BUT season 2 was simply too weird for me. Too confusing.
Peter Capaldi still excellent.
Benjamin Chivers positively spooky.
Perhaps season 3 will make more sense.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Breach by Patrick Lee
Patrick Lee came to prominence with his first novel, The Breach (2009).
I don’t like thrillers and can’t recommend this one, though it is popular.
Actually, the premise and start of the book are excellent. Ambitious and inventive.
If you like Michael Crichton, you’ll probably like this book. And the 2 sequels.
Thirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door.
It is the world’s best-kept secret—and its most terrifying.
Trying to regain his life in the Alaskan wilds, ex-con/ex-cop Travis Chase stumbles upon an impossible scene: a crashed 747 passenger jet filled with the murdered dead, including the wife of the President of the United States. Though a nightmare of monumental proportions, it pales before the terror to come, as Chase is dragged into a battle for the future that revolves around an amazing artifact.
Once the characters left Alaska, I started to lose interest. The twists and turns didn’t do anything for me.
Remembering Doreen Olga McCharles 1929 – 2025
Mom died May 26, 2025 after a very short emergency trip to the Nanaimo hospital.
A long, full life. She was age-96.
Here’s our nuclear family on Rob and Yvonne’s wedding day in Parksville.
Dad died March 9, 2025, at night, peacefully in his sleep. At home.
Doreen and Eric had been married for 59 years.
59 years is a long marriage — especially with such rotten kids. 😀
Dad’s decline had progressed rapidly over 4-5 weeks. But we were all accepting of the end.
Mom moved on to a new life. She had plenty of medical problems and frustrations, but was still living independently in her own house at age-96. I was her sous chef.
Unexpectedly, sharp pains in her legs began in the middle of the night. We called the ambulance at 7am. And Mom survived only 1 night in Nanaimo hospital. I was very disappointed hospital staff did not do a better job of pain management.
Mom was clear to everyone that she was ready to die at any time. She’d made peace with the eventual end.
But, in Parksville, we were shocked and depressed with how it happened so quickly. Dad’s end at home was much more peaceful.
Mom and Dad had outlived most of their family and friends. But they will both be missed in Parksville.
As Mom’s vision deteriorated over the years, happily, she was still able to play cards regularly. Use the computer and watch TV.
She and I both listened to audio books, non-stop.
In their retirement years, Mom & Dad traveled a lot, especially to Mexico. We had many excellent trips together. While Pete the Jack Russell was alive for 19-years, we always drove.
Mom was the administrator (and my boss) at Altadore Gymnastics Club. We had plenty of memories together of fun at the Gym and travel for competitions.
Her retirement gift from Altadore was a greenhouse — which she set up at our place at Crawford Bay near Kootenay Lake. Mom got into gardening there.
Due to winter weather and fishing ➙ Mom and Dad finally moved out to Parksville on Vancouver Island. Made new friends in the retirement community.
Rob and Yvonne later decided to retire to Parksville, as well. Randy, Val, and I started spending more and more time on the Island. Our family holidays were always in Parksville.
Mom’s main exercise was walking until mobility issues finally slowed her down.
Rest in peace, Mom.
Mom & Dad bought insurance in 2014 which paid for most of their funeral expenses. In fact, all we had to do was make one phone call to a 24 hour / day number and most of the arrangements were made for us. It simplified things immensely when we were grieving.
In addition, they’d simplified their estate as much as possible. We still had one investment that required probate, but the rest was very easy.
South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is probably my favourite author, overall.
South Of Nowhere (2025) is 5th in the Colter Shaw series.
BUT … this book is not nearly one of my favourites. I found it too slow.
BUT I quite appreciate the mantras that run through Colter’s head, which he picked up from his survivalist father.
In the TV adaptation — Tracker — Justin Hartley plays Colter Shaw. A good pick.
When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive.
But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter’s urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it? Colter and Dorion must race against a ticking clock to uncover the truth and save the citizens before the village washes out completely, destroying everything and everyone in its path.
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
NOT recommended.
I’ve read all the Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny.
But I’ve been disappointed with most — and even more disappointed with The Grey Wolf (2024), 19th in the series.
Best are the people of Three Pines — and there is very little of that in this book.
The plot is too complicated and utterly unconvincing. It’s a bad thriller.
Even worse, the clues are nearly non-existent. There’s no way Gamache would have reacted as he did in this one.
