My September Reads

The Bughouse Affair by Marcia Muller & Bill Pronzini. Very good collaboration. Great detective story and romance developing between two protagonist. Will read more in the series.

Strip for Violence by Ed Lacy. Stupid, misleading title for a good pulp detective story. Lacy is a
favorite writer.

A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews. Redneck noir. Classic. I've read it several times. Will again.

The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain. Posthumous work by the great crime writer. Not his best
fiction but entertaining.

Seduction of the Innocent by Max Allan Collins. Comic books corrupting 1950s youth. Enjoyable
and well-written.

Fast One by Paul Cain. Considered hardboiled classic. Fast-paced, a bit confusing at places,
but a solid crime read.

Movie Review: Enough Said Starring James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus

I've noticed the ads and good reviews of the current film Enough Said, so I decided to check it out. I left the cinema feeling like I'd gotten my money's worth, and then some. I guess the best tag to put on Enough Said is to call it a romantic comedy, although most of the laughs come during the first half. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the late James Gandolfini (in one of his final film roles), Toni Collette, Catherine Keener star in it. I've always liked Dreyfus and Gandolfini, so I watched it with a favorable bias. Eve Hewson, Irish singer Bono's daughter, also appears playing Gandolfini's spoiled, college-bound daughter. Check out Dreyfus' ex, and you might recall him as the actor (Toby Huss) who played the Wiz on Seinfeld. Dreyfus plays a masseuse also used in a Seinfeld plot. I liked the chemistry between the middle-aged Dreyfus and Gandolfini, and what a pity for us he won't be around to make other marvelous films like this one. IMDb.com scores Enough Said with a 7.4/10.0 rating which strikes me as fair.

D.C. Snipers Film Hits the Theaters in D.C.

This week I caught the generally positive reviews for the new thriller film Blue Caprice which recounts the D.C. Beltway snipers' reign of terror on the area back in the Fall of 2002. For three weeks, John Muhammad and Lee Malvo drove around in a blue Chevy Caprice, picking off random targets by firing through the peephole in the modified trunk to their vehicle. The Washington Post review calls the film "impressive, tasteful, and ultimately cold." It's good an adjective like "exploitive" doesn't sum up the movie. I probably won't be paying my money to see it, but that's my personal choice, not really a protest or boycott. The sniper's attack was harrowing enough to have lived through it back in 2002. However, I heard on the news the film is expected to pull large viewing audiences from around the D.C. area. The Washington Post's full review of Blue Caprice appears at this link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingou...

Which Of The Banned Books Have You Read?

This week has been designated as Banned Books Week, and with that theme in mind, I just wondered how many of the banned books (either past or present titles) I have read. The first title that springs to mind is D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, and I don't really have a recall about much of the plot. However, I like Lawrence's rich prose style. John Grisham on "The Daily Show" in 2005 mentioned his A Time to Kill was banned, and I believe I have read it, too. Last week, the Randolph County Board of Education (NC) voted to ban Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man which shocks me. Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game was banned this year in a Colorado school which I remember reading and loving in the 9th grade. It's not great literature, but entertaining fiction for me back then. Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres got axed from a Texas reading list. I loved reading that title. Granted most of these titles were removed from high school reading lists, so the audience isn't an adult one, but it still surprises me. You may have your own banned book experience though I hope not. For a full list of the banned books in 2012-13, you can download a PDF document from following this link: http://www.ila.org/advocacy/banned-books.

TV Characters Heard But Never Fully Seen

My wife and I got into discussing the TV characters we never (or very seldom) saw but were mentioned or else spoke in the shows we saw. These were the ones we thought of. You might have a few of your own to add.

