As Marv Lachman said during the DEADLY PLEASURES panel at BOUCHERCON #50, “It’s had to pick the right book to read on a plane.” My go-to books for trips that involve flying are Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books. I find them easy reading and involving page-turners. Perfect for a cramped plane with crying children, intermittent announcements on the loudspeakers, and roaring engines.

Personal (2014) is the 19th book in the Jack Reacher series. It takes Reacher until page 190 to beat the crap out of a Bad Guy…a record of restraint for Jack. Reacher decides to assist some old Army colleagues in tracking down a rogue sniper who failed to kill the President of France only because of some new bullet-resistant glass. The scenes in France, and later England, show that Lee Child must have visited the crime scenes because they ring true with richness of detail. Child links Reacher with a young, anxious State Department rookie who Reacher decides to mentor during the mission. As I mentioned above, the pages fly by and I happily filled the time in the air to Dallas and the flights back to Buffalo with the exciting hunt for the sniper before he can assassinate the leaders of the G-8 (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Russia). If you’re looking for a fast, satisfying read, I recommend Personal. GRADE: B+

As you might know by now, I love these silly LEGO animated films. Justice League vs. Bizarro League features Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Cyborg…and their Bizarro World counterparts. Together, they have to find a way to work together to defeat Darkseid and save the galaxy! GRADE: B+

SPECIAL FEATURES:
Batman Be-Leaguered Animated TV Special
ME AM Bizarro Featurette
BE-LEAGUERED Bloopers

THE GOOD:
1. Having fun with Art Scott, Patti Abbott, Jeff and Jackie Meyerson, Angela Crider Neary (and her husband, Tom), Marv and Carol Lachman, Rick Ollerman, Ted Hertel, Beth Fedyn, Ted Fitzgerald, Gary Warren Niebubr, Thom Walls, Maggie Mason, Richard Moore, James Reasoner, Scott Cupp, Joe R. Lansdale, Paul Bishop, Janet Rudolph, and George Easter.
2. Art Scott’s incredible “The Art of the Paperback Mystery” slide show (more on that later)
3. The Hyatt Regency provided a wonderful venue for BOUCHERCON #50. Spacious rooms, quick elevators, and numerous (though sometimes cavernous) meeting rooms.
4. All the panels that celebrated our friend, Bill Crider. Bill got a lot of love at BOUCHERCON #50. Angela hosted a wonderful remembrance event, too!
THE BAD:
1. The BOUCHERCON #50 folks decided to go with a third party to provide for equipment needs instead of using the Hyatt Regency A/V staff. BIG MISTAKE! Despite the fact that Art Scott and I made our equipment needs known months ago–and were assured everything would be ready for our presentations–both Art and I found no equipment in our meeting room a half hour before our events were supposed to start! I alerted some BOUCHERCON staff when I found no projector or screen for my POWERPOINT representation. With minutes to spare, the A/V guys delivered a projector and the smallest screen I’ve ever seen. But, I also needed an HDMI-C chord to connect the laptop with the POWERPOINT presentation to the projector. The A/V guys didn’t have a HDMI-C chord! I was in despair, but my son, Patrick figured out a work-around as my panel was about to begin. My daughter, Katie ran the POWERPOINT presentation never missing a cue!
2. The next day, Art Scott encountered the same lack of equipment problem. I could have moderated my panel without my POWERPOINT presentation, but there’s no way Art could have simulated his presentation of paperback artwork without a projector. But, just in time, a projector and a miniature screen were found and set up. Art decided the mini-screen was just too small so he just projected the images on the wall of the meeting room and that worked fine. The audience loved it!
3. Poor Ted Hertel’s panel, “BOUCHERCON Reminiscences,” confronted a huge meeting room where people were eating lunch, no table on the dias, no microphones, and mass confusion when he tried to straighten things out. The panel was delayed about 10 minutes while a crew of burly men lugged tables in and set them up on the stage and hooked up some hand-held microphones. Not elegant, but it allowed the panel to get started.
THE UGLY:
This might be my last BOUCHERCON.

The 5-2 Buffalo Bills take on the 1-7 Washington Redskins. After being trounced by the Philadelphia Eagles 31-13, the Bills should be eager to resume their winning ways over an NFC East doormat. But, this is the NFL so the Bills better not play down to the quality of their opponent today. We’ll be watching the game in Airports today as we fly home from BOUCHERCON #50. How will your favorite NFL team perform today?

