Film Review of The Dry by Jane Harper, 2020
The Dry is a 2020 film adaptation of the Mystery Crime Thriller debut novel by Jane Harper published in 2016. Investigator Aaron Falk played by Eric Bana gets a note. It says, “Luke lied. You lied. You need to be here for the funeral.” The “funeral” is for Falk’s teenage friend, Luke Hadler, his wife […]
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And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None Agatha Christie Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 2011 Mystery genre, one of Agatha Christie’s most popular books Brief Synopsis The main characters in the plot are ten people who are invited to a week long vacation on a private island. They don’t know each other and they all received […]
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Agatha Christies Personal Mystery
During her career, Agatha wrote and published her novels in a timely manner but when tasked with writing her autobiography it took 15 years to write and it was published after her death. Even in her autobiography, she maintained her privacy and withheld the details related to her disappearance. In her autobiography Agatha refused to […]
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Movie Review: Murder Mystery 2019
Police officer Nick Spitz and his wife Audrey take a trip to Italy for their 15th wedding anniversary. During their flight, they meet Charles Cavendish, who invites them to spend a weekend in Monaco on his family yacht. The guests on board the yacht include Tobey, Suzi Nakamara, Grace Ballard, Colonel Ulenga, Sergei Radjenko, Maharajah […]
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Dublin Murders: One at A Time, Please!
In her 1999 autobiographical diary, Time to Be in Earnest, mystery legend P.D. James describes a disagreement with Ecosse Films over the portrayal of P.I. Cordelia Gray, first introduced in James’ 1972 novel, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. James writes of her experience: “The moral here is never let go of the rights to […]
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Hard-Boiled Heroines: Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Phryne Fisher, the main character in the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mystery Series, based on Kerry Greenwood’s novels, is the epitome of the female hard-boiled detective. Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis), is a Post-World War 1 detective and socialite with a penchant for solving mysteries. Although she originally gets into the detective business to discover and avenge […]
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Much to Like about “The Likeness”
In a 2009 Guardian article, award-winning novelist John Banville was questioned about whether his Detective novels deserved to be treated as true literature. “When I get up in the morning,” he said dryly, “I ask my wife whether I should write a Booker Prize winning novel, or another bestselling crime book. And we always come […]
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Gold Coast, Elmore Leonard, 1980
Elmore Leonard’s Gold Coast is classified as a fiction crime thriller and opens on Karen Di Cilia recognizing that her husband is having an affair with a real estate woman. Karen’s confrontation over the affair seems minimal enough, other than her act of smashing in her husband’s car with her own vehicle in front of […]
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Film Review (Kind of): “Cats Are Poor Dumb Things”
Image from Best Buy The Postman Always Rings Twice is a film starring Lana Turner and John Garfield and was released in 1946. We are once again exposed to the gritty underbelly of the city of Los Angeles. The two protagonists are dreamers desperately clinging to lives they think they deserve, and ultimately become embroiled […]
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A Film Review: Knives Out (2019)
Knives Out is a mystery film released in September 2019 by Lionsgate Films, directed by Rian Johnson, produced by Ram Bergman, and starring Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, and Christopher Plummer. Synopsis: A wealthy, mystery fiction writer, Harlan Thrombey, is found dead in his study the night after his 85th birthday celebration, which […]
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Berkeley Mystery Fiction 