Bernie Rhodenbarr, bookstore owner and expert burglar gets caught up in a spot of murder and intrigue surrounding some missing documents he had been commissioned to steal. At the same time, he is busy falling in love with a beautiful Anatrurian woman who takes him to a Bogart double-bill every night. Is she somehow involved? A nice little mystery in the classic mold. Erudite, funny, and romantic, but the cleverness sometimes feels a bit forced.
Author Archives: Martin
Gosford Park
Beautifully written and filmed period drama/black comedy/murder mystery set in a country house in 1930s England. It features an ensemble cast to die for, and every last bit part contains enough meat for a full-blown starring role. Even the props are impeccably placed, and work hard for their screen time. The pacing may be slower than your average blockbuster, but it’s never less than intriguing and entertaining. The emotional wallop at the end of the film carries all the more power for it. Absolutely spellbinding.
George P. Pelecanos – Right as Rain
Black policeman Chris Wilson was off-duty and out of uniform when he was shot by a white officer, Terry Quinn. Wilson’s mother hires private investigator Derek Strange to look at his death more closely, and find out what really happened. Pelecanos develops the characters nicely, and manages to ask some probing questions about friendship and racism at the same time as telling a tight detective story. This was my first Pelecanos book, and it makes me want to read more.
The Tuxedo
About as good/bad as you’d expect. A taxi driver (Chan) gets a job as chauffeur for a super-rich secret agent, then takes on the his mantle (or ultra-tech tuxedo) when the agent is injured in an explosion. This could have been saved by a better villain, but I guess they didn’t have the budget for any imagination. The fight scenes are rubbish by Chan standards, too. Still, Jennifer Love Hewitt looks nice.
Robert Crais – The Last Detective
After L.A. Requiem my hopes were running high for this follow-up. How could Crais possibly crank it up another notch? But he does. And just as with L.A. Requiem, I cried at the end. Bear in mind that Elvis Cole is one of my favourite fictional characters, and that I’m a romantic at heart. But even so, it’s an amazing novel, with terrific plot, pace, and depth of character. Crime fiction gets no better than this.
Sue Grafton – Q is for Quarry
Kinsey Millhone gets persuaded to help Lieutenant Dolan and his retired colleague Stacey Oliphant investigate a murder case that has lain unsolved for eighteen years. Grafton weaves a classic detective story: a few tenuous leads develop into a tangled mess of small-town lives, and it takes all of Kinsey’s ingenuity to follow each strand to the end. There are some tantalising glimpses of Kinsey’s family, and some hints about where that story arc is going. As an interesting counterpoint to her relationship with her biological family, Kinsey forms a very strong bond with Dolan and Oliphant here, both of whom are in ill health. The overall result is one of Grafton’s best mysteries to date.
Grape (St. Andrews Square, Edinburgh)
Abi has lunch with Angela here quite often, but it was only the second time I’d eaten there. This time I tried their 8oz beefburger, and it is by far the best burger I’ve ever had in Edinburgh. Beautifully charred on the outside, succulent and roaring with flavour on the inside. It comes on a crusty pain rustique style roll, slathered with a layer of mayonnaise. Mayonnaise? Yes, and it complemented the beef and the bread wonderfully, adding a creamy taste to the rich mix. Add some perfectly cooked frites (most of which Alex stole), and I was in heaven. Gorgeous.
John Sandford – Mortal Prey
After the relative disappointment of Chosen Prey, Sandford is back on top form here. Clara Rinker was one of Sandford’s most interesting villains, because he chose to make her a sympathetic character. He even allowed Lucas Davenport to like her–a bit. She got away at the end of Certain Prey, but she’s back now, and taking revenge on her former employers. The FBI call in Lucas to help track her down. In classic Davenport style, he schmoozes and networks his way into places the FBI could never go, and breaks their investigation wide open. But can he get to Rinker in time? And in the end, who are you cheering for? Excellent stuff.
Daredevil
Have I mentioned I’m a sucker for superheroes? Even if I wasn’t, I’d still rate Daredevil as a fine action film. Solid performances from the whole cast, with some nifty fight and stunt scenes. Unfortunately all the best character development and action seems to happen in the middle of the film, leaving the end a bit cliché-ridden and hurried. Terrific, escapist fun, though.
Men In Black II
Even with it being only 1 hour and 16 minutes long, they couldn’t find enough jokes and plot to fill a whole film, so they just remade the original. Lara Flynn Boyle doesn’t cut it as a villain, Rosario Dawson doesn’t cut it as a love interest, and Smith and Jones show none of the fizz or hidden depths that made the first film so enjoyable. The set pieces are scaled down to the point where they’re just “pieces”, and the supposedly special effects are no more than ordinary. It’s like a particularly bad episode of a poor TV series based on the MIB film. Utterly regrettable–and forgettable–rubbish.