This Bruce Springsteen documentary captures The Boss singing all 13 songs from his 19th album, Western Stars (my review of the CD can be found here). Springsteen filmed this astonishing performance in a 140-year old barn on his property in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Springsteen is backed by a 30-piece orchestra, his wife–vocalist/guitarist Patti Scialfa, four harmony singers, and a quintet featuring drums, bass, pedal steel, piano, and electric guitar. The sound is fabulous!

Springsteen introduces each song with some thoughts on how he wrote it and the circumstances that fueled the emotions the song evokes. As I pointed out when I reviewed the CD, the songs are more mellow than you’ll find on most Springsteen albums. Some reviewers claim Western Stars is a homage to classic California pop songs from the late 1960s and 1970s. Clearly, Springsteen was influenced by Jimmy Webb.

The beauty of Western Stars depends on Emmy Award winner Thom Zimny who captures the complexity of the film’s subject. If you’re a Bruce Springsteen fan, this is a must-see. If you like music documentaries, Western Stars is one of the best. GRADE: A

The most famous story in The Great SF Stories #15 is Arthur C. Clarke’s classic “The Nine Billion Names of God.” But the best story is Jerome Bixby’s chilling “It’s a Good Life.” Theodore Sturgeon’s “A Saucer of Loneliness” is one of the early SF stories with a homosexual theme. And Theodore R. Cogswell’s “The Wall Around the World” made a big impression on me when I first read it decades ago. Do you see any of your favorite SF stories here? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION by Martin H. Greenberg 9
“The Big Holiday” by Fritz Leiber (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, January 1953) 13
“Crucifixus Etiam” by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, February 1953) 24
“Four in One” by Damon Knight (GALAXY, February 1953) 48
“A Saucer of Loneliness” by Theodore Sturgeon (GALAXY, February 1953) 86
“The Liberation of Earth” by William Tenn (FUTURE SCIENCE FICTION, May 1953) 102
“Lot” by Ward Moore (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, May 1953) 123
“The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke (STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, 1953) 155
“Warm” by Robert Sheckley (GALAXY, June 1953) 164
“Impostor” by Philip K. Dick (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, June 1953) 176
“The World Well Lost” by Theodore Sturgeon (UNIVERSE SCIENCE FICTION, June 1953) 194
“A Bad Day for Sales” by Fritz Leiber (GALAXY, June 1953) 216
“Common Time” by James Blish (SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY, August 1953) 224
“Time is the Traitor” by Alfred Bester (THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, September 1953) 250
“The Wall Around the World” by Theodore R. Cogswell (BEYOND, September 1953) 277
“The Model of a Judge” by William Morrison (GALAXY, October 1953) 308
“Hall of Mirrors” by Fredric Brown (GALAXY, December 1952) 322
“It’s a Good Life” by Jerome Bixby (STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES 2, 1953) 331

Just in time for Halloween, Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering’s Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery delivers an anthology of magic, mystery, and mayhem. My favorite story is Kelley Armstrong’s “Black Magic Momma: An Otherworld Story.” Armstong’s witch, Eve Levine, deals with plenty of supernatural baggage as she tries to protect and provide for her daughter. Armstrong’s urban fantasy blends witchery and criminal duplicity to produce an action-packed story. I also enjoyed “Toil & Trouble” by Sherrilyn Kenyon & Madaug Kenyon where the Kenyons show it never plays to double-cross witches. Hex Life concludes on a high note with Theodora Goss’s fractured fairy tale, “How To Become a Witch-Queen.” The Sleeping-Beauty story gains depth and strategy in Goss’s version.

If you’re in the mood for magic spells and spooky situations, Hex Life conjures up fear and fun. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS
An invitation to a burning / Kat Howard — 7
Widows’ walk / Angela Slatter — 17
Black Magic Momma: An Otherworld Story / Kelley Armstrong — 41
The Night Nurse / Sarah Langan — 63
The Memories of Trees / Mary SanGiovanni — 99
Home: A Morganville Vampires Story / Rachel Caine — 117
The Deer Wife / Jennifer McMahon — 147
The Dancer / Kristin Dearborn — 169
Bless Your Heart / Hillary Monahan — 187
The Debt / Ania Ahlborn — 207
Toil & Trouble / Sherrilyn Kenyon & Madaug Kenyon — 223
Last Stop on Route Nine / Tananarive Due — 239
Where Relics Go to Dream and Die / Rachel Autumn Deering — 263
This Skin / Amber Benson — 275
Haint Me Too / Chesya Burke — 287
The Nekrolog / Helen Marshall — 309
Gold Among the Black / Alma Katsu — 333
How to become a Witch-Queen / Theodora Goss — 347

