By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies and counting. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own. The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork. How could this have happened without anybody noticing?
Because one thing was for sure: the killer had to live close by. He was probably even someone they saw every day….
I’d started with the first books in the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods. And found them worth reading.
Funny. Engaging.
AbsurdJames Bondy escapism.
Stone Barrington, a former NYPD detective turned lawyer, who is of counsel to a prestigious law firm and handles sensitive cases for the firm’s prominent clients, but cases with which the firm nonetheless does not wish to be publicly associated.
As such, Barrington commands exorbitant fees, and a strong cast of recurring characters such as his ex-partner Dino Bacchetti, frequent use of the restaurant Elaine’s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City as a setting, and Stone’s frequent exploits with women, travel, and fine dining.
Pierre Poilievre will run in a by-election in the most conservative riding in Canada ➙ Battle River-Crowfoot, Alberta.
I ASSuME he wants to stay opposition Party leader for the next 4-5 years.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
Is there any chance Quebec would vote for PP from Alberta in the next election?
In the rest-of-Canada, this ties Poilievre to Alberta premier Smith ➙ a right wing extremist who wants to be the 51st U.S. state. 😀
Canadians grew sick of Trudeau. And they’ll grow sick of Poilievre’s whining in the coming years. He’s already less popular than the Party, as was Trudeau.
No other Party wants to partner with the Cons in any future minority government.
Instead …
Elect a new leader from Quebec
Elect a fiscal conservative with creditability. (Someone like Mark Carney,)
Distance the Party platform from ReTrumplicanism which will be in the toilet by the 2026 midterms
Abandon populist social conservative trends. (The deplorable will vote Conservative anyway.)
Go back to conservative policies more in line with those of Preston Manning, back in the day
The worst of recent unsuccessful leaders was Andrew Scheer. I ranked him 0 / 100.
WORST case scenario would be replacing PP with someone like Scheer.
After 20 years having a family home in Parksville B.C., … I FINALLY got to lovely Milner Gardens near Qualicum Beach. It’s open Thursday to Sunday during the good weather months.
#7 in the entertaining Stone Barrington series of books.
I enjoyed this one. Expensive cars, beautiful women, and yachts.
Luxuriating in Palm Beach’s winter warmth, Stone is stunned to recognize someone he thought was dead. Former client Allison Manning is alive and well—and suddenly very rich.
Now she needs Stone’s help in squaring a charge of insurance fraud that’s been hanging over her head for years—and in getting rid of a recently acquired stalker.
Suspects abound, including an elusive writer, an enigmatic businessman, and Allison’s devious former husband. Only Stone can thwart the sly and greedy plan to steal the millions of dollars at stake—and the crafty killer behind it…
Vera Wong was a lonely widow in San Francisco. Lonely until a man was found dead in her teahouse and Vera solved his murder. That was book 1.
She is surrounded by her loved ones, her shop is busy, and her son, Tilly is dating Officer Selena Gray. However, she has become bored and misses the excitement of her last investigation. …
Vera is inquisitive, meddling, intelligent, bold, and funny. She likes acting like a helpless old lady, but doesn’t like being one. She’s also curious, confident, outgoing, and not always politically correct.
“Sometimes, all an old lady wants is a murder to solve. Is that too much to ask for?”
In this one, Vera stumbles on to the story of an online influencer who has disappeared.
She decides it’s likely MURDER so begins a one woman investigation.
The plot doesn’t matter all that much. It’s how Vera feeds everyone she meets and bosses them around in order to improve their lives that keeps you going.
Vera’s an unlikely new friend and ally to one and all.
Sutanto said writing Vera’s character was easy because everything she says are things her parents have said. 😀
In this one, somebody from Barrington’s past starts killing the women closest to him.
Trying to find a brilliant killer in a sea of old faces is difficult enough without Stone’s former love, Arrington, now Mrs. Vance Calder, resurfacing, too—especially when she sets off her own fireworks coming nose to nose with his latest flame, a Mafia princess as beautiful as she is dangerous. Amazon
Hidden Prey (2005) is another of the excellent Lucas Davenport murder mysteries.
On the shore of Lake Superior, a man named Rodion Oleshev is found shot dead, three holes in his head and his heart, and though nobody knows why, everybody — the local cops, the FBI, and the Russians themselves — has a theory.
And when it turns out he had very high government connections, that’s when it hits the fan.
A Russian cop flies in from Moscow, Davenport flies in from Minneapolis, law enforcement and press types swarm the crime scene — and, in the middle of it all, there is another murder.
Is there a relationship between the two? What is the Russian cop hiding from Davenport? Is she — yes, it’s a woman — a cop at all? Why was the man shot with fifty-year-old bullets?
Before he can find the answers, Davenport will have to follow a trail back to another place, another time, and battle the shadows he discovers there — shadows that turn out to be both very real and very deadly.
“Metalhead” is the 5th episode of the 4th series. The one I still have nightmares about. Bella (Maxine Peake) trying to flee from robotic “dogs” after the unexplained collapse of human society.
I’d pretty much quit on Black Mirror after season four.
BUT I’d heard season 7 was a return to greatness. So decided to watch.
… a lonely man (Paul Giamatti) revisits his memories and photographs of an old girlfriend who has recently died, in order to send his memories of her to her family. Through the experience, he learns more about her and the relationship. The episode has received critical acclaim, with many reviewers calling it the best episode of series 7, and one of the best episodes of Black Mirror of all time …
Teacher Amanda (Rashida Jones) and welder Mike are a happy couple who want a child.
Amanda falls ill with a brain tumor and Mike accepts an offer from the start-up Rivermind: Amanda’s brain will be restored and operated for a monthly fee. The lost brain function is transferred wirelessly to Amanda from the company’s servers.
It goes badly wrong from there.
I ended up fast forwarding through the final episodes.
Rick McCharles 