1. George Wilson in Home Improvements (partially obscured face)
2. Vera Peterson in Cheers
3. Maris in Frasier
4. Charlie in Charlie's Angels
5. Bob Sacamano/George Steinbrenner (just rear of head) in Seinfeld
6. Carlton in Rhoda (seen in one epidsode?)
7. Orson in Mork & Mindy
8. Sarah in Andy Griffith Show
9. Elizabeth (but is a dead character) in Sanford and Son
10. Adults in Peanuts cartoons
11. Thing in Addams Family (just the hand)

Tuesday's Forgotten Films: Desert Fury

This decent enough 1947 desert film noir stars Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster, Mary Astor, and introduces Wendell Corey. Hodiak plays a sleazy, slick gambler down from Vegas with his partner Corey. The blonde Scott shows up in town and stays with her mother Astor who runs the local gambling den called The Purple Sage. Lancaster plays the local lawman who has eyes for Scott. The trouble comes when Hodiak does, too. The film is shot in color, and the desert setting looks stunning. I wondered how it would look in the traditional black and white. Corey and Hodiak play convincing enough thugs, and Lancaster does okay in his tough guy role. A.I. Bezzerides and Robert Rossen wrote the script, so the dialogue is expectedly quick and snappy. That works fine for the male actors, but doesn't sound as natural for Scott and her mother Astor speaking. Or it didn't to my ear anyway. IMDb.com rates Desert Fury as 6.7/10.0. I probably wouldn't grade it any higher than that.

A Writer Using Real Name Or A Pseudonym?

Recently when I wrote and published my second cozy title The Cashmere Shroud in the Isabel and Alma Trumbo Mystery Series, I mulled over the decision of whether to write under a pen name or to use my given John Hancock. All of my previous books had been hardboiled or noirish crime titles. The exception was the pulpy science fiction title The Quetzal Motel I published a couple years back. I suspected there might be some reader confusion in the two different mystery subgenres (cozy vs. hardboiled). In the end, I opted to go with my real name because I personally don't like pen names. On the other hand, I think for the brilliant crime writers like the late Richard Stark/Donald Westlake the pen names work just fine. So far, I haven't gotten any feedback on the name confusion, so I'm happy with not going with a pen name. Further downstream, I may elect to use one if I write another title that is off the beaten path for me.

Stockpiling Your Favorite Reads For The Winter

With the days growing shorter here in the United States, I know that the cold weather is on the way. Winter is a good time for reading, so I look at my to-read pile and see what I have stockpiled. Of course, some of the books are paperback, while others are e-books waiting on my Kindle. There are two Richard Stark Parker entries I bought them from our local Borders that went out of business. Sadly, I know there will be no more of those titles coming out. I'm on the library's waiting list (#275) to read Stephen King's crime novel Joyland. Last month I took off an afternoon and drove over to our nearest secondhand bookstore. I found four titles I haven't read, all of them crime novels. So, I'm pretty well set, and I hope your to-read pile is also well-stocked.

Beware of the Neighborhood Scams

You must see on the TV news the same stories I do about the scam artists using various their schemes to rook unsuspecting victims out of their money. The victims are often older citizens who are lonely and the most vulnerable. Or they're not as aware and alert as they once were. I see various ads taped to mailboxes or stapled to the signposts. Fabulous weight loss programs get plugged a lot. Driveway repaving, curbside street address numbers painting, and treework are also popular ads. That's not to say there aren't honest landscapers, painters, and tree surgeons doing their jobs. I can see them hard at work, too. The problem has gotten so bad, our political supervisor has written about it in her newsletters. I guess the cops have better things to do than to chase all the charlatans and cheats out of the neighborhoods. They'll be right back after the cops leave the scene anyway.

Forgotten Films: Who Is The Black Dahlia?

