Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
A scary spy thriller.
Silly escapism. But with some interesting twists.
If I was editing, I would have cut the length of the novel in half. Many threads did not contribute to the plot resolution.
I Am Pilgrim (2015) is the debut novel by former journalist and screenwriter Terry Hayes. …
“Pilgrim” is an American former intelligence agent known as the “Rider of the Blue” who later writes a book on forensic pathology. …
The “Saracen” is a Saudi who becomes radicalized by watching his father’s beheading. He later trains as a doctor and fights in the Soviet–Afghan War.
Pilgrim is recalled to the intelligence community who have detected a threat involving the Saracen, who has created a vaccine-resistant strain of the variola major virus. Smallpox.
Smallpox was a terrible infectious disease.
Smallpox is estimated to have killed up to 300 million people in the 20th century and around 500 million people in the last 100 years of its existence.
The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date.
Inoculation for smallpox appears to have started in China around the 1500s. In 1796, Edward Jenner introduced the modern smallpox vaccine.
Officially, 2 live samples of variola major virus remain, one in the United States at the CDC in Atlanta, and one at the Vector Institute in Koltsovo, Russia.
Between 65 and 80% of survivors are marked with deep pitted scars (pockmarks), most prominent on the face.
U.S. Presidents George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln all contracted and recovered from the disease. Washington became infected with smallpox on a visit to Barbados in 1751.
Finally, I feel the author was not successful in combining a lightweight good v evil thriller with some sort of philosophical overview.
Pick a lane. 😀
Father Brown & Sister Boniface
Father Brown is one of the most popular British cozy mystery TV series.
It’s been running since 2013!
The series is set in England during the early 1950s.
Father Brown is the priest at St Mary’s Catholic Church in the fictional village of Kembleford …
Britain is struggling with the aftermath of the Second World War, rationing is still in effect, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place, the death penalty has not yet been abolished, and homosexuality and abortion are still illegal.
An empathetic man of keen intelligence, Father Brown solves murder cases when members of his parish are involved, when circumstances are strange enough to gain his interest, or when he is directly asked for help. During his investigations, he occasionally neglects his more mundane parish duties.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Sister Boniface Mysteries is a spin-off which began 2022.
The series is set in early 1960s Britain.
Sister Boniface is a Catholic nun at St. Vincent’s Convent in the fictional town of Great Slaughter …
In addition to her religious duties at the convent, she makes wine and has a PhD in forensic science (although this is referred to as a MA (Cantab), in the “The Forensic Nun” episode of Father Brown) allowing her to serve as a scientific adviser to the local police on investigations
I watched one episode of each simply to know what folks are talking about.
Light entertainment.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Neon Prey by John Sandford
Neon Prey (2019) is 29th in the Lucas Davenport series.
This author has loyal fans. Including me.
Clayton Deese looks like a small-time criminal, muscle for hire when his loan shark boss needs to teach someone a lesson. Now, seven months after a job that went south and landed him in jail, Deese has skipped out on bail, and the U.S. Marshals come looking for him. They don’t much care about a low-level guy — it’s his boss they want — but Deese might be their best chance to bring down the whole operation.
Then, they step onto a dirt trail behind Deese’s rural Louisiana cabin and find a jungle full of graves.
Now Lucas Davenport is on the trail of a serial killer who has been operating for years without notice. His quarry is ruthless, and — as Davenport will come to find — full of surprises…
Nicest Man in Stand-Up ➙ Nate Bargatze
Though I didn’t recall his name, I howled at Bargatze’s bit on Saturday Night Live.
Click PLAY or watch him as George Washington on YouTube.
Bargatze’s stand-up special Hello World, filmed at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, Arizona, was released in 2023 on Amazon Prime Video.
Hilarious.
He has been called a clean comedian, generally avoiding profanity, sexual humor, and potentially controversial or politically incorrect material. His success among adult audiences has been noted as a departure from the provocative and surreal styles of humor that dominated the 2010s.
What does he joke about?
… Mostly about his wife Laura Blair. 😀
The two met in their early 20s while working together at an Applebee’s restaurant in Tennessee.
“We got married on Friday the 13th. Got a pretty sweet deal on that,” he quipped. “They were wide open. We were like, ‘What times are available?’ They go, ‘Every one of ‘em. All 24. You can call us that day if you want.’ ”
After a while his shtick does start to seem repetitive. Still … worth watching.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Women’s Murder Club books 19, 20, 21
19th Christmas
Christmas is coming upon San Francisco.
