I was happy to get back to Porto in 2022. It’s one of my favourite tourist cities. And is one of the fastest-growing European tourist destinations since Ryanair made it a hub.
Funky.
Along the Douro River is the place to be in the evening.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The 12th book in the series.
Perhaps my least favourite, so far. An intriguing plot — but the resulting story really didn’t work for me.
Cork O’Connor is sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness.
With him is Jubal Little, who is favored to become the first Native American elected governor of Minnesota and who is slowly dying with an arrow through his heart.
Although the men have been bow-hunting, a long-standing tradition among these two friends, this is no hunting accident. The arrow turns out to be one of Cork’s, and he becomes the primary suspect in the murder. …
williamkentkrueger.com
Though it’s a hassle to get a ticket, I managed to visit one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. Built in 1906, a mix of Art Nouveau and Neo-Gothic styles.
J.K. Rowling once lived in Porto, no doubt getting some inspiration from this magical setting.
She named Salazar Slytherin after the Portuguese dictator Antonio de Salazar.
BEST book in the series, so far, I reckon. Mainly because it features rogue Nate Romanowski more than any other book. He’s the most fascinating character. I also like Wyoming State Governor
TripFiction:
TF: Off The Grid is the 16th book in the Joe Pickett series. How do you manage to keep a series fresh and relevant without it becoming perhaps a little tired and formulaic?
CJB: Two reasons, I think and hope. The first is that each book in the series includes a real issue or concern beyond who-done-it. In Off The Grid it’s domestic terrorism as well as a runaway grizzly that’s been stalking hunters. Additionally, since the books take place in real time Joe Pickett, Nate, Marybeth, and family age and change. …
TF: Who are your favourite authors?
CJB: I’m a huge fan of Thomas McGuane, the late Jim Harrison, Cormac McCarthy, Flannery O’Connor, and too many biographers and historians to list here. In the genre I never miss books by Michael Connelly, Denise Mina, John Sandford, and George Pelecanos. …
Thriller set in Wyoming – plus interview with best selling author, C J Box
Peter May is an excellent writer.
And this book is original enough and quirky enough to keep my attention.
A woman’s husband and his lover (?) are killed by a car bomb in Paris.
The French police rule out terrorism, suspecting murder – and sends Detective Sylvie Braque to shadow their prime suspect: the wife.
I found the ending disappointing, as have most readers.
Another excellent murder mystery.
When the Department of Energy puts an underground iron mine on its short list of potential sites for storage of nuclear waste, a barrage of protest erupts in Tamarack County, Minnesota, and Cork is hired as a security consultant.
Deep in the mine during his first day on the job, Cork stumbles across a secret room that contains the remains of six murder victims. Five appear to be nearly half a century old—connected to what the media once dubbed “The Vanishings,” a series of unsolved disappearances in the summer of 1964, when Cork’s father was sheriff in Tamarack County.
But the sixth has been dead less than a week.
What’s worse, two of the bodies—including the most recent victim—were killed using Cork’s own gun, one handed down to him from his father. …
williamkentkrueger.com
I’ve always had mixed feelings about Kenneth Branagh — brilliant, but sometimes too self-important.
But his recent semi-autobiographical film is fantastic.
Belfast is a 2021 British coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. …
Branagh’s “most personal film“, follows a young boy’s childhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the beginning of The Troubles in 1969. …
The film received seven nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for Best Original Screenplay. …
The film chronicles the life of a working-class Ulster Protestant family from the perspective of their nine-year-old son Buddy during The Troubles …
Wikipedia
Jude Hill as Buddy is by far my favourite character.
Ciarán Hinds as “Pop”, Buddy’s grandfather, is wonderful too.
Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe are fantastic as Buddy’s parents. Caitríona so beautiful.
Judy Dench, of course.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I was hoping to cycle out of Banff in June 2022. START on the Tour Divide with the pros.
Ride to Montana. Do some hiking.
Then cycle to visit friends in Idaho.
But getting my NEW TOOTH installed in Lisbon, Portugal took longer than anticipated. I’ll be adventuring in Europe May / June 2022 instead of riding Montana.
HOPEFULLY I’ll be there for Tour Divide 2023.
Click to see a larger version of the Tour Divide map by Aussie Alex Hotchin.
Cork O’Connor, now a Private Investigator, paints a picture of racial conflict in rural America, as well as a sensitive look at the secrets we keep from even those closest to us and the destructive nature of all that is left unsaid between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and lovers.
Of the series so far, this is the book I enjoyed least.
It’s too complicated. Too violent.
Gundamentalist Americans make insane mistakes yet the author seems to have nothing against guns — aside from Cork moving his own weapons away to safe keeping.
A school shooting thrown into the mix too.
