Crime Fiction 
Dead Room by Chris Mooney Marvellous McCormick(5)
This CSI Darby McCormick’s third outing, the first two being The Missing and Secret Friend. I am thrilled to make her acquaintance as I think she is a marvellous protagonist and one of the best female role models I’ve met in fiction today. Darby McCormick is tough, gritty, uncomplaining, extremely smart and very good at… Read More ›
Lust, Money & Murder by Mike Wells
I was introduced to this book by the author Mike Wells via Twitter. After presenting me with a link to a free reading of his first of a new series, I eagerly jumped at the chance to meet a new author and his work. I was not disappointed. The book’s prologue sets the pace of… Read More ›
How I Spent My Summer Vacation/Get the Gringo (2012) VoD
Written by Mel Gibson, Stacy Perskie, and Adrain Grunberg – who also directed the film – How I Spent My Summer Vacation or Get the Gringo was a “straight-to-Video-on-Demand” project that Gibson claimed was done because, ”We’re just in a different era. Many people just like to see things in their homes….I think it’s the future.”… Read More ›
Hollywood Hills by Joseph Wambaugh: They’re Back
Former cop turned author Joseph Wambaugh is one of my favourite writers. His books and the characters who reside in them are brilliant. They are full of black humour, pathos, tragedy, and fun. Each and every participant in one of his books breathe. You find your self becoming attached to them all, even the villains…. Read More ›
A Simple Plan by Scott Smith: Not so Simple
A Simple Plan is Scott Smith’s first book. It caused a lot of fuss when it hit the book stands and after reading it, I can see why. I’ve actually reversed into this debut novel of Smith’s because I read The Ruins first and fell in love with his story telling abilities based on that… Read More ›
Family Legacy by Jack O’Halloran Memories of a Mafioso’s Son
Just in case you didn’t know, author Jack O’Halloran has been many things in his lifetime. He was a professional Heavyweight Boxer from 1966 to 1974. He’s been an actor and worked in ten feature films (most notably Superman I and II) and done a fair share of television. He manages Long Beach Studios and… Read More ›
Jackpot (2011): Brilliant Black Comedy
Written and directed by Magnus Martens and based on a story by Jo Nesbø, Jackpot is a hysterically funny film about the lack of honour among criminals and how one innocent man gets caught up in almost more than he can handle. The film opens with two men in a police interviewing room in the Ostfold Police Station…. Read More ›
The Hunters 2/Jägarna 2 aka False Lead (2011):Nordic Noir?
*Warning this contains spoilers about the first film, The Hunters* Directed again by Kjell Sunderland and starring Rolf Lassgård (who reprises his role as Erik Backstrom) and Peter Stormare as his nemesis Torsten a local cop in the Norrbotten area of the first film. It has been 15 years since the explosive climax of events… Read More ›
Jägarna aka The Hunters (1996) Swedish Straw Dogs
Directed and co-written by Kjell Sundvall, The Hunters proves that Thomas Wolfe was right; you can’t go home again. Or at least you probably shouldn’t as the main protagonist Erik Backstrom finds when he returns to his hometown of Norrbotten. Erik is a detective from Stockholm where he gained the status of hero after catching… Read More ›
Phantom by Jo Nesbo: Harry’s Hat Trick
Phantom by Jo Nesbo is his latest Harry Hole book in the series. It is quite easily the most intricate of all the Hole novels to date. Impressive in its length and even more impressive in scope; Harry has more plates spinning than a circus clown. Harry is back in Oslo from Hong Kong where… Read More ›