Detective Sgt. Lindsay Boxer, her family, and her friends of the Women’s Murder Club have much to celebrate. Crime is down. The courts are slow and the medical examiner’s office is quiet. Journalist Cindy Thomas is working on a story about the true meaning of Christmas in San Francisco.
Then a series of crimes and threats of horrific crimes to come put the entire police force into nonstop action. At first, all they have is a name, “Loman,” behind the threats. It takes until Christmas before enough pieces come together to find enough to hope to pinpoint where Loman can be caught.
The 20th Victim
Very good. One of my favourites.
Sergeant Lindsay Boxer tackles an ambitious case that spans San Francisco, L.A., and Chicago in this pulse-pounding thriller of “smart characters” and “shocking twists” (Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
Three victims, three bullets, three cities. The shooters’ aim is as fearsomely precise as their target selection. When Lindsay realizes that the fallen men and women excel in a lucrative, criminal activity, she leads the charge in the manhunt for the killers. As the casualty list expands, fear and fascination with this suspicious shooting gallery galvanizes the country.
The victims were no angels, but are the shooters villains . . . or heroes?
21st Birthday
Also great.
Detective Lindsay Boxer takes a vow to protect a young woman from a serial killer long enough to see her twenty-first birthday.
When young wife and mother Tara Burke goes missing with her baby girl, all eyes are on her husband, Lucas. He paints her not as a missing person but a wayward wife—until a gruesome piece of evidence turns the investigation criminal.
While Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas pursues the story and M.E. Claire Washburn harbors theories that run counter to the SFPD’s, ADA Yuki Castellano sizes Lucas up as a textbook domestic offender . . .who suddenly puts forward an unexpected suspect. If what Lucas tells law enforcement has even a grain of truth, there isn’t a woman in the state of California who’s safe from the reach of an unspeakable threat.
Toxic Prey by John Sandford
Not as good as usual.
I couldn’t get into the nonstop pursuit. It seemed absurd to me that the villains didn’t simply start breaking vials of toxins throughout the chase.
Toxic Prey (2024) is John Sandford’s 33rd book in the Prey series.
Lucas Davenport and his daughter, Letty, team up to track down a dangerous scientist.
Climate change activists want to release a deadly virus to reduce the world’s population. They hope that fewer humans would result in the Earth rebalancing.
Citadel: Diana – season 1
I kinda liked Citadel, the American spy action TV series. Mindless escapism with expensive production values, like a James Bond movie.
So I tried the Italian spinoff on Prime ➙ Citadel: Diana.
It’s not nearly as good, nor expensive.
But Matilda De Angelis as Diana Cavalieri is extensively easy on the eyes. I was mesmerized by her supposedly futuristic hair style. 2030 in Milan.
And there is something charming about the awkward dialogue lip-synch from Italian to English. 😀
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald
He used McDonald and Macdonald.
Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar.
He was an influential author in the hard-boiled literary genre. The typical protagonist is a detective. Women are dames. Dialogue is smart ass.
He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featuring private detective Lew Archer. …
He has been called the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as the master of American hardboiled mysteries.
Macdonald’s writing built on the pithy style of his predecessors by adding psychological depth and insights into the motivations of his characters. …
Gradually he swapped the hard-boiled trappings for more subjective themes: personal identity, the family secret, the family scapegoat, the childhood trauma; how men and women need and battle each other, how the buried past rises like a skeleton to confront the present. …
In The Zebra-Striped Hearse (1962), Archer hunts a missing girl who may be dead, possibly murdered.
His path repeatedly crosses a group of young surfers who own a hearse painted in gay zebra stripes. To the youngsters, death is remote and funny. To the world-weary detective, it’s close and grim.
For a book written in the 60s, I found it surprisingly smart. The themes would be contemporary today.
In fact, I would not call it much dated — though women are an inferior species. 😀
V8 vs Clamato vs Mott’s Garden Cocktail
AI Overview
While all three drinks are considered “vegetable juices” with a blend of different flavors, V8 is primarily a tomato-based juice with added vegetables, Clamato is a tomato juice with added clam flavoring, and Mott’s Garden Cocktail is a sweeter, more diluted blend of tomato juice with added vegetables, making Clamato the most distinct due to its strong clam taste and V8 the most tomato-forward option.
Fine tuning my incredibly healthy diet 😀, I’ve added a daily glass of veggie-related liquid.
This replaces a mug of either Health Diet Coke or Fitness Coffee.
V8 is likely healthiest as it doesn’t contain any added sugar and ingredients includes the reconstituted juice of tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley and other healthy vegetables.
BUT Clamato is cheapest. And tastiest to my esteemed palate. And made in Canada. 🇨🇦
Rick McCharles 