Thoughtful thrills

On this snowy day in the U.S. northeast, here's a quick movie tip: If you enjoy crime thrillers in either book or movie form or both, you might like The Little Things, which was just released simultaneously in U.S. theaters (the ones that are open, anyway) and on HBO Max. While not slow or dull, the literary nature of the story in reminiscent of a good thriller novel, one with interesting characters and thoughtful themes.

The story involves a hotshot detective (Rami Malek) looking for a killer of young women, who is not making much headway until he teams with an old-timer detective (Denzel Washington).  The two meet in an unrelated, minor police matter, and the hotshot (refreshingly, in a movie like this) is not territorial and welcomes the experience and perspective of the older detective.  Soon they have a suspect, a definitely creepy appliance repairman (Jared Leto).  But though unambiguously weird and creepy, is he a killer?

Written and directed by John Lee Hancock, the story moves along nicely but is ultimately a vehicle to examine how the police- through these characters- feel about failures in past cases, what lines should and shouldn't be crossed in police work, how to handle yourself if you do cross a line or just make a tragic mistake, and other psychological issues related to being a cop.  

Some people might not like the slow-burn nature of the story (it takes its time and there isn't much physical action) and the fact that all questions aren't neatly answered. And we're also not clearly told how to feel about some of the controversial decisions some characters make.  But if you don't mind these things, and in fact welcome the nuance they bring to the story, then you'll probably find The Little Things worth your time.

The Little Things is currently in theaters and will be streaming on HBO Max until the end of February.

An observation or two

I might touch on some of the following at a bit more length at some point, but for now here are some quick impressions of a few diversions that have recently crossed my path...

I'm still quite enjoying Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series, and found the latest one I've read, Eight Million Ways To Die, to be the best yet. This one is pretty much equal parts Scudder trying to solve a series of prostitute murders and overcome his alcoholism.  It's longer and more nuanced than past Scudder entries, but still a fast, engrossing read.  It looks like I'll be firmly on the Scudder train through the remainder of 2021.

I picked up a copy of Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, an original Sherlock Holmes story set during World War II when the great detective has seen better, livelier days. At only 131 pages (with several of featuring full-page artworks), I thought it would be fun to read an entire novel in only a couple of days, something I haven't done in a while.  But, no.  While moody and somewhat interesting, this mostly dry and self-consciously literate take on Holmes took a little effort to get through, but I was glad that I finally finished it in a week or so. 

The plot involves a little boy's missing parrot, with said parrot somehow in the possession of missing codes used in the war effort. Prior to the bird's disappearance, the bird would often cackle the seemingly nonsensical codes aloud, until someone figured out the value of the cackling and absconded with the bird.  While in the end readable and okay, I'm making the book sound more interesting than it was.

On the streaming front, We Summon The Darkness was a perfectly watchable thriller on Netflix.  It involves three young women heading to a Metal concert (the 2020 movie is set in the 80's), the three guys they meet at the concert and eventually party with, and some satanic killers roaming the countryside. While certainly not Citizen Kane, the movie isn't as junky as it sounds and has a couple of decent twists (the first one of I guessed, though it wasn't bad).  At 90 minutes or so, the movie doesn't overstay its welcome and wouldn't be a bad choice in you're in the mood for a drive-in style horror thriller to distract yourself from the only slightly less intense horror of the outside world these days.

Spenser is on the case

Ace Atkins' newest Spenser novel is a decent, engrossing read.  In it, Spenser takes on a Jeffrey Epstein-type character who is abusing young girls in the Boston area. Nothing like a villain you love to hate, right? But keeping things from being too neat and simplistic plot-wise is the fact that the antagonist of the piece decides to fight back, and using his vast financial resources to do so.

So, soon it's Spenser, Hawk, and a bunch of law-enforcement types trying to get the goods on the powerful billionaire who spirits away impressionable young girls to his private island. Then, to add one more fly, and a particularly deadly one, to the ointment, the billionaire hires Spenser's old nemesis The Gray Man to get Spenser out of the way. The Gray Man is a great villain from past Spenser adventures and he even gives Hawk pause.

If you've enjoyed some of the past Ace Atkins books that continue the adventures of Robert B. Parker's classic detective hero, you will probably enjoy this one, too.  I won't give you more plot details, as discovering them will be half the fun.  Same with the nicely done surprise or two that Atkins will throw your way- you'll enjoy saying "Oh, wow, that's cool" a time or two before the book is over.

Robert B. Parker's Someone To Watch Over Me, by Ace Atkins, is available in hardback, Kindle, and audiobook editions.  The audio, incidentally, is nicely read by actor Joe Mantegna, who has played Spenser lots of time on TV.  This particular Spenser story I did on audio, though I can see myself going back and reading it in prose form to enjoy the story again at some point.

Goodbye, 2020

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  Here's hoping for a happier and healthier 2021 filled with all manner of great books, movies, and binge-worthy TV shows- in other words all the stuff we like to talk about on this blog. And let's hope we enjoy all those these because we want to, not because we'll still be quarantined in our homes and can only do those things!

And I'll also look forward to re-emphasizing the Taproom part of this blog's name in the coming year and more regularly discuss the fun world of adult beverages again.  Tune in to see if I actually start doing that!

Once again, Happy New Year!

