I read my first Matt Helm spy novel when I was 11 years old in 1960. Matt Helm works for a super secret spy agency and specializes in assassinations (he’s great with a rifle!), a master of hand-to-hand combat, and a stone-cold killer.

I enjoyed Matt Helm novels more than James Bond novels…at least for the first 10 books in the series. The novels got longer, Matt Helm didn’t crush as many enemy spy kidneys, and there was more and more blah, blah, blah in the later books. I stopped reading Matt Helm novels in 1977 with The Terrorizers. And, don’t get me started on the goofy Matt Helm movies starring Dean Martin!

I recently attended a Library Book Sale and there was Matt Helm #21, The Infiltrators. And, in a moment of weakness, I bought it and read it. Matt Helm’s mission is to protect a woman, Madeleine Ellershaw, who just finished serving 8 years in prison for assisting her scientist husband in spying for the Russians. Matt Helm quickly decides the Ellershaws were framed. The proof that something is wrong happens early as assassination attempts on Madeleine Ellershaw are thwarted by Helm and a backup team of agents.

These are low-tech spy novels: no satellites, no computers, no exotic weaponry. It’s rifles, pistols, and machine guns. Helm takes more than normal physical punishment in this book, but he gets the job done. If you’re in the mood for a traditional spy novel with blah, blah, blah, The Infiltrations might just qualify as a moderately entertaining Summer Book. GRADE: C

MATT HELM SERIES:

1 Death of a Citizen (1960)
2 The Wrecking Crew (1960)
3 The Removers (1961)
4 The Silencers (1962)
5 Murderers’ Row (1962)
6 The Ambushers (1963)
7 The Shadowers (1964)
8 The Ravagers (1964)
9 The Devastators (1965)
10 The Betrayers (1966)
11 The Menacers (1968)
12 The Interlopers (1969)
13 The Poisoners (1971)
14 The Intriguers (1973)
15 The Intimidators (1974)
16 The Terminators (1975)
17 The Retaliators (1976)
18 The Terrorizers (1977)
19 The Revengers (1982)
20 The Annihilators (1983)
21 The Infiltrators (1984)
22 The Detonators (1985)
23 The Vanishers (1986)
24 The Demolishers (1987)
25 The Frighteners (1989)
26 The Threateners (1992)
27 The Damagers (1993)

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 15 years since these songs competed for Grammy Awards. As you might recall,  Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, winning five awards, including Album of the Year for their critically acclaimed album Raising Sand. Krauss became the sixth female solo artist to have won 5 awards in one night, joining Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Beyoncé Knowles, and Amy Winehouse.

Katy Perry made waves with her “I Kissed A Girl.” Duffy’s “Mercy” was the last nomination for a talented singer whose career imploded.

As usual, this sampler includes new groups and old groups, new performers and older performers. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B

TRACK LIST:

I’m a big fan of Martin Edwards’s anthologies (you can read some of my reviews here and here). The Measure of Malice: Scientific Detection Stories (2020) presents 14 stories that use scientific and technical know-how to solve crimes. The anthology starts out with one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories: “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” where the crime is solved with a focus on footprints and Holmes’s monograph “on the ashes of 140 different varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco.” (p. 2)

L. T. Meade is a writer new to me, but her two stories–with different partners–impressed me. “The Horror of Studley Grange” involves two sick people whose issues concern a clever physician. “The Man Who Disappeared” centers around a fabulous gold mine and a “scientific” application to make a body disappear.

Also of note is Anthony Wynne’s “The Cyprian Bees,” the first mystery story I’ve ever read where bees are the method of murder. I’m a fan of R. Austin Freeman’s Doctor Thorndyke mysteries. and “The Contents of a Mare’s Nest” is complicated and a challenge to Thorndyke and the reader. H. C. Bailey is largely forgotten, but he wrote a twisty story in “The Broken Toad.” What a creepy family he concocted!

If you’re looking for a high quality mystery anthology, I recommend The Measure of Malice. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction — vii

The Boscombe Valley Mystery / Arthur Conan Doyle — 1

The Horror of Studley Grange / L. T. Meade and Clifford Halifax — 34

The Tragedy of a Third Smoker / C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne — 66

The Man Who Disappeared / L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace — 80

The Cyprian Bees / Anthony Wynne — 111

The English Filter / C. E. Bechhofer Roberts — 134

The Contents of a Mare’s Nest / R. Austin Freeman — 155

After Death the Doctor / J. J. Connington — 179

The Broken Toad / H. C. Bailey — 213

In the Teeth of the Evidence / Dorothy L. Sayers — 252

The Case of the Chemist in the Cupboard / Ernest Dudley — 271

The Purple Line / John Rhode — 290

Blood Sport / Edmund Crispin — 302

The New Cement / Freeman Wills Crofts — 309

“A desperate father, alongside a tenacious cop, battles his own demons on the streets of 1980s New York as he searches for his missing nine-year-old son.”–Netflix

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Vincent Anderson, an alcoholic puppeteer, whose marriage is failing. His TV program Good Day Sunshine–think Sesame Street–is suffering from lower ratings. Then, his 9-year-old son, Edgar (Evan Howe), disappears–a parent’s worst nightmare!

Set in the 1980s and based on an actual case, the series of six episodes asks the audience to follow Cumberbatch and a hallucinatory big blue puppet named Eric as they travel the subway system searching for Edgar. I found the hallucinatory big blue puppet quirky and weird–not in a Good Way.

There’s also a subplot dealing with Mikey Ledroit (McKinley Belcher III) of the NYPD’s Missing Persons Unit. I also liked the performance of the long-suffering wife and mother (Gaby Hoffmann). [SLIGHT SPOILER!]: I fault the writers of Eric who have the mother engage in sex with an old boyfriend in the middle of the frantic search for her son. I found that completely unbelievable. [END SPOILER]

Watching Cumberbatch traveling with an illusory big blue puppet was hard to watch for six episodes. You mileage may differ. I also didn’t like the ending. GRADE: C

With Donald J. Trump, presumptive Nominee for President of the Republican Party, now a convicted felon the danger to Democracy in America just amped up. Trump needs to win the Presidency to defend himself from more serious legal problems posed by the Justice Department and Jack Smith. You can bet if Trump wins in November, he’ll gut the Justice Department and fire Jack Smith. And pardon himself.

Will November’s Election be our last Presidential Election? Many commentators who know Trump claim if he gets back into the White House, he will NEVER leave. Dire times ahead! What do you think?

I’m always looking for good tasting snacks with moderate carbohydrates. I was in Sam’s Club last week and walked by a kiosk where a little old lady was handing out free samples of Triple Berry Nut Trail Mix.

So I tried the “Tasty Blend of Dried Cranberries, Rick Dark Chocolate, Almonds, Walnuts, Pumpkin Seeds, Dried Blueberries, Dried Cherries, and Cashews.” Yummy!

I like all the ingredients in this mix. The price was right so I bought a bag and enjoy this healthy snack. Do you like trail mix? What’s your favorite snack? GRADE: B+

Check out the cast of Unfrosted:

• Jerry Seinfeld: Plays Bob Cabana and also directed and co-wrote the film
• Melissa McCarthy: Plays Donna “Stan” Stankowski
• Jim Gaffigan: Plays Edsel Kellogg III
• Amy Schumer: Plays Marjorie Post
• Hugh Grant: Plays Thurl Ravenscroft as Tony the Tiger
• James Marsden: Plays Jack LaLanne
• Thomas Lennon: Plays Harold von Braunhut
• Jack McBrayer: Plays Steve Schwinn
• Bobby Moynihan: Plays Chef Boyardee
• Bill Burr: Plays President John F. Kennedy
• Christian Slater: Plays Mike Diamond

Other cast members include Max Greenfield, Fred Armisen, Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney, and Drew Tarver. Plus a number of surprise celebrity cameos!

Jerry Seinfeld wrote and directed this story of the origin of the Pop Tart. It’s silly and weird! Be prepared for a wacky ride if you decided to watch this strange movie. GRADE: B

For 30 years or so, I’ve seen books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child in Book Sales and on remainder tables. I have never bought one of their many books nor read their work…until I read the first review of their books that I’d ever seen.

The brilliant David Vineyard, who contributes frequently to Steve Lewis’s excellent blog, Mystery*File, wrote a review of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s The Cabinet of Dr. Leng–the 21st book in the Special Agent Pendergast series. Not only did the review highlight elements that intrigued me, David’s comment to me gave me direction and motivation:

1. David L Vineyard Says:
   March 25th, 2024 at 1:50 p.m. My personal reading recommendation for this long series would be to start with RELIC (and its sequel RELIQUARY), and then jump to the Diogenes and Helen trilogies that fill in a great deal of Pendergast’s intriguing history. BRIMSTONE, featuring Count Fosco as a villain, is far and away my favorite among the books, I was always a fan of the boys, loving books like ICE LIMIT and RIPTIDE, but the Pendergast saga has really grown on me.The books are a saga, and you could easily read them in order, but it isn’t necessary in order to enjoy them. Other stand outs in the series are THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, STILL LIFE WITH CROWS, THE WHEEL OF DARKNESS, CEMETARY DANCE, THE OBSIDIAN CHAMBER, and VERSES FOR THE DEAD. The Diogenes Trilogy consists of BRIMSTONE, DANCE OF DEATH, and BOOK OF THE DEAD. The Helen Trilogy: FEVER DREAM, COLD VENGANCE, and TWO GRAVES. There really hasn’t been anything quite like this since the 19th Century French feullitons, newspaper serials like the works of Dumas and Hugo, but also Ponson Du Terrail’s Rocambole saga, Paul Feval’s the Black Coats saga, or Jean de la Hire’s tales of the Nyctalope.

How could I resist after reading that comment! I immediately visited my favorite used bookstores and found Relic (1995) and Reliquary (1997). A couple days later, I finished both books and happily agree with David Vineyard on the Pendergast Saga. Pendergast–in the first two books of the series–casts an enigmatic shadow on the investigations. In Relic, Pendergast shows up on page 78; in Reliquary, he shows up on page 108. Events are in motion when Pendergast appears unbidden to assist in the mysteries.

The action in Relic takes place mostly in the New York Museum of Natural History as visitor are being savagely murdered. The police are confused by these seemingly random killings. Museum researcher Margo Green uses her scientific expertise to point Pendergast towards a bizarre explanation for the dead bodies. GRADE: B+

The action gets ramped up in the sequel to Relic, Reliquary. Margo Green is again involved in a series of savagely murdered victims. The trail leads to the warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries beneath Manhattan where thousands of homeless people live. But something new and deadly has been added to the underground societies. Lieutenant D’Agosta, Pendergast, and Green again face danger as a massive catastrophic event is about to occur. GRADE: B+

I’m currently tracking down the other books in the Pendergast series!

There’s plenty to debate in considering the rankings (and album choices) on Apple Music’s latest list of the 100 Best Albums of All Time. How can Frank Ocean’s Blonde rank higher than Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde? Only one Rolling Stones album? Taylor Swift’s 1989 ranking higher than Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run? Radiohead’s OK Computer higher than Carole King’s Tapestry?

Clearly, Apple Music’s staff generated a list of albums to create controversy and increased traffic on their music website. Do you agree with these goofy Apple Music choices and rankings? Is your favorite album included in this list?

Steven Erikson, best known for the fantasy series The Malazan Book of the Fallen, has also written a number of novellas set in the Malazan world like The Fiends of Nightmare (2016). Necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach were minor characters in Erikson’s The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, only appearing in Memories of Ice. But fans loved the dark humor of the necromancers and Erikson responded by writing novellas about them for the past 20 years.

“Aye, sir, sly as a fox you are, that’s for sure.”

“I am not sure, Mister Reese, if I like the comparison. Foxes are often the prey of frenzied packs of dogs let loose by the inbred classes, after all. I do not see myself as the object of such sport.” (p. 85)

That’s snippet of conversation between Bauchelain and Emancipor Reese who is the necromancers’ aging manservant. He frequently uses drugs and alcohol to numb his mind to the bizarre acts he witnessed working for the deadly duo. 

In this 100 page novella, the story takes place in the dismal kingdom of Farooq. The King has been murdered and on the throne now sits Bauchalain, with Korbal Broach acting as the Grand Bishop, terrorizing the peasants. Since becoming a self-professed tyrant monarch, Bauchalain has emptied the Treasury. All actors and musicians have been arrested for their crimes against humanity. To distract the populous from the rampant corruption and increasing violence, Bauchalain declares war against the border state of Nightmaria, land of solitary lizard-people.

Bauchalain summons demons and the chaos is complete.

I have to be in the mood for these dark fantasy comedies with their wild action and headless corpses running amok. But, when I am in the mood for dark magic and dark deeds, these Bauchelian and Korbel Broach novellas are Guilty Pleasure. GRADE: B

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach series:
   1. Blood Follows (2002)
   2. The Healthy Dead (2004)
   3. The Lees of Laughter’s End (2007)
   Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (2007)
   4. Crack’d Pot Trail (2009)
   5. The Wurms of Blearmouth (2012)
   6. The Fiends of Nightmaria (2021)
   Upon A Dark of Evil Overlords (2021)