… 17-year old true crime enthusiast Pippa “Pip” Fitz-Amobi, a high school student in the fictional town of Little Kilton, Buckinghamshire (or Fairview, Connecticut in the US version).
In the novel, Pip plans to investigate a five-year-old murder-suicide case involving the murder of popular student Andrea “Andie” Bell and the suicide of her perpetrator Salil “Sal” Singh under the guise of a school project.
Her objectives are to exonerate Sal, whom she is convinced was falsely accused of killing Andie Bell, and to uncover the true perpetrator, whom Pip believes is still at large. …
I appreciate the plot based so much on smart phones and technology. It feels very contemporary.
The show is 72% on Rotten Tomatoes and lasted 5 seasons. A lot of people like this kind of mindless shoot-em-up where the heroes never seem to get hit by AK-47 bad guys.
They survive car crashes without a bruise.
No need for a search warrant for these agents. 😀
It’s non-stop thriller. Like 24 — but not nearly that good.
Seems to me there is a template for every episode. Cliche dialogue is not only allowed, but preferred.
I can imagine writers being asked to ‘dumb it down‘.
Not at all my favourite of the Slough House books.
Still, the humour and banter of Jackson Lamb alone makes it worth reading.
Roderick Ho is entertaining, as well.
One of the regulars is kidnapped. And it all goes wrong after that. 😀
This is the Mick Herron’s third novel in the Slough House series. …
In addition to the inhabitants of Slough House, the main characters are Dame Ingrid Tearney, the head of the service, and Diana – ‘Lady Di’ – Taverner, who wants to be head of the service. The two women clearly loathe each other – a fact that Herron conveys superbly by having them behave towards each other with a studied politeness.
There is somebody else who wants to run the intelligence service – Peter Judd, the Home Secretary, within whose department the intelligence service is included. He wants to control it as part of his career plan to become Prime Minister. There is a deliberate similarity to the popular side of Boris Johnson in his portrayal. …
This may have been the first Agatha Christie I ever read.
As a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book back when I was a kid.
Quite groundbreaking as one of the first serial killer stories.
10 people on an island. No way to leave.
One by one they are murdered in this spooky house.
Like most upper middle class Brits of her age, Agatha was somewhat racist. And even more antisemitic.
She got better over the decades, eventually casting homosexuals in positive roles. Surprisingly, the famously conservative old lady even voted to join the EU.
It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1939, as Ten Little Niggers,[3] after an 1869 minstrel song which serves as a major plot element. The US edition was released i 1940 with the title And Then There Were None, taken from the last five words of the song.
The book is the world’s best-selling mystery, and with over 100 million copies sold is one of the best-selling books of all time.
Like the novel, Good Omens features various Christian themes and figures and follows various characters all trying to either encourage or prevent an imminent Armageddon, seen through the eyes of the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley. …
Some of the irreverent dialogue is entertaining. Much is too absurd for me.
In particular, the ending of season 2 does not work.
A surprising life story for such a successful author.
Enter historian Lucy Worsley, whose declared intention is to rescue Christie, who died in 1976 at the age of 85, from the misperceptions that cling to her life and her works of fiction. …
… she revisits the most notorious episode of Christie’s life: her disappearance for 11 days in December 1926 …
Her gift for dialogue and for manipulating social stereotypes, as Worsley demonstrates, was formidable, keenly attuned to the proliferating class anxieties of the 20th century; numerous characters are, interestingly, transitional or dispossessed in some way …
Over the past few years I’ve been reading her 70+ books. Many are very good.
Agatha Christie 1950
Despite the books, magazines, TV adaptations, movies — Agatha had money troubles most of her life.
When asked “occupation“, Agatha stated “House Wife” her entire life.
She loved buying and maintaining homes. Loved shopping. Did have a social life.
Yet she was incredibly prolific and productive as a writer. Her plots she jotted down in notebooks.
One of the things I like best about Agatha are her books in exotic settings. She loved to travel. And her second husband was an archeologist. Agatha spent a lot of time with him on his digs in the Middle East.
A lot of profanity and crude references. Nudity in the first few minutes.
Smart, hilarious dialogue. Lots of Aussie slang.
All 4 key police officers are played by queer actors … BUT lesbians will probably be shocked anyway. As well as entertained.
Actually, this show could offend pretty much anyone. 😀
On the upside, all the murder victims are heterosexual, white men. It’s about time.
The surviving men march to reclaim the night. That’s good comedy.
It’s a small town. The remaining straight men finally charter a bus to flee to safety.
Deadlock is a comedy/parody that skewers police procedurals, forensic scientists, small town life, arts festivals, food culture, straight life, alternative life…the list goes on.
And with all that there is a pretty reasonable murder mystery. …
Rick McCharles 