I usually run this blog on Tuesdays, but this week I am pushing to complete the edits on a new cozy mystery in my series. Anyway, this made-for-TV 1975 movie traces the last few days of the 22-year-old aspiring actress Elizabeth Short, the famous 1947 L.A. murder victim popularly known as The Black Dahlia. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr,. and Ronny Cox star as the pair of world-weary L.A. homicide detectives who also do the narration. The attractive Lucie Arnaz plays Elizabeth, and Tom Bosley (always good to see him) is a newspaper reporter working the crime beat. It's a fairly good movie and leaves me wondering just did happen to her after she was last seen by the cabbie outside the hotel when she came out. The movie trivia indicates Lucie's famous mother Lucille Ball objected to her daughter playing the Elizabeth Short role. Efrem was in the F.B.I. TV series I remember liking to watch. I also recall Ronny Cox as playing Drew in the 1972 male adventure film Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. IMDb.com rates this film 7.2/10.0 which I think is a bit generous. Nonetheless it does get you thinking about the sensational murder all those years ago.

Mass Shooting at the Washington Navy Yard & Baseball

During the waning days to the 2013 baseball season, there was a mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard resulting in 13 fatalities. The Navy Yard sits about five blocks down from the Washington Nationals Stadium. We pass by the Navy Yard while using the subway to reach the stadium on game days. Monday night's scheduled game was postponed for a doubleheader played yesterday. I'm glad Monday's game was cancelled and rescheduled. Yesterday's crisp, clear weather was terrific for playing autumnal baseball. For an afternoon and an evening there was a pleasant diversion from the murderous chaos and insanity that had taken place just a short ways down the street. There were a lot of Navy personnel in attendance at the stadium. Baseball seems to have a calming effect on us spectators and fans. I remember after 9/11 how good and reassuring it felt to see the games played. The 2013 season will end in a few weeks, but the horror at the Navy Yard won't be easily forgotten.

My Watching the Films Noir Has So Far to Go

Most film historians agree the classic film noir genre began in 1940 with The Stranger on the Third Floor starring Peter Lorre and spanned some 300 films before it ended with Orson Welles' A Touch of Evil shot in 1958. Now admittedly many of the 300 films are mediocre ones and are perhaps not worth spending my time on trying to track down and watch. On the other hand, there might some real gems among them. There are some films I'll watch just for who stars in them. Dan Duryea, Robert Ryan, Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott, John Garfield, Mary Astor are a few stars that spring to mind. There are others, too. Edward G. Robinson is good. Bogart, Bacall, Mitchum, and so forth. But getting back to the 300 films, I'd have to watch one a week for six years straight to view the entire list. I don't envision that happening with everything else going on. I estimate I have watched two scores, maybe a few more. Many have fallen into the public domain. Some are available on DVD. I used to see the films noir on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel. So, let's get back to the screen and see what is coming on next.

Our Changing Library Systems in America

Recently a flap erupted over our library system's decision to purge 250,000 paper books from its shelves. A shrinking budget was one of the reasons cited as staffs are reduced and services are cut. The eventual plan is the physical space will be freed up as the library's offerings move into the digital age. Anyway, the idea of just destroying 250,000 books didn't go over very well. The local taxpayers (i.e., voters who put the Board of Supervisors in office) raised a big hullabaloo, so the discarded books process will be reviewed. I have to say I was a bit surprised when the news broke. As an author, I am acquainted with how libraries cull books from their holdings, since some of the books are my own novels. On the other hand, I can see the library system's point that new space has to be made for the new books coming in each year. I'm not sure where the happy medium lies on that point. Stay tuned as our world continues to evolve, I suppose.

This is the link to the Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinion...

I Keep a Cat, My Cozy Mystery Sleuths Keep a Dog

Actually I am both. It's just that keeping a cat where we live now is easier than keeping a dog for a pet. Dogs need lots of open spaces to run and work off their energy. Our city enforces a leash law, so that is not really an option. Our cat Frannie is good company during the day, so I am a happy pet owner. One of our neighbors has a bulldog who stops and sits on each street corner during their walks. He waits for a doggie treat before he will budge to continue their walk. It's funny to see because the bulldog never forgets what is due him. He is quite spoiled. When I developed my cozy mystery series, it was a toss-up on whether I'd give my two amateur sleuths Isabel and Alma a cat or a dog for their pet. In the end, decided to go with the dog since he gets them out of the house, and they have the perfect cover to also do a little snooping around their small town. Perhaps further down the line, I'll also bring a cat into the series where Isabel and Alma can have the best of two worlds.



