I haven’t cancelled J.K. Rowling as she’s not ALL bad. She’s donated much to charity. And may even be a good person who somehow stumbled into this issue, getting it way wrong.
Themes explored in the plot involve Freemasonry, human trafficking, the silver antiques trade, corruption in the media, secrecy surrounding the military and intelligence services, mental health issues …
That said, the book is too long, as are most of her books in this series.
The relationship between Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott is agonizing and stupid. I can’t believe so little has progressed over 8 books.
I used to be sympathetic for Robin, as Strike is such an asshole. But she’s just as bad.
The only person to cheer for is Office Manager Pat. 😀
Worse — perhaps — is the plot. WHY did they take on a case to identify a mutilated corpse? WHY spend so much time and manpower on this case?
Who cares?
Story line convoluted and hard to follow. At the end, I read some explainers ➙ and still can’t be bothered to understand the plot.
IF you can get past those flaws, I actually enjoyed this book.
It’s something of a sequel to Fool Me Once (2016) which was adapted into an excellent TV series.
Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts—and then he runs.
Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City.
One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna. It’s unmistakably her. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day.
His investigation will bring him face-to-face with his past—and prove, after all this time, he’s nobody’s fool.
I DO admire Apple for making the attempt to adapt Asimov’s books to screen.
On the upside, the Mule has finally arrived. We have an interesting bad guy.
Foundation Season 3 centers on the emergence of the Mule, a powerful telepath who throws Hari Seldon’s carefully planned psychohistory into chaos.
A major 152-year time jump sees the Foundation reset, the Galactic Empire’s Cleonic dynasty fracturing, and Gaal Dornick confronting a new reality with the Second Foundation.
The season ultimately concludes with a game-changing finale featuring the Mule’s shocking true identity, the death of major characters, and the revelation of Earth.
With the Soviet Union emphasizing diversity by including a woman in subsequent landings, the United States is forced to match pace, equally training female and minorities talents (who were largely excluded from the initial decades of U.S. space exploration).
… Apollo 15 take a significant risk, changing their landing site to be near Shackleton crater, a promising location for finding water that would be essential to any lunar colonization effort. …
… two years later … October 12, 1973, … NASA’s first Moon base.
The FX miniseries A Teacher (2020) was filmed in my old High School, after it had closed and was scheduled for demolition.
… I don’t recall any teachers like Kate Marawhen I was a student. 😀
Set in the span of 10 years, this series follows a female English teacher in her early 30s as she begins to groom and abuse her 17-year-old male student in the fictional high school of Westerbrook in Austin, Texas.
Rick McCharles 