I’m presently in the middle of Mick Herron’s Spook Street (2017) and Slow Horses, Season 4–which is based on Spook Street–begins on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, September 4. I’ll have Spook Street read before I start watching Slow Horses, Season 4 tomorrow.

The Slow Horses series follows a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents–and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). The head of MI5,  Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas), is under enormous pressure after a bombing. Needless to say, the Slow Horses get involved. I can’t wait to watch the six new episodes!

And more Good News: on January 2024, Slow Horses was renewed for a fifth series, which will be based on the fifth book in the series, London Rules.

Are you a fan of Slow Horses?

What if Sherlock Holmes was an Angel?

What if the Angel named Crow needed a roommate and accepted Doctor J. H. Doyle (a Watson clone) as a partner. What if London was full of vampires, werewolves, and Magic galore?

Blend in Jack the Ripper and a twist on The Sign of the Four and a few other classic Sherlock Holmes touches and you have The Angel of the Crows (Tor, 2020). Lovers of fantasy fiction and Sherlock Holmes will enjoy the adventures of Crow and Doyle. I found The Angel of the Crows.a bridge too far. I prefer my Sherlock Holmes pastiches grounded in more substance and less fantastical surroundings.

I’ve enjoyed James Lovegrove’s mashup of Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu but that’s about as far as I’m willing to go with extending A. Conan Doyle’s creation. But if you’re fond of vampires and werewolves and Magic, by all means check out The Angel of the Crows. C+

Monsieur Spade is an American neo-noir television miniseries created by Scott Frank and Tom Fontana, and starring Clive Owen as Dashiell Hammett‘s fictional private detective Sam Spade.

This six-episode series is mostly set in 1963 with Sam Spade retired in France. The little village of Bozouls panics when six nuns are murdered at a nearby church. Spade gets out of his luscious swimming pool, dons the trench coat, and goes looking for trouble.

In addition to Clive Owen’s solid performance, I liked Teresa (Cara Bossom), the 15-year-old Sam Spade pledged to protect. Teresa discovers her own capacity for investigation at a key moment. Patrice Michaud (Denis Ménochet) plays the cynical chief of police who acts as a kind of Lestrade figure to Spade’s Sherlock. Then there’s the pair of eccentric and highly suspicious Brits (Matthew Beard and Rebecca Root) who move in next door and reek of danger! Add a war veteran (Stanley Weber) suffering from PTSD and the mixture of crime, deception, and violence is complete. A Second Season of Monsieur Spade is being considered. Are you a Dashiell Hammett fan? GRADE: B

Bill Crider is best known for his Sheriff Dan Rhodes series. But Bill was a versatile writer and would occasionally branch out into other characters and settings. One of my favorite Bill Crider series is the Professor Sally Good series.

Dr. Sally Good, chair of the Department of English at Hughes Community College, just violated one of the major rules for department chairs: never date the staff. Of course Sally hadn’t actually dated Jack Neville, but she had said yes when he asked her to go out with him.

Dating is put on hold as Jack Neville comes under suspicion of murdering one of the college trustees, and faces arrest. Sally plunges into the investigation to clear Jack.

If you’re a fan of Sheriff Dan Rhodes, you’l also enjoy the antics of Professor Sally Good. Bill Crider was the Head of the Department of English at a community college so all the problems and difficulties Sally faces ring true! GRADE: B+

Professor Sally Good series:

• Murder Is An Art (St. Martin’s, 1999)
• A Knife in the Back (St. Martin’s, 2002)
• A Bond with Death (St. Martin’s, 2004)

Classic Rock Gold (2005) presents a variety of music from oddities like Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” to more well known hits like Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” I’m fond of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” with Brenda Lee “Comin’ On Strong.”

Included in this 2-CD set is one of my favorite songs by The Cars, “Just What I Needed.” That’s a song I replay a lot!

Our local NHL hockey team uses The Scorpions’ “Rock You Like a Hurricane” for their intro music to their on-air TV broadcasts.

Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

Jan Carson is an Irish writer and Quickly, While They Still Have Horses (2024) is her first book published in North America. After reading these 16 short stories, my opinion of Carson’s work is “unsettling.” Take the first story in the book, “A Certain Degree of Ownership,” for example. A distracted couple on a deserted beach don’t notice their baby is crawling towards the ocean.

In “Grand So,” a car is haunted by the ghost of its previous owner who lurks in the backseat. A confused father loses his two sons in an adventure park in “Fair Play.”

I was most affected by the title story, “Quickly, While They Still Have Horses.” A man deals with a difficult woman who only seems to like horses. Also troubling is “Victor Soda” where residents of a small village send their virgin daughters to an older man for sex education before they are to be married.

