I’ve read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, the same with Edgar Allan Poe, and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mysteries. So I was a sucker for James Patterson and Brian Sitts’s Holmes Marple & Poe. And 118 chapters later, I’m here to warn you that very little of the greatest Holmes, Marple, and Poe show up in this novel.

Who are the Holmes, the Marple, and the Poe operating together in this book? We don’t find out. What we do find out is that their original names have been deliberately obscured and their Past thoroughly buried. We are given hints that the trio shared a history of military adventures and spy craft before entering their current investigative business. It’s also clear the Holmes-Marple-Poe Agency is a well-funded operation. And, if these three have lots of money, why do they need to run a private detective Agency? Questions for another book, perhaps…

Like his namesake, Brendan Holmes is a narcissist and drug addict. But brilliant. Miss Margaret Marple, like Agatha Christie’s Miss Jane Marple, can analyze a situation from perspectives her partners lack. This Miss Marple is younger than her namesake and is no stranger to combat. Lastly, Auguste Poe has a tragic backstory with a fiancé who died. Poe blames himself for her death. Poe also collects muscle cars, is an expert marksman, and very physical. Together, this trio takes on cases that baffle the police.

Holmes Marple & Poe might develop into an entertaining series, but the first book is sketchy. Do you read James Patterson books? GRADE: C

Roast Collection: Variety Pack Cup Coffee Pods: Veranda Blend, Breakfast Blend, House Blend, Caffee Verona 

CLASSIC FAVORITES: Variety Pack cup Coffee Pods: Veranda Blend, Caramel, Vanilla, and Toasted Coconut Mocha

Starbucks has introduced these Variety Packs of K-Cups recently. I bought these at BJ’s Warehouse for about $30 (with a coupon). If you like Starbucks coffee, this is a good way to sample various Starbucks coffee offerings. What’s your favorite coffee?

The Fall Guy, loosely based on the 1980s TV series that starred Lee Majors, is a mash-up of a Rom-Com with an Action Movie. Director David Leitch–once a stunt man before going behind the camera–and Screenwriter Drew Pearce produce a movie that glorifies those talented people doing the stunts in movies (and argues there should be an Oscar to recognize them). The Fall Guy features dozens of eye-popping stunts and plenty of explosions.

There’s real chemistry between stunt man Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) and talented camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Machiavellian movie producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) brings Colt back from retirement to work on a Sci-Fi movie that Jody is directing called Metal Storm. But double-dealing, treachery, and death-defying feats result.

A movie like The Fall Guy used to be called a Summer Movie before the Pandemic. I’m willing to go on record as saying The Fall Guy is a fun Summer Movie and you will enjoy it if you go see it! GRADE: A

SONGS INCLUDED IN THE FALL GUY :

• ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ – KISS
• ‘Fiesta’ – Daniel Indart
• ‘Thunderstruck’ – AC/DC
• ‘All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)’ – Taylor Swift
• ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ – Yungblud
• ‘All I Do Is Win’ – DJ Khaled
• ‘Any Way You Want It’ – Journey
• ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ – The Darkness
• ‘Genie In A Bottle’ – Christina Aguilera
• ‘Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)’ – Phil Collins

I read several books by John Bellairs to my kids before they became teenagers. Bellairs books featured youngsters not afraid to take some risks to solve mysteries that contained Supernatural elements. Of the several series Bellairs wrote, my favorite was the Lewis Barnavelt series. Lewis is a smart but chubby boy who gets picked on at school. His parents are dead and Lewis has been taken in by his uncle, Jonathan Barnavelt, a wizard. Needless to say, Lewis and his uncle stumble over all kinds of supernatural happenings.

The first three titles in the Lewis Barnavelt series were written by John Bellairs. Following Bellairs’ death in 1991, his estate commissioned Brad Strickland to write three more Lewis Barnavelt novels based on notes and manuscripts left by Bellairs. Strickland then went on to write six more original novels in the series.

The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder is the 5th book in the Lewis Barnavelt series. Lewis and his uncle travel to England to visit their cousin at the ancestral Barnavelt Manor. The Manor is in disrepair because Cousin Pelly is struggling financially. Lewis meets the housekeeper’s son, Bertie, who is blind. The boys explore the large garden maze and accidentally summon the ghost of Malachiah Pruitt, a 300 year old Witch-Finder, who tried to have one of Lewis’s ancestors executed for witchcraft. Pruitt uses his powers to stun Cousin Pelly and Uncle Jonathan so it’s up to Lewis and Bertie to wrestle with this powerful spirit and his spooky familiar.

While the Lewis Barnavelt books are classified as Young Adult novels, the stories are compelling and with each book the reader sees Lewis grow more confident in his battles with demonic forces. Fun reading! I recommend the entire series! GRADE: B+

Lewis Barnavelt novels:

1 The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973)
2 The Figure in the Shadows (1975)
3 The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (1977)
4 The Ghost in the Mirror (1993)
5 The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder (1993) (with Brad Strickland)
6 The Doom of the Haunted Opera (1995) (with Brad Strickland)

SERIES CONTINUED BY BRAD STRICKLAND:

7. The Specter from the Magician’s Museum (1998)
8. The Beast Under the Wizard’s Bridge (2000)
9. The Tower At the End of the World (2001)
10. The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost (2003)
11. The House Where Nobody Lived (2006)
 12. The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer (2008)

Cat Power (aka, Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall) produced two very different albums of cover songs. Back in 2000, she released The Covers Record with 12 songs performed with minimalist precision. Trust me: you’ve never heard “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” performed this way! My favorite song on The Covers Record is the “Sea of Love.”

In 2022, Cat Power brought out another album of covers. This time she’s backed by a band. My favorite song on Covers is an early Jackson Browne song–I first heard it on Nico’s Chelsea Girl album in 1967. There’s plenty of variety on Covers with songs by The Pogues, Bob Seger, Iggy Pop, The Replacements, and even Bille Holiday.

Are you a fan of cover albums? GRADE: THE COVERS RECORD: B-; COVERS: B

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

A few weeks ago I posted about Agatha Christie’s short story collections (you can read those reviews here and here). Jerry House mentioned that his favorite Christie short story collection was The Hound of Death. I searched my Agatha Christie shelves and came up empty. It took me a week to hunt down a copy of The Hound of Death but I got hold of a copy and quickly read it.

The Hound of Death was published in 1933. What was unusual about The Hound of Death was the collection was not published by Christie’s regular publishers, William Collins & Sons, but by Odhams Press, and was not available to purchase in shops. Many of the stories in The Hound of Death are available in other Christie short story collections, but the 12 stories in this collection center on psychological and supernatural aspects instead of detection and “little grey cells.”

Also notable is that “The Witness for the Prosecution” first appears in book form in The Hound of Death. No Miss Marple stories, no Hercule Poirot stories show up in The Hound of Death. But the spooky aspects of “The Hound of Death” and the eeriness of “SOS” show a different side of Agatha Christie. Thanks, Jerry, for motivating me to find and read this unusual collection! GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• “The Hound of Death” — 7
• “The Red Signal” — 37
• “The Fourth Man” — 71
• “The Gypsy” — 101
• “The Lamp” — 119
• “Wireless” — 135
• “The Witness for the Prosecution” — 161
• “The Mystery of the Blue Jar” — 197
• “The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael” — 231
• “The Call of Wings” — 263
• “The Last Séance” — 289
• “SOS” — 315

Dead Boy Detectives is an 8-episode series on Netflix.  Introduced in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, a ghost boy from the 1910s becomes best friends with a ghost boy from the 1990s and together they decided to solve mysteries.

Dead Boy Detectives are the late Edwin (George Rexstrew) and Charles (Jayden Revri)–both murdered at an English boys school–who run a supernatural detective agency where they solve the mysteries of ghosts, demons, and other spooky creatures.

The ghost boys team up with the amnesiatic psychic Crystal (Kassius Nelson) after exorcizing a demon from her. They work together to track down a missing child. Then the trio find themselves trapped in a small Pacific Northwest town bursting with supernatural mysteries.

From there, Edwin, Charles, and Crystal encounter a menagerie of strange beings. There’