… first novel in the Poirot series set at least partly in the courtroom, with lawyers and witnesses exposing the facts underlying Poirot’s solution to the crimes.
The title is drawn from a song in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. …
One reviewer remarked “it is economically written, the clues are placed before the reader with impeccable fairness, the red herrings are deftly laid and the solution will cause many readers to kick themselves.” …
On the advice of the waiter at a chic eatery 😀 called Porks in the central market (Mercato Centrale) in Florence, I had Tagliatelle with Amatriciana sauce for lunch. Better than Bolognese, I thought.
Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and… no qualms about a little murder.
… funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten …
Ever since her darling father’s untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family’s spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. …
Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father’s ancient armchair. It’s a solitary existence, and she likes it that way.
Cost is about USD $61. Expensive for a hostel bed, but not expensive compared with other options in Vancouver. A friend got a room in a Richmond AirBnB for not much more, however.
It’s one big room full of independent bunk beds. A bit crowded.
Luggage storage is convenient. First item free, second piece will be charged at $5 per night per item. HOWEVER — they won’t store a bike or bike box. I had to take a taxi back to the airport and check it into airport luggage storage. (Maximum 48 hours).
James Patterson partnered with Brian Sitts to reboot the Doc Savage stories from the 1930s and 1940s.
In the NEW book (2022) — Dr. Brandt Savage, a professor of anthropology is kidnapped off the street by the enigmatic Meed and is schooled in the fine art of assassination.
In fact, Meed makes him something of a superman. Physically and mentally transformed.
But why?
Brandt is the great-grandson of the original Doc Savage. He has the right genetics to do what Meed needs him to do.
YES. It’s dumb. The plot makes no sense. Like the original pulp fiction, perhaps.
… The plot revolves around the lives, loves and metal-detecting ambitions of Andy and Lance, members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club. …
The show ran for three series from 2014 to 2017, including a 2015 Christmas special. A further Christmas special aired in 2022. …
Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times “can’t recommend it enough”, saying: “Like the ordinary lives it magnifies, Detectorists has the air of seeming to be small and immense at once, to be about hardly anything and almost everything. It is full of space and packed with life.” …
Last Rituals (2005) is the first book in her Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series.
Good, not great, is my review.
The premise is interesting:
At a university in Reykjavík, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest.
Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim’s family isn’t convinced that the right man is in custody.
They ask Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, an attorney and single mother of two, to investigate.It isn’t long before Thóra and her associate, Matthew Reich, uncover the deceased student’s obsession with Iceland’s grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts.
But there are very contemporary horrors hidden in the long, cold shadow of dark traditions. And for two suddenly endangered investigators, nothing is quite what it seems . . . and no one can be trusted.
Professional Hawaiian surfer Joe Sharkey, the protagonist of Paul Theroux’s superb new novel, “Under the Wave at Waimea,” is in trouble — even before he accidentally kills a bicyclist on a dark, rain-drenched road on Oahu’s North Shore. Old-timers recognize and are thrilled to meet “the Shark,” as he’s nicknamed. But to the younger surfing crowd, 62-year-old Joe is “just another leathery geezer in flip-flops.” In short, he’s feeling old. “When did it happen?” he wonders. “It wasn’t sudden — no illness, no failure; it had stolen upon him.” …
Rick McCharles 