplus. Jackson Lamb and the slow horses are in a fight for their lives …

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Season 4 of Slow Horses is underway as I post, one of the best TV shows today.

Books and television are both excellent.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

This looks good.

Aldis Hodge has the chops to pull off the role.

Cross is an upcoming American crime thriller television series, based on the Alex Cross novel series written by James Patterson, set to drop all 8 episodes on Amazon Prime Video November 14, 2024.

TV series based on James Paterson’s Alex Cross novels.

Alex Cross uses forensic psychology to analyze killers’ minds, delving into victims’ psyches to identify murderers and bring them to justice.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry have played Cross in the past.

Harlan Coben’s Shelter is an American mystery drama television series. I got through it — but wouldn’t recommend.

It is based on the 2011 young adult novel Shelter by Harlan Coben. The series was released on Amazon Prime Video on August 18, 2023 … canceled after one season.

I kinda enjoyed the show in a way. It is cheesy. Too much unnecessary profanity. But I was cheering for these kids, against the cliche bullies and bad guys.

Jaden Michael is the good looking, believable lead Mickey Bolitar.

Myron Bolitar is his much more famous (literary) uncle.

Abby Corrigan compelling as an Emo teenager.

Best — really — is Adrian Greensmith as Spoon, the geek.

Super popular right now … but it didn’t work for me.

It’s original. Very contemporary. Funny. But a bit too schmaltzy.

Margo Millet is a confident, outgoing College student — who gets involved with her older, married English professor.

Using the Rhythm Method, she gets pregnant. And decides to keep the baby.

As everyone else expected, it ain’t easy to be a naive, vulnerable, single teen mom in California.

The plot combines the struggles of single motherhood with, improbably, pro wrestling and the online porn site OnlyFans. 

Nobody wants to help Margo, until her father arrives. Jinx was a legendary professional wrestler, with a history of history of heroin and opioid addiction,.

Margo turns online sex into a type of performance art, where she is writing scripts, directing and world building.  It’s weird.

This is certainly no book for children.

The crux of the book is when the father (who had never once seen the child) divorces his wife and NOW wants full custody of the boy — since Margo is a sex worker.

There is no doubt this book gets people talking. It would be ideal for a book club discussion.

Elle Fanning will star in the planned Apple TV adaptation. With Nicole Kidman as the mom.

Elle narrates the audio book, as well.

related – Washington Post review

Time travel stories are rarely comprehensible.

Multiverse is even worse.

I kinda liked the book.

But the TV show was simply too hard to follow.

It’s an endless series of facial expressions with too little dialogue or explanation.

I DID enjoy watching Jennifer Connelly, however.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I haven’t read many of the books.

But the TV series is somewhat interesting.

Alex Rider is a British spy thriller TV series based on the novel series of the same name by Anthony Horowitz.

It stars Otto Farrant as the eponymous character, who is recruited by a subdivision of MI6 as a teenage spy …

It’s a pretty standard SAVE THE WORLD thriller. Impossible plots.

What I like about THIS thriller is the charmingly weird cast.

Brenock O’Connor as Tom Harris, Alex’s best friend,

Marli Siu as hacker Kyra Vashenko-Chao.

Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo as Jack Starbright.

I watched parts of seasons 1 and 3.

There will be no season 4.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Murder, Interrupted book 1 is two true crime thrillers, as written by the famed author.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

In the first, a rich — but criminal — accountant hires an incompetent hit man to kill his wife.

In the second, a single mother tirelessly cares for her wheelchair-bound, chronically ill daughter. But when the teenaged Gypsy Rose realizes she isn’t actually sick and Dee Dee has lied all these years, Gypsy Rose exacts her revenge .

These two stories made up the first two episodes of Discovery’s Murder is Forever TV series

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I read the second book in the series, as well:

Home Sweet Murder.