Liverpool-based veteran cop DI Colette Cunningham uproots to Dublin when she learns that her estranged daughter, Stacey, has taken her own life.
Once there, Colette meets her two teenage grandchildren for the first time.
Despite having never known of their existence she’s their named guardian. Determined to do right by her daughter in her death, Colette joins the local Dublin Police and cares for the kids.
However, not everything about Stacey’s life is what it seems. Colette sets out to uncover the truth.
The first series sees the sudden arrival of DC Leila Hussain (Amara Karan) in the fictional Northern Irish town of Port Devine.
The local residents question the reason behind her arrival; only Inspector Finn O’Hare knows why Leila has been transferred, but is keeping it to himself. …
Too long. Too slow. But still worth reading as are all the books in the series aside from Ink Black Heart. Do NOT bother with Ink Black Heart. It’s gawd awful.
Well … perhaps slightly less irritating as he’s quit drinking and has lost weight, due to health concerns.
We still can’t imagine why partner Robin Ellacott likes him as a boss — or for possible romance.
I would have preferred if these two had finally got together. They don’t … quite … in this book.
But their detective agency is finally successful.
In this book they investigate the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC) — a cult.
At one point Strike realizes it was formed on the site of a 1960s to 1980s commune, one of the places he, and his half-sister Lucy, had lived as a child, as his mother Leda Strike drifted around the country. The commune had closed after its leaders were arrested for child sexual abuse. Lucy was one of those abused.
Robin volunteers to infiltrate the modern UHC …
It made no sense to me that she stays so long. Not much was learned from her undercover weeks.
Rowling tries to defend the harm she’s done by attacking people who happen to be born transgender.
I’ve read some of her written defences, as well.
Rowling believes she’s defending feminists. It started by her defending Maya Forstater, who was fired for arguing against transgender people the right to live the life opposite their birth gender.
Rowling believes that you should be allowed to say that biological sex cannot be changed, even if that turns out to be wrong. Rowling believes in freedom of speech on that issue.
Most agree that after a wonderful life, it’s a disappointment that such a wonderful writer and billionaire picked this issue as the hill to die on.
I’m disappointed in Rowling, too.
This controversy is a big part of her legacy.
That said — I’m not cancelling Rowling. She’s 95% good. 5% bad.
In some ways having such a famous person talking about the issue is bringing daylight. We have a long way to go yet in terms of making life fair for transgender citizens.
I’d say the most convincing character is Toby Jones as David Pilcher.
The plot of Crouch’s first novel in the trilogy, Pines (2012), is covered over the first five episodes of the TV series. The second and third novels, Wayward (2013) and The Last Town (2014), make up the remaining five episodes.
I’d say the writers did quite a good job translating the longer, more convoluted trilogy into 10 hour long episodes that make more sense. Changes were for the good.
Very popular. So weird, it’s actually entertaining to watch.
James Walton of The Daily Telegraph commented, “Theoretically, this should add up to a right old mess. In practice, it makes for a thumpingly enjoyable piece of television …
… the plot is based on the ambiguity of Tyler’s predicament and the lack of clarity, to both the audience and the character, whether he has died, become comatose or travelled in time. …
The methodology and techniques of modern policing that Sam Tyler employs during Life on Mars lead him into clashes with other characters.
Gene Hunt and the rest of the CID appear to favour brutality and corruption to secure convictions, as shown by their willingness to physically coerce confessions and fabricate evidence …
Police who worked Manchester in the 1970s said the show got everything wrong: clothing, slang, procedures. 😀 Artistic licence.
Trivia ➙ she dated her Bohemian Rhapsody co-star Rami Malek from 2017 to 2023.
The book is a non-Marple, non-Poirot Christie, which gives the writer adapting it some freedom.
The mystery hinges on the cryptic question of the title – why didn’t they ask Evans? – pronounced by a dying man, after a fall from the cliffs on a north Wales golf course.
Bobby and his friend Lady Frances Derwent have adventures as they solve the mystery of the man’s last words.
The three-part series became available on BritBox on April 2022.
After being fired from her job as a lab tech, chemist Elizabeth Zott uses her new job hosting a 1950s TV cooking show titled Supper at Six to educate housewives on scientific topics.
Alice Halsey as daughter Madeline “Mad” Zott is perfect.
I liked the show so much I downloaded Lessons in Chemistry, the novel by Bonnie Garmus (2022).
Stephanie Merritt of The Guardian praised the author’s ability in creating a “richly comic novel around a character who is entirely deadpan” …
Elisabeth Egan called the book “irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel” and claimed that “feminism is the catalyst” …
Michael Byers from Cascadia Daily News wrote that the “heroine is brave, original and completely unafraid” …
The debut novel was a hit when published 2022.
A brilliant idea, I feel. In an era when ReTrumplicans want to go back to the 1950s — this book reveals how unfairly women were treated in the not-so-distant past.
When they say MAGA — the Great Again was this era of American history when women and minorities were treated so badly. For me, MAGA = racist. MAGA = sexist.
A highlight of the book is the dog Six-Thirty. And that’s well done in the show, as well.
All of the changes made from book to screen were for the better, I feel.
Aja Naomi King as Harriet Sloane is a much more interesting friend / neighbour on TV than in the novel.
And a good reminder that the most dangerous thing most of us do is to climb into motorized vehicles.
… Bloody wasp.
Another Anthony Horowitz mini-series.
Collision (2009) is a five-part British television drama serial …
… the story of a group of strangers whose lives intertwine following a devastating car crash. The crash opens a number of startling revelations as stories of everything from government cover-ups and smuggling, to embezzlement and murder start to unravel. …
Jo Woodcock is particularly good as Jodie Tolin, a teenager paralyzed in a car crash — now trying to find a way forward in life.
Lucy Griffiths as Jane Tarrant is very appealing, as well. Oddly, her story has very little to do with the collision. It’s more like Love, Actually … with a twist.
… Beyond the crumpled cars and beleaguered emergency services are the invisible dramas and when DI John Tolin begins his investigation he finds himself drawn into many different and dangerous worlds including government cover-ups, smuggling, torn relationships and murder. …