Click to add Book #1, Quiet Anchorage, to your Goodreads bookshelf.



Click to add Book #2, The Cashmere Shroud, to your Goodreads bookshelf.

On My Mowing The Lawn Again

Many of my neighbors I've noticed use a lawn service crew to mow their grass. It gives a deserving somebody a job, and the crew members hustle, well-earning their pay. I cut my own grass, and I like doing it. I'm not sure why that is. It's a noisy, hot, tiring, and monotonous chore that has to be done at least once a week. I'd like to say I use the time while pushing the power mower back and forth thinking about my different writing projects, but a lot of times I just don't think of anything. When I'm finished and I cut off the power mower, I can look back over what I've accomplished. Maybe if I ever write a bestselling novel, and the money comes rolling in, I'll hire the crew to do my grass-cutting. I'm not holding my breath, so I'll just keep on mowing until I can't do it any longer.

Tuesday's Forgotten Films: The Big Heat

This 1953 cop film directed by the stylish Fritz Lang is considered one of the heavyweights in the film noir genre for good reason. It is very well done. The film is based on the 1952 William P. McGivern cop novel which I have not read but should. I've read a few of McGivern's other titles like Rogue Cop and his later title Night Of The Juggler and liked them. The Big Heat stars Glenn Ford as the hard-nosed, relentless Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion who investigates a fellow cop's alleged suicide due to a serious illness. Ford is also a family man, so we get to see the human side of the cop which gives his character more depth. Also of great interest is the young Lee Marvin as the sadistic thug Vince Stone. The talented Gloria Grahame plays his gun moll and girlfriend. There is a surprising amount of violence (but pretty tame by today's standards) for a 1953 picture. Glenn Ford (d. 2006) was an underrated actor from Hollywood's Golden Age. IMDb.com rates The Big Heat as 8.0/10.0 which strikes me as an even-handed assessment.

The Status of My 2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge

Goodreads tells me I have read 14 books toward my goal of 15 books. "Awesome, you're 4 books (24%) ahead of schedule!" Now that is something to feel good about on a Monday afternoon. I allowed myself about one leisure read a month because I didn't feel like I could get to more than that. But I have kept up pretty well. Most of my read novels are older titles I have had waiting on my To-Read-Pile, also known as the e-books I keep on my Kindle. I just finished reading Ed Lacy's Strip for Violence, an early pulp novel he wrote after returning home from his service in World War Two. I don't like the misleading title because it is a pretty good private detective story. I've got a couple of Westerns on deck I might start on soon. I hope your reading schedule is humming right along.

The Cozy Mysteries of Anne George

Reviewers and readers of my Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series have often it to the cozies written by Anne George. Up until after my first title was published, I'd never heard of or read Anne, so I consulted my local public library.

She wrote the Southern Sisters Mysteries about a pair of unalike 60-something sister sleuths: "the flamboyant Mary Alice and the prim and proper Patricia Anne" (quoted from Anne's terrific fan site containing the information about all her books and biography and maintained by Traci Bell at http://www.annegeorge.com/).

The sisters reside in the colorful small city of Birmingham, Alabama, where I've never been although I did a lot of defense work for the Redstone Arsenal, an Army installation outside of Huntsville. Anne's series ran for eight titles, the last one Murder Boogies with Elvis published in 2001.

Sadly, Anne passed away on March 14, 2001. I checked out Murder Gets A Life and very much enjoyed the vibrant characters and laid back Dixie setting. I liked the blend and balance of the seriousness and humor found in Anne's narrative. I don't know how many reader fans Anne still has out there, but I know she gained a new one here.

Article: "Mobster Chicago Used As The Colorful Back Story"

NOTE: I published the following article in Mystery Readers Journal, Summer 2013, about the Chicago setting I use in my crime noir Topaz Moon due out from Crossroad Press later this year.