Dark yet fun story

Here's an easygoing review for a book starring an easygoing character.  Dark of the Moon is the first book in John Sanford's Virgil Flowers series, which I'm finally starting. Virgil is a laid-back, easygoing guy who like who likes women, bars, and fishing. And though redneck would be taking the description too far, Virgil definitely does have a, let's say, a relaxed, country sensibility.

And that quality often drives his law-enforcement colleagues crazy, until they are reminded that Virgil, once he gets started on a case, is sharp as a tack, tracking a solution like a barracuda searching prey (Virgil, by the way, often appears as a supporting character in Mr. Sandford's Prey series, starring police investigator Lucas Davenport). You don't want Virgil Flowers sniffing around, no matter how relaxed he may appear, if you don't want him to find out about something you did.

Dark of the Moon finds Virgil investigating a couple of murders in a small community, and then several more murders that occur shortly after he arrives in town to investigate (the first of the additional murders, with arson thrown in to boot, occurs the very night Virgil hits town to investigate the initial murders). As well as the interesting case he's working on, Dark of the Moon also entertains with colorful local politics and a romance or two- one for Virgil, and one for the sheriff assisting him. And yes, a double date is thrown into the mix during some downtime.

Anyway, after enjoying Virgil's presence as an entertaining supporting player in the Prey series over the years, it was great to see that he can ably occupy the spotlight in his own series, the other entries of which I'll look forward to checking out in 2021.

Hard epilogue

All Kinds of Ugly, the 13th and final (for now) book in the recently-reissued 1970's Hardman action series, was a terrific end to the series I've been reading for the past year or so. Thanks to Brash Books, this long-out-of-print series by the late Ralph Dennis is now available to a new generation of thriller fans and All Kinds of Ugly ends it on a high note.

In some ways, the most recent book is the best in the series, because it's deeper, more serious and introspective, and willing to take on deeper, more melancholy themes than the other entries.  The prose is richer and more descriptive, too.  

However, in some ways, this tale of unofficial P.I. Jim Hardman searching for an old millionaire's missing grandson in London is not as good as the others because it's mostly missing the fun banter between Hardman and his friend and associate Hump Evans and a lot of the action and danger we're used to enjoying.

But those elements not being a big part of this book doesn't mean it's somehow flawed, but simply that the story being told this time out is a bit different. It's not the usual fun team up between Hardman and Hump as they solve a case in around 1970's Atlanta.  This is Hardman on his own in London as he's simultaneously attempting to get over some personal problems.  It's a dark, more serious P.I. story that actually would make for a nice, moody film.  I'm just glad we also have all those lighter, more fun Hardman adventures, too (Atlanta Deathwatch is the first book).

This most recent Hardman novel was completed by author and Brash books head Lee Goldberg, who found an unpublished non-Hardman novel that (as he convincingly demonstrates in an afterword) most likely began life as a Hardman book that Dennis then altered into a standalone novel with different characters but then abandoned. Goldberg then skillfully converted the book back into a Hardman, and a very good one.

And though the book feels like a natural end to the series, I wouldn't mind seeing more of Jim Hardman and Hump Evans (who, though largely absent this time, still has a couple of memorable scenes). After all, though Jim seems to be moving on to bigger and better things as the book closes, an occasional trip back into the muck of gritty P.I. work might not be out of the question. Might be a fun thing for Mr. Goldberg or one of his colleagues to think about.

But, if things are over, these 13 Hardman novels have been a great ride.

I'll murderlize you!

Murderlized, by Max Allan Collins and frequent collaborator Matthew V. Clemens, reminded me a lot of the movie Grindhouse.  That film, also by two frequent collaborators, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, celebrated the violent, sexy, over-the top world of drive-in cinema of years past: tales of rough men and beautiful, deadly women, monsters human and otherwise, extreme violence, and sexy hijinks that barely got the "R" rating it required for exhibition. 

Most of the stories in this fun collection reminded me of Grindhouse and the movies it paid tribute to, and even the couple of the more traditional Collins/Clemens crime thriller stories included here are still a little out there.

The lead story, for example, Murderlized, is a nice piece of historical crime fiction, except of all people the real-life person trying to solve a murder is Moe Howard of The Three Stooges. And that's one of the more normal stories.  From there we move onto stories about a werewolf terrorizing a sex-starved wife in the Bayou, a vampire P.I. taking on a particularly formidable serial killer, and a James Bond-type figure whose sexy night with his wife keeps getting interrupted by femme fatales from his spy career who want to bed him down, too, and- oh, yes- then kill him.  All over the top, but intentionally so, making all of them a lot of fun. 

A couple of down to earth crime stories, of both the historical fiction and modern crime investigation variety, are also entertaining.  But it's the crazy stuff that really shines, in part because it's fun to see examples of Collins and Clemens working ousidet of their usual, more polished and disciplined comfort zones.

Bookending these day-glo stories of supernatural monsters hiding in the fog, human monsters who are even scarier, and normal but clueless men being helplessly manipulated by gorgeous women, is an efficient, informative introduction on how the Collins/Clemens collaborative relationship came about and an index telling us where the stories originally appeared.  Both are interesting and helpful.  But it's the stories with all their craziness that you'll remember.  Grab some popcorn and curl up with them one night.