This new animated feature about the Addams Family captures both the creepiness and dark humor of Charles Addams’s brilliant cartoons. The title for this film could have been Mosters vs. HGTV. A massive new housing development opens near the Addams Family house and skullduggery results. The star of the housing development, Margoux Needler (Allison Janney), intends to destroy the Addams’s house which she sees as an eye-sore. Meanwhile, Gomez (Oscar Isaac) trains his son, Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), in the Addams Family tradition of the Mazurka, a rite of passage for Addams males. Wednesday (Chloe Grace Moretz) attends the local Middle School and learns many valuable lessons. I also enjoyed Morticia Addams (Charlize Theron) and her icy demeanor.

If you’re in the mood for a campy romp with a Halloween vibe, I’d recommend The Addams Family. Are you an Addams Family fan? Do you have a favorite Halloween movie? GRADE: B
VOICE CAST:
Oscar Isaac as Gomez Addams, Morticia’s husband.
Charlize Theron as Morticia Addams, Gomez’s wife.
Chloë Grace Moretz as Wednesday Addams, Gomez and Morticia’s daughter.
Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley Addams, Gomez and Morticia’s son.
Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester, Gomez’s brother.
Bette Midler as Grandmama, Gomez and Fester’s mother.
Conrad Vernon as Lurch, the Addams Family’s butler.
Vernon also voices a priest that presides over Gomez and Mortica’s wedding; the spirit that haunted the abandoned asylum that Gomez and Morticia move into (who often threatened anyone in to “Get Out!”, much to the family’s delight); and Dr. Flambe, a devil-like relative of the Addams family with fire-like abilities.
Snoop Dogg as Cousin Itt, Gomez and Fester’s hairy cousin.
Allison Janney as Margaux Needler, a sly and greedy reality TV show host and homemaking guru.
Elsie Fisher as Parker Needler, Margaux’s neglected and rebellious daughter who befriends Wednesday.
Tituss Burgess as Glenn, Margaux’s agent.
Pom Klementieff as Layla and Kayla, twin girls who are Parker’s friends.
Chelsea Frei as Bethany, a girl who picks on Parker.
Jenifer Lewis as Great Auntie Sloom, Grandmama’s dwarfish sister who uses stilts under her dress to appeared much taller than Grandmama.
Martin Short as Grandpa Frump, Morticia’s late father who Morticia contacts through a séance.
Catherine O’Hara as Grandma Frump, Morticia’s late mother who Morticia contacts through a séance.

After citing a number of examples of Bad Things happening when people trust strangers, Malcom Gladwell sums up with this passage: “We have, in other words, CIA officers who cannot make sense of their spies, judges who cannot make sense of their defendants, and prime ministers who cannot make sense of their adversaries. We have people struggle with their first impressions of a strange. We have people struggle when they have months to understand a stranger. We have people struggle when they meet with someone only once, and people struggle when they return to the stranger again and again. They struggle with assessing a stranger’s honesty. The struggle with a stranger’s character. They struggle with a stranger’s intent.” (p. 45)

Malcolm Gladwell documents dozens of examples of people trusting strangers…and paying a terrible price. Some are hurt physically, some mentally, some fatally. Gladwell’s supposition is that something in our DNA or mental programming predisposes us to trust complete strangers…usually to our detriment. Most of Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know” is a series of cautionary tales. The bottom line conclusion, after almost 400 pages, counsels caution and wariness in human interactions. But, you already knew that. GRADE: B-
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
AUTHOR’S NOTE xi
Introduction: “Step Out of the Car!” 1
PART ONE: SPICE AND DIPLOMATS: TWO PUZZLES
ONE: Fidel Castro’s Revenge 17
TWO: Getting in Know de Fuhrer 28
PART TWO: DEFAULT TO TRUTH
THREE: The Queen of Clubs 53
FOUR: The Holy Fool 89
FIVE: Case Study: The Boy in the Shower 107
PART THREE: TRANSPARENCY
SIX: The Friends Fallacy 145
SEVEN: A (Short) Explanation of the Amanda Knox Case 168
EIGHT: Case Study: The Fraternity Party 187
PART FOUR: LESSONS
NINE: KSM: What Happens When the Stranger Is a Terrorist? 235
PART FIVE: COUPLING
TEN: Sylvia Plath 265
ELEVEN: Case Study: The Kansas City Experiment 297
TWELVE: Sandra Bland 313
ACKNOWLEDGEMETNS 347
NOTES 349
INDEX 389