When I wrote my new crime novel Topaz Moon, I needed to set my back story in a mobster city, and Chicago with its Al Capone and the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre heritage quickly came to mind. The biggest drawback, as I viewed it, was those old campy gangster clichés didn’t help to portray my gangsters with a fresh authenticity or vivid sharpness I wanted to get. So, I would have to use extra care in the construction of my Chicago characters to skirt their shopworn depictions. I’d visited Chicago a good while back, so I had at least a general idea of the cityscape.

To set the main narrative, a middle-aged criminal attorney, Hondo Gunn, is practicing in a small Virginia town called Emerald Shire where he falls for a younger lady, Aggie Essex, who works for an IT firm. Hondo in his younger days served as the consigliore (legal counsel) for an organized crime outfit headed by its ruthless chieftain, Drake Hardcastle. Also thrown into the mix is his equally ruthless while fetching daughter Maeve.

I suppose she could be considered the novel’s femme fatale although I believe the once popular film noir term is probably not used as much nowadays. At any rate, Maeve falls in love with Hondo, or at least her version of love. He quickly sees how vicious and dangerous she actually is, and he devises and executes a clever plan to escape Chicago’s trap.

They cut a grand deal whereby Hondo will be permitted to leave Chicago but then return if Maeve ever feels the need to make use of his legal talents. Years later, after Drake dies from suspicious circumstances, Maeve decides she must have Hondo back in Chicago to help her run the organized crime outfit she’s now inherited and is in charge of directing. The word goes out to Hondo practicing law in small town Emerald Shire, Virginia, that his services are required by his old boss’ daughter Maeve. Hondo is reluctant to live up to his side of their deal because he’s smitten with Aggie and wishes to remain close by her to continue their romance. When this news reaches Maeve, she grows disconcerted and takes more vigorous action to rein in her maverick lawyer who’d developed a mind of his own.

I use a great deal of back story to develop the relationship between Hondo and Maeve, all of it occurring in Chicago. Most of the scenes take place in the expensive restaurants and the Hardcastles’ well-guarded manor in Lincoln Park on the Chicago lakefront. I liked the sinister gangster association of the setting, but I had to be careful to show Hondo’s stubborn and independent streak. I didn’t want him to get lumped in with the other members of the organized crime outfit. He’s a country boy from Iowa who came to Chicago, the big city, to attend law school and then make his bones as a hotshot attorney.

He lets himself get taken in by the Hardcastles because he sees it as his ticket to becoming a somebody. Not until he’s well-entrenched in their business does he begin to experience serious regrets over his decision to cast his lot with them. He yearns to leave the hectic Chicagoan lifestyle and return to his simpler, slower days as a small town resident. It’s probably not fair to portray Chicago in this unflattering light (the “mobbed up” city) because I enjoyed my own time spent there even if it was in January, and does it get cold there. My mother-in-law is also from Chicago and its many outlying suburbs, so I have that connection, as well. I stayed at a writers residence in the suburb of Lake Forest located thirty-two miles from the downtown Chicago Loop.

Perhaps if I’d set the main narrative in Chicago, I would have enjoyed more room to show its more positive sides. But Topaz Moon is a crime noir using a compact plot and a snappy pace, constructed similar to the classic crime paperbacks from Gold Medal/Fawcett Books. I didn’t have a lot of words to use, so I kept my back story pared back, including my depiction of the city’s rich setting. However, Chicago does play an important function at the end of Topaz Moon, so it’s an integral part to my building of the narrative arc.

