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Tag Archives: murder
Rupture
by Simon Lelic
I wasn’t there. I didn’t see it. Me and Banks were down by the ponds, pissing about with this Sainsbury’s trolley we found on the common.
This is the story of a school shooting. A teacher walks into assembly and kills three people. Two students and a teacher. Lucia May is the police officer who is supposed to “wrap up” the investigation and file it under psycho teacher, terrible tragedy, nothing anyone could have done. But instead she finds herself returning again and again to the school, and trying to figure out why it happened. How this mild-mannered history teacher could have had so much violence in him. Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 8 Stars, A thousand cuts, breakdown, British author, bullying, multiple narrators, murder, Rupture, school shooting
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The chalk circle man
Author: Fred Vargas ; trans from the french by Sian Reynolds
An Adamsberg novel
Chief Inspector Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg has recently been transferred to Paris. His police methods aren’t exactly standard procedure and his inspectors have a lot to get used to. But they can have no doubt that he is a born policeman, and while even he is unable to explain how he arrives at his conclusions he is usually correct. In this case he thinks that there is something strange about the blue chalk circles that have been appearing in the Parisian streets. He is convinced that there is something sinister about them. Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged An Adamsberg novel, Fearless, French author, murder, police, Sian Reynolds, The chalk circle man, translated
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Burn me deadly
Author Alex Bledsoe
An Eddie LaCrosse novel #2
This book takes place around a year, maybe more I can’t recall, after the first one, The sword-edged blonde and since then Eddie and Liz have become a couple. Apart from that nothing much has changed for Eddie. He is still a sword-jockey for hire, and returning one night from a job he almost runs over a blonde woman who is about to mess up his life.
Posted in Books
Tagged 8 Stars, 813.6, Eddie LaCrosse, feminism, fun read, murder, sword and sourcery
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Whose body?
The body of a stout man is found in a bathroom, naked but for a gold pince-nez. At the same time, a prominent banker goes missing. Is the dead man the missing Mr. Levy? And if so, how did he manage to end up in Mr. Thipps’ bathroom? And was he murdered?
This is the first book Sayers wrote to feature Lord Peter Wimsey. He is the second son of an ancient English house, his elder brother is the Duke of Denver. And his hobby is criminology. Already he has solved the case of some missing emeralds, now he is on two cases at once; to find the missing Levy & to figure out the who, why and where concerning the mystery body.
The lovely bones
I read the book this was based on a long time ago. So long ago that I don’t really remember the details. But I do remember thinking that it wasn’t the most film-friendly of novels when I heard that it was to be adapted. But of course neither was The Lord of the Rings and look how well Jackson et al did there. This, however, is a very different kettle of fish from LOTR Continue reading
Posted in Moving Pictures
Tagged 4 Stars, based on book, clichéd, disapointing, murder, The lovely bones
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A letter of Mary
The more I read of this series the more I come to love the characters, and indeed the whole set-up. Mary Russell is such a believable character, and King’s Holmes is just perfect.
The mystery at the heart of this novel concerns the death of Dorothy Ruskin. An archaeologist working in Jerusalem, she met up with Russell and Holmes when they travelled the area back in book one. In this book she comes to visit them, bringing with her an exquisite wooden box which contains a parchment on which is written a letter, from Mary of Magdala to her sister. Was it really written by the infamous Mary Magdalen? And was the car accident that killed her really an accident?
The other hand
published in the US as Little Bee ISBN: 0340963409 Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. I picked this book up totally on impulse. It was one of the large print books … Continue reading
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Tagged British author, first person narrator, Little Bee, marketing, multiple narrators, murder, sentimental, The other hand
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The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton
ISBN: 9780753820605 See also: MichaelCollinsauthor.com ; Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind ; Lizzy’s Literary Life In the Friday-afternoon lull within the English Department of Bannockburn College, E. Robert Pendleton sat listening to the sound of life outside his window. The … Continue reading
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Tagged 7 Stars, academia, depressing, murder, suicide, The secret life or E. Robert Pendleton
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Wash this blood clean from my hand
trans. Sian Reynolds
I’m a huge fan of Fred Vargas’ work. And this book is no exception. The star, once more, is Commissaire Adamsberg. The plot revolves around a series of murders, the first in 1943, the latest takes place in the present of the book. Adamsberg has a special interest in this case, and the judge he believes to have committed these crimes. In each case the murder victim is killed by three stab wounds. And in each case an assailant has been found, always suffering from amnesia but also having a murder weapon in his possession. In each case the police decide that this individual is responsible and, there you go, case closed. Adamsberg is not so sure.
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Posted in Books
Tagged An Inspector Adamsberg novel, crime, murder, police, Sian Reynolds, translated, Wash this blood clean from my hands
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
based on the book by Ron Hansen I loved this film. I loved everything about it. The acting was brilliant. The way the story unfolded. The narration. The casting. The scenery. The cinematography. The soundtrack. Everything was just great. Best … Continue reading