Sadly, the next book is likely to be part 2 of this nonsense.
A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading “this might interest you”, a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list―and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization.
Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.
Armand Gamache, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, his son-in-law and second in command, and Inspector Isabelle Lacoste can only trust each other, as old friends begin to act like enemies, and long-time enemies appear to be friends.
Determined to track down the threat before it becomes a reality, their pursuit takes them across Québec and across borders. …
The Bondsman – season 1
The Bondsman is a horror comedy. More comedy than horror.
Kevin Bacon is an undead bounty hunter.
The Devil brought him back to earth as a bounty hunter of demons.
His mother, Beth Grant as Kitty Halloran, is a church-goer and former bounty hunter. A great character in this show.
Damon Herriman as Lucky Callahan is surprisingly good casting, as well.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
You know … I haven’t heard about the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” rule for a while.
Any actor in Hollywood is — at maximum — only 6 projects away from one with Bacon. We’ve been talking about this since 1994.
Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry
A very good book. Smart and insightful writing.
In Vanishing Act (1994), our hero is Jane Whitefield, a Native American (Seneca) who specializes in helping people disappear.
The book Shaman or Sherlock? says “Perry makes both Whitefields credible—the native woman with a secure role in the tribal hierarchy and a deep-seated commitment to tribal values, and the highly competent modern professional, who skirts the edge of the law to do good in her community.”
The story is excellent.
As a hiker, I appreciated it when the chase got into the woods. On foot. By canoe.
Jane relies on both modern skills and her Native American heritage to guide her clients from their old lives into new, presumably safer, lives.
Jane’s clients are generally in danger, whether from abusive partners, criminals, or the law. Her services include both the practical – documents, transportation, money, and protection – and the philosophical – how to adjust to a new and strange life and how to become a new person.
She teaches her clients to think “like a rabbit, not a dog”. As she explains to a client, “This is like dogs chasing a rabbit. When the rabbit wins, he doesn’t get to kill the dogs and eat them. He just gets to keep being a rabbit.”
Thomas Perry received a 1983 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best First Novel for The Butcher’s Boy.
Easy Prey by John Sandford
The 11th book in the Lucas Davenport Prey series is quite good.
… the strangulation victim is Alie’e Maison, she of the knife-edge cheekbones and jade-green eyes: as models go, one of the biggest.
… there are a few small complications. Such as the drugs in her body and the evidence that she had recently made love to a woman. Such as the fact that one of Lucas’s own men had been at the party, and is now a suspect. Such as the little surprise they are all about to find when they search the house: a second body, stuffed in a closet, with a deep dent in its skull.
The whole case is going to be like this, Lucas knows — secrets piled upon secrets, the ground shifting constantly under his feet. …
The Studio – season 1
The Studio is an American satirical cringe comedy-drama television series created by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez. It stars Rogen as an embattled Hollywood studio head struggling to balance corporate demands with his own passion for producing quality films. …
It’s brilliant in many ways. The extensive use of long takes. The celebrity cameos.
I’m sure actors loved mocking their industry.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
It’s hilarious that the BIG PROJECT planned is a movie version of … Kool-Aid. They want to make billions as did Barbie. 😀
BUT — excessive profanity ruined The Studio for me.
Martin Scorsese told him he says ‘f‑‑‑’ too much.
Overuse of profanity is weak writing. Weak storytelling. This show would have been better with less swearing.
Here’s Seth Rogen defending his overuse of profanity.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Fresh Disasters by Stuart Woods
13th book in the series, Fresh Disasters (2007) is entertaining. All of the books with the village idiot, Herbert Fisher, are hilarious.
Stone Barrington has even more problems with women than usual. The excessive sexual content is entirely unnecessary — but I imagine the majority of readers have come to expect it. 😀
A chance encounter with a small-time crook sends Stone Barrington straight into the heart of New York’s mafia underworld …
It started out as just another late night at Elaine’s, but it ended with Stone on the horns of a dilemma. Forced to represent a sleazy but clueless con man, Stone finds that what could have been a throwaway case instead leads right to Carmine Datilla, a powerful mob boss with a notoriously bad temper and long reach.
With the help of his ex-partner, Dino, Stone investigates “Datilla the Hun,” and the rest of the mob family, encountering intrigue and danger at every turn.
Will Stone finally take a stand, or will he end up at the bottom of Sheepshead Bay?
Rick McCharles 