The End

#SampleSunday: The Cashmere Shroud by Ed Lynskey

Hi, Ed Lynskey here. I write a new cozy mystery series featuring a pair of senior sister sleuths, Isabel and Alma Trumbo, who live in Quiet Anchorage, Virginia. The opening paragraphs to Chapter 3 set the small town locale and describe the main characters in The Cashmere Shroud which is #2 in the series:

Start of Chapter 3:

To say little happened in the single traffic light hamlet of Quiet Anchorage would be a gross inaccuracy. It had surrendered the “quiet” component to its double-word name. Within the past year, a brace of murders—Jake Robbins and now Ray Burl Garner—had rocked the township, and murder wasn’t supposed to upset such rural pockets of tranquility. Long ago, Isabel and Alma had left Quiet Anchorage, but only because not everybody living there could find a good job at the bank, post office, or public schools. Isabel debated if their return after their retirements had been a mistake. They’d sought a lazier, slower lifestyle after their long decades toiling in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Quiet Anchorage was once a vital depot with a 50,000-gallon water tank to replenish the thirsty steam engines. The Coronet River meandered by Quiet Anchorage’s southern flank. The summer-long drought had depleted the river’s flow to the point where it trickled over the exposed red sandbars, black volcanic rocks, and deadfall trees.

The young folks picnicked and skinny dipped, if the mercury climbed into the three-figure digits as it had on more than one August afternoon. Canoeists and kayakers liked to traverse the Coronet River designated as one of Virginia’s scenic byways. However due to the drought making the water shallow, the sportsmen floating in their personal crafts dragged river bottom, so they had to substitute other leisure pursuits.

A historic steel truss railroad bridge erected during the first decade of the twentieth century spanned the Coronet River. Last year, the town council had voted to hire a local contractor (i.e., the mayor’s nephew) to repaint the bridge a silverish gray shade. Its industrial look pleased Alma while Isabel judged it as just shy of abominable. The sandy banks under the bridge offered a clean, shady spot where Sammi Jo liked to retreat, chill out while sitting on the driftwood log big as a sofa, and do her deepest thinking.

Toward sevenish o’clock, she relaxed on the log, dabbling her toes in the refreshing pool of water. As a rule of thumb, she preferred solitude when she was mulling over issues. For this visit, however, she had company. She didn’t mind it. Isabel perched on a nearby flat rock a couple steps behind Sammi Jo while Alma remained standing between the other two ladies.

End of #SampleSunday for The Cashmere Shroud by Ed Lynskey, Book #2 in the Isabel and Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series.

Apple Time: Gold Rush and My Other Favorite Varieties

The Farmer's Market we shop at is winding down its growing season. We buy a lot of apples, and our favorite variety is the Gold Rush which I read was developed from the Yellow Delicious back in the 1970s. Gold Rush also keep for long periods while kept in cold storage. At the end of last summer we bought a bunch of them to eat well into the autumn. It's a little late now in the summer for Gold Rush, but we have two other favorite apple varieties out now: Blondee and Honeycrisp (a sweet red apple). I remember we used to buy only Red Delicious and Yellow Delicious at the grocery store. Now there are many varieties offered for sale, a good thing for the consumers.

Recently, we toured Woodlawn Plantation located near George Washington's Mount Vernon which it was a part of originally. GW gave 2,000 acres to Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis his wife Martha's daugther from her first marriage and his nephew Major Lawrence Lewis. Got all that? Anyway, GW supposedly selected the spot on a small knoll overlooking the distant Potomac River. Go early in the day because the later tours get booked real fast. Another thing: there is no A/C. The tour guide lends you a straw fan, and it will come in handy throughout the tour because the old mansion gets a little hot and stuffy. The residents liked to entertain their guests downstairs. On the second floor, I could see the Potomac River better. The view is all-green, no modern condos or towers can be seen which is pretty cool. The tour takes about 45 minutes, and we could ask lots of questions the enthusiastic tour guide fielded with patience. All in all, it's a fun way to spend an afternoon.

My Latest Trip to the Secondhand Bookstore

I decided to take a run to our closest (<15 miles, that is) used bookstore and stock up for my autumn to-reads. I have lots of unread e-books on my Kindle, but after staring at the computer screen all day, sometimes I like to flip the paper pages if just for the change of pace. Someday we might not have any used bookstores around, but that day hasn't arrived. Anyway, I picked up four pretty good paperbacks I'm looking forward to reading soon.

