Gone for Good has a complicated and surprising plot.
As a boy, Will Klein had a hero: his older brother, Ken.
Then, on a warm suburban night in the Kleins’ affluent New Jersey neighborhood, a young woman—a girl Will had once loved—was found raped and murdered in her family’s basement.
The prime suspect: Ken Klein.
With the evidence against him overwhelming, Ken simply vanished …
10 years later Will’s girlfriend simply vanishes. Or was she murdered?
Netflix adapted the book into a TV series set in France.
He plays Charles Nieuwendyk, a bored widower and retired engineering college professor who reluctantly takes a job as an investigative assistant for a private detective to go undercover at Pacific View Retirement Community in San Francisco, in order to find a missing ruby necklace.
Senior citizens naturally make for comedy. Think of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The Bucket List.
It’s fun to see veteran actors like Sally Struthers still motivated to stay on screen.
Ashley Elston was a YA author before this HIT adult novel in 2024.
I assumed First Lie Wins would be just another in the predictable series of psychological thrillers.
It’s much more than that.
“This fast-paced read has everything you could want in a thriller: secret identities, a mysterious boss and a cat & mouse game that kept me guessing the whole way through.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Prepare to trust no one on this high-speed thrill ride through timelines, identities, and motives as you work to piece together Elston’s expertly crafted puzzle. First Lie Wins is a fun, clever spin on the con artist novel … —Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour
For me, it started to drag before the end. Many of the twists and turns needed explaining.
She also wanted to set-up for an inevitable sequel.
Tracker is … based on the 2019 novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver, one of my favourite authors.
The series stars Justin Hartley as Colter Shaw, a skilled survivalist and tracker who earns his living by assisting law enforcement and private citizens in exchange for reward money.
William Stanford Davis as Mr. Johnson, the school’s eccentric, overqualified and talented, custodian is my favourite character. Still.
It’s an insight into the American public school system. ReTrumplicans insist on reducing funding for public education, while subsidizing rich kids in private schools.
Now age 84, he’s determined to finish his William Warwick series.
Nothing Ventured (2019)
Hidden in Plain Sight (2020)
Turn a Blind Eye (2021)
Over My Dead Body (2021)
Next in Line (2022)
Traitor’s Gate (2023)
An Eye for an Eye (2024)
William begins his career, after leaving university in 1970, as a constable on the beat. You follow the lives of William, his friends, family, colleagues and adversaries over five tumultuous decades, until William finally becomes Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 2022, not without many setbacks along the way.
He first becomes a detective in the art squad, and through his career moves through drugs, murder, royal protection, Olympic Games security and finally counter terrorism – with several triumphs and a few disasters in between.
A backdrop of colourful characters, including his remarkable wife Beth, The Hawk, his boss, Inspector Ross Hogan, his closest friend, and often the cause and sometimes the solutions of his problems, Princess Diana, The Crown, and Miles Faulkner, a brilliant and resourceful criminal who dogs his path and chance of promotion at every opportunity.
An Eye for an Eye is a drama revolving around a potential arms deal between Saudi Arabia and Great Britain. William is now Scotland Yard’s Chief Superintendent.
The arms deal is complicated by a murder — and international intrigue.
Meanwhile, villain Miles Faulkner has been released from prison, intent on ruining the lives of William and his wife Beth.
Season 2 centers on Kate Wyler, the new United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, as she helps to defuse an international crisis, forges strategic alliances and adjusts to her new place in the spotlight.
She also manages her deteriorating marriage to fellow career diplomat Hal Wyler.
The plot is interesting. A British aircraft carrier is attacked in the Persian Gulf, killing 41 sailors?
Who is responsible?
Was it Russia?
Or the Prime Minister?
More twists and turns than typical American television.
The cliffhanger from season 3 is a main plot thread. Charles’ good friend and former stunt double — Jane Lynch as Sazz Pataki — seemed to have been killed in Charles’ apartment. What happened?
Oddly, Hollywood is interested in making a feature film about the podcast murders.
Rick McCharles 