Isla Gordon, a reformed party girl gets the shot of a lifetime to prove herself as she’s left in charge of her family’s pro basketball team, but she soon quickly learns that running a basketball team comes with its own set of problems and surprises both on and off the court.
I’ve got mixed feelings on this absurd 1996 thriller.
The premise is interesting.
But the storytelling bogged down with far too much geeky detail.
FBI Special Agent and counterterrorism expert Sarah Cahill doesn’t know the man she’s tracking. But the so-called “Prince of Darkness” knows her—intimately. So when Sarah is summoned to Wall Street to investigate, little does she know that she’s the one under surveillance… until the terrorist infiltrates himself into the deepest, most desperate corners of her life.
Soon Sarah is plunged into a deep labyrinth of intrigue and catastrophe as she races to uncover a diabolically clever conspiracy…before time runs out…and the clock strikes THE ZERO HOUR.
John Sandford is the writer I’ve been reading most over the past couple of months.
As I post, he’d published 34 books in the Prey series, featuring Lucas Davenport.
Eyes of Prey (1991) is only the 3rd book. And it’s very, very dark.
Davenport was depressed, maniacal, suicidal — not far removed from the serial killers he chased.
John Sandford:
Eyes of Prey was the third of the Lucas Davenport series, and, in my opinion, a genuinely nasty book. The first book, Rules of Prey, caught some thriller-fan attention because it was tough — a bad killer, and a bad cop chasing him. Even the Wall Street Journal liked it.
Then, in the second book, Shadow Prey, the bad guys got softer. In fact, the bad guys weren’t all that bad, really, but got killed anyway, which meant there was some moral ambiguity floating around in the punch bowl.
The doctor ordered a little more starkness in the third novel, and I got it with a couple of killers named Carlo Druze and Dr. Michael Bekker. Druze, though, was just a killer. Bekker was a raving blinkin’ maniac, and he’s the one that women seem to like.
So … researched the BEST seasons of the 14, so far.
Season 2 was high on the list. And I would say it was even better than the first year.
Agatha Christie stories set in a tropical paradise.
Richard Poole is still trapped on the stunning Caribbean island as this light-hearted detective drama returns. The sun, sea and sand still continue to irritate him, just as he irritates his long-suffering colleagues.
Freida McFadden (born May 1, 1980) is the pen name of an American thriller author and practicing physician specializing in brain injury.
She began writing as a hobby, self-publishing starting 2013.
Her 2022 book The Housemaid was an international bestseller.
She’s known for the twists and turns in her plots. And unreliable narrators.
Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.
She never arrives at her destination.
Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle occurs: she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears.
Both the Canadian Red Cross and B.C. Health Care system were fantastic supporting his final days.
All palliative care was delivered in the home. Better than the hospice or hospital, in our experience.
___________________
I’d always liked the photo below on a German document. Dad had it posted on the fridge.
We could assume it was a military I.D. from his years serving with the Canadian Armed Forces in Deutschland — BUT it turned out to be his German Fishing Licence from 1962.
I’m posting this photo as it preceded the injury suffered while Dad was playing hockey for the Canadian Forces team. He lost an eye from a skate to the face which led to a medical discharge from the Army.
… Dad loved fishing. He owned 6 boats over his lifetime.
End of life came shockingly quickly.
One day we were grocery shopping and downing chicken wings at the local eatery. The next his bodily systems began to shut down.
One of the first warning signs was a loss of interest in watching his favourite TV shows: Hogan’s Heroes, Perry Mason, Matlock, Father Brown, Bonanza, Beverley Hillbillies, Green Acres.
Dad loved routine. Every day the same schedule. Any change not appreciated.
Here’s a slideshow of photos from his retirement years. Dad died age-94 — still with a driver’s licence.
Dad and I spent many days at French Creek Marina watching birds in the river delta.
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.
At the beginning of this book series, Lucas Davenport — the good guy — wasn’t much better than the criminals he chased.
But over time he became increasingly likeable.
Night Prey (2024) is only 6th in the series. But Davenport is already showing signs of humanity.
State Investigator Meagan Connell believes that Minneapolis has a serial killer on its hands, a killer who has stepped up the frequency of his attacks. Connell is dying of cancer and is determined to catch the killer in the few weeks she has left.
Davenport is called in for his expertise in serial murder.
The BAD GUY this time is an elusive cat burglar obsessed with a woman.
It’s a gritty police procedural trying to find the villain.
The BFG (short for The Big Friendly Giant) … was ranked number 88 among all-time best children’s novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a US monthly.
Sophie, an eight-year-old girl in an orphanage, befriends a mysterious Giant, the BFG.
The 24-foot-tall giant carries her away to the land of the Giants, a place not on any map.
The BFG is a vegetarian. But his 9 neighbours are much bigger and stronger giants, who all happily eat humans every night.
Sophie persuades the BFG to approach the Queen of England for help with the other giants. They plot to imprison the hungry man-eating giants in a deep pit.
I was most entertained by Dahl’s inventive, playful use of language. He invented over 500 new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.
Horror stories for kids? Yep.
His obituary in The Times was titled “Death silences Pied Piper of the macabre“.
Rick McCharles 