#1. Deadly Honeymoon by Lawrence Block. Originally published in 1967 by Dell. Anything from Block earns my interest right off.

#2. Because the Night by James Ellroy. Published in 1984. I've enjoyed his other early cop novels, so I decided to try out this one, too. The Black Dahlia was also available, but for $5, I passed this time. My own writing doesn't earn enough to afford that price.

#3. Midnight Haul by Max Allan Collins. MAC writes some great crime novels, so I decided to give this one published in 1984 a go.

$4. Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 by John Godey. Two movies made of it that I know of spurred my interest to give this book a try. Also, it has the word Pelham in it like my Pelham Fell Here private eye book.

Tuesday's Overlooked Movies: The Blue Dahlia Starring Alan Ladd

This 1946 film noir has a lot going for it. Raymond Chandler wrote the script, his only one, that was sharp enough to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The third pairing of the popular Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake were the marquee stars. The title is pretty cool, the name of the nightclub where much of the action occurs. But I thought it was a little too slow-paced, and I got a bit lost in the plot. On the other hand, I liked the snappy dialogue (street slang like "frog march" is included), and William Bendix (always underrated) turns in a top-notch job playing a shell-shocked war vet with a metal plate in his skull. Ladd as a hardboiled Navy flyer is fine, but I'm a big fan since he made the classic Western film Shane. I probably was expecting more, and The Blue Dahlia failed to live up to my high expectations. At any rate, I'd like the see the other Ladd-Lake paired films at some point. IMDb.com gives The Blue Dahlia 7.1/10.0 which seems fair to me.

My Favorite Secondary Characters in My Cozy Mysteries

After my Isabel and Alma Trumbo protagonists in my new cozy mystery series, I have several favorite secondary characters that make their appearances in the stories. I do this because the series is supposed to be a fun read. I like to have fun with the secondary characters, so the readers will also have fun with them. Sammi Jo is Isabel and Alma's twentysomething assistant. Sammi Jo is a tough customer, but she loves the Trumbo sisters like her own family. I also include a trio of mature gentlemen called the Three Musketeers who keep an active ear out for any interesting news or gossip in their small town that may be of use to Isabel and Alma. There are other repeat characters who play lesser roles in the narrative, and many of them are likeable folks. Last but not least, Petey Samson is Isabel and Alma's pet mutt whose keen nose has been used in a couple of their cases. So, if you like to read stories with a lot of likeable characters, Isabel and Alma should fit your bill quite nicely.



Click to add Quiet Anchorage to your bookshelf.



Click to add The Cashmere Shroud to your bookshelf.

Current Film Review: Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Ain't Them Bodies Saints is a 2013 indie film that won a prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and has attracted good press, including a rave review I read in The New Yorker. So, with that glowing buildup, I went to check it out at the cinema, and I came away with a mixed reaction. I'll share only what doesn't constitute a spoiler, or at least what I see as one. Casey Affleck as Bob Muldoon and Rooney Mara as Ruth Guthrie give strong performances in their roles as star-crossed lovers in 1970s rural Texas. Bob has a penchant for stealing money, and Ruth seems to go alongbecause she's so in love with him. They get caught, and Bob is sent away to serve 25 to life for wounding a deputy sheriff in the shootout. Ruth is pregnant and has a baby girl she names Sylvie. Bob busts out of the state pen and returns to get his Ruth and Sylvie. Of course they face obstacles, and Bob is one determined desperado. I'm a big fan of backstory in fiction and film, and I just don't get enough of it here. I wanted to care more about their relationship. Anyway, Keith Carradine plays a meaty role as the easy-mannered hardware storekeeper who is also a local crime boss. The outstanding acting and convincing setting left me with an overall favorable opinion of what could easily pass for the country noir of Daniel Woodrell, William Gay, Tom Franklin, or Ron Rash.