I’m a big fan of the fictional character DC Smith.
Grainger’s 2023 book has the retired detective working on a possible insurance fraud case.
A woman’s husband disappeared 5 years prior. And she wants to make a claim on his estate.
The insurance company believes the man is still alive — and hires DC Smith to find him.
As usual, this Grainger book is a slow-paced, humorous police procedural.
No car chases nor gun fights.
I tried this show because … Lucy Lawless.
Xena: Warrior Princess and her as D’Anna Biers on Battlestar Galactica.
I’m a fan of the Kiwi badass. And she’s FUNNY. 😀
Snarky.
Namaste.
… Ya, you have a nice day too. 😀
My Life Is Murder (2019) is an Australian and New Zealand murder mystery, crime comedy-drama television series …
… follows the adventures of fearless private investigator Alexa Crowe, who solves the most baffling crimes as well as coping with the frustrations of everyday life.
Lucy Lawless as PI Alexa Crowe, former detective of the Victoria Police Crinimal Investigation Branch (CIB) . As a side hustle, she bakes bread in her kitchen for Baristas Café. …
Not bad. Standard police procedural.
But what makes it worth watching for me is the humour. And the Melbourne scenery.
There are some personal mysteries you ponder.
WHY is Alexa working cold cases for the police? She doesn’t seem to get paid.
WHY does Madison — who actually does work for the police — drop everything instantly anytime Alexa needs a hacker / analyst?
I’d best continue on to season 2. For one thing, the show moves to New Zealand, my former homeland.
My typical breakfast.
Either half or two half of a toasted, butter Kirkland Signature Cheese Bun. With coffee.
Buy at least 2 dozen at a time at Costco. Slice them in half. Throw them into the freezer.
Costco Kirkland Signature Cheese Buns Review
Jeffery Deaver is the master of plot twists & turns. False summits. 😀
Fewer than usual in Watchmaker’s Hand (2023), but it’s still an excellent novel.
16th in the Lincoln Rhyme series.
When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and killing several people, Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are on the case.
A political group claims to be behind the sabotage and threatens another crane collapse in twenty-four hours, unless their demands are met.
With New York in a panic, the stakes are higher than ever for Rhyme and his team to unravel the plot before the timer runs out and more cranes crash down, reducing the city and its people to rubble.
Then Rhyme realizes that the mastermind behind the terror is his own nemesis—the Watchmaker.
Once again, it’s a battle of wits between Rhyme and the Watchmaker.
Technology plays more a role in this book. Drones. Artificial intelligence.
It feels like Lincoln is falling behind the times in some ways.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Over the years, I’ve finally watched all 79 episodes 2004 and 2022. A joy.
Sitcoms are pretty much the same formula for each and every episode. But for me seasons 1 and 9 were best.
I MIGHT have to start over again with episode 1.
I finally learned that — in real life — Martin Clunes is exactly opposite the character he plays in this comedy.
For one thing, he LOVES dogs! 😀
And he’s a charming people person, unlike the ramrod stiff and unpardonable Doc Martin.
Sigourney Weaver appeared in season 9 as a stubborn American tourist because she’s a good friend of Selina Cadell, who plays Mrs Tishell, the pharmacist.
International adaptations were made in Czech Republic and Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, and Spain.
Click PLAY or watch a wrap-up interview with Martin on YouTube.
The 2nd season of Reacher on Prime launched yesterday – Dec. 14, 2023.
This book is an early story of Jack Reacher, when he was still military police. Second chronologically of the books.
Having read them all, I’d call this one average. That still puts it into one of my top 10 novels of the year.
And this is the 4th and last Reacher book where the original author, Lee Child, will still have his name attached. From here on his younger brother Andrew Child takes over 100%.
A string of mysterious deaths. A long-classified mission. ….
Amazon (2023)
1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention.
That attention comes from the secretary of defense. All of a sudden he wants an interagency task force to investigate. And he wants Jack Reacher as the army’s representative. If Reacher gets a result, great. If not, he’s a convenient fall guy.
But office politics isn’t Reacher’s thing. Three questions quickly emerge: Who’s with him, who’s against him, and will the justice he dispenses be the official kind . . . or his own kind?
Sadly, the photo is cut off.
I can’t actually verify I wasn’t standing on a box. 😀
Susan Juby, Nanaimo, B.C., teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University.
Her book set on a Canadian gulf island.
In this comedic (murder) mystery, Helen Thorpe is a former Buddhist nun who is fresh out of butler school.
When a suspicious death takes place in an upscale spiritual retreat, suspicions turn to a quartet of suspects with a motive for murder. …
Susan Juby’s novel Mindful of Murder is a murder mystery full of humour and compassion
I many times laughed out loud. Though Judy is a Buddhist and clearly sympathetic to all things west coast, she pokes fun at hippies, flower arrangement, spiritual dance, and all things bohemian. 😀
She loves butlers. I wanted to go to butler school myself by the end of the story.
The book is told from the perspective of a number of interesting characters. My favourite was a stoner, slacker local teen brought in last minute as a general dogsbody.
Having spent time in Buddhist and Hindu ashrams myself, I could relate to the mixed feelings of the … inmates. 😀
Though a light read, there is quite a bit of philosophy, as well. I enjoyed reading about the Death Club. And their views on assisted suicide. The conflicts between Buddhist philosophy and the real world.
There will be two more books about Helen Thorpe, the butler who didn’t do it. Planned for 2024 and 2025.
I’ve never been much of a Star Wars fan.
The Mandalorian is good, but lightweight.
For me, Andor has been the best spinoff.
It’s an excellent anti-hero drama, that happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. Technology and special effects are incidental to the story.
It’s gritty. The characters flawed and conflicted.
A BIG complaint about Star Wars is that it’s cliche. Andor takes pains to be surprising.
Of all the made-for-streaming Star Wars and Marvel spin-offs to shuffle off the Disney+ production line, few have arrived with less anticipation and lower stakes than Andor.
A prequel to a prequel, the series explores the origins of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance captain introduced in the 2016 wartime heist film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Rogue One was set immediately before George Lucas’s original Star Wars films and ended quite decisively …
Andor: how a Star Wars deep cut became one of the best TV shows of the year
With no Jedi or Skywalkers to be seen, this politically charged, slow-burn thriller adds human stakes and a real sense of the fascism behind Star Wars’s endless civil war.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The Body in the Library (1942) concerns the murders of two girls of outwardly similar appearance.
One of them was an 18-year-old dancer, and the other was a 16-year-old Girl Guide with aspirations to an acting career.
The identities of the two victims were deliberately left ambiguous by the killers.
Jane Marple eventually discovers that the dancer was the intended adoptive daughter and heiress to a wealthy man. She starts suspecting the other potential heirs to the old man’s fortune. …
Somewhat too complicated for me. I didn’t find myself assuming that everyone was the killer as I typically do in Christie stories.
Many of these old TV shows are available as full episodes on YouTube.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick McCharles 