If you’re in the mood for some dark stories set in Ireland, give Quickly, While They Still Have Horses a try. GRADE: B-

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. A Certain Degree of Ownership — 1
2. Grand So — 7
3. Fair Play — 21
4. 4. Tinged — 41
5. 5. Quickly, While They Still Have Horses — 53
6. 6. Victor Soda — 67
7. 7. Pillars — 91
8. 8. Jellyfish — 103
9. 9. Mostly People Just Throw Bricks — 119
10. 10. Bat McElhatton Learns to Drive — 141
11. 11. Caravan — 159
12. 12. Troubling the Water — 175
13. 13. In the Car with the Rain Coming Down — 187
14. 14. One-Hander — 211
15. 15. Coasters — 231
16. 16. Family Circle — 253
17. A Note on Previously Published Stories — 265
18. Acknowledgments — 267
19. About the Author — 271

Only Murders in the Building, Season 4 begins tonight on HULU. Diane and I have enjoyed the first three seasons. For those of you new to this TV season, three residents who are obsessed with solving crimes work together when they’re faced with real murders in the New York City building they live in, The Arconia. Now the Arconia’s silly murder-solving trio is back with more crimes to solve.

Season 4 starts with an episode where Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short) are heading to Los Angeles. A Hollywood studio is making plans to turn their podcast into a film, while dealing with the shocking murder of Charles’ stunt double and friend Sazz Patak (Jane Lynch), who was murdered in the last episode of Season 3. Can’t wait to see all 10 episodes of this new season!

Are you a fan of Only Murders in the Building?

Summer of 1982 Science Fiction/Fantasy movies:

1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Universal): $359.2 million
2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount): $78.9 million
3. Poltergeist (MGM): $76.6 million
4. Conan the Barbarian (Universal): $76.6 million
5. Tron (Disney): $33 million
6. Blade Runner (Warner Brothers): $27.6 million
7. The Road Warrior (Warner Brothers): 23.7 million
8. The Thing (Universal): 19.9 million. (p. 242-243): 

“The results for 1982 are now in: The year was a box-office bonanza for movie-makers. More than $3.4 billion worth of tickets were sold across the country, a box-office record.” –Aljean Harmetz, New York Times (p. 246)

Chris Nashawaty’s The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 takes a deep dive into the eight movies Nashawaty claims set the movie industry on a whole new course. Nashawaty writes about how these films got to be made despite some long odds.

Steven Spielberg, at the height of his powers, conceives E.T. as an unusual family tale–and is initially rejected by Columbia’s Frank Price. Then Spielberg takes over the troubled production of Poltergeist, a horror film he had been working on for years. More problems.

Ridley Scott, with his success with Alien, jumps at the opportunity to tackle a Philip K. Dick story that becomes Blade Runner-a box office failure that became a cult classic. But the production was a nightmare.

Nashawaty’s stories of how films like Tron, Conan the Barbarian, and The Thing got made are also fascinating.. Since these three films were “outside the box” the directors faced endless complaints and problems from film executives.

Nashawaty argues these films presented a fabulous turning-point in Hollywood history. The market for high-concept films, rabid fanbases, incredible merchandising potential, and the prospect of endless sequels. If you’re interested in Hollywood movie history, The Future Was Now reveals plenty of secrets! How many of the Nashawaty’s eight films have you seen? GRADE: A

“Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” Winston Churchill

Substitute “capitalism” for “democracy” and “economic system” for “Government” and that quote is still valid. You might remember Ben Stein has a deadpan comedian with many Late Night show appearances. Stein is also a big believer in the positive power of Capitalism to improve our lives.

Ben Stein began his career as a speechwriter for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before entering the entertainment field as an actor, comedian, and game show host. Stein is best known on screen as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as the host of Win Ben Stein’s Money, and as Dr. Arthur Neuman in The Mask and Son of the Mask. Stein’s love for Capitalism makes sense once you know he’s the son of famous economist and writer Herbert Stein, who worked at the White House under President Nixon. 

While The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich! (2017) is basically a Love Letter to Capitalism, I have some reservations with Stein’s passion for an economic system that can create vast inequalities–as we see today.

For Capitalism to work optimally, there needs to be an educated populous, a free and fair legal system, and a political system that regulates the excesses (like price-gouging and price fixing) that greedy capitalists resort to when unchecked. We have none of those aspects working correctly right now. That’s why we have so many Food Banks and homeless people and billionaires who pay no income taxes.

Despite my skepticism of Ben Stein’s little book, I did like his quoting of business leaders. My favorite quote from The Capitalist Code: It Can Save Your Life and Make You Very Rich! is “An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan.” Warren Buffett said that and it is very true. GRADE: C+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Dedication — vii

Acknowledgments — ix

Chapter One: Never Too Early for the Truth — 1

Chapter Two; How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Capitalism — 17

Chapter Three; The Pre-Dad Class — 31

Chapter Four; A Glory of Life — 61

Chapter Five; The Belly of the Capitalist Pig — 105

Chapter Six; Conclusion — 117

Final Note — 123

Appendix A — 125

Appendix B — 133

Glossary — 137

Further Reading — 147

Index — 151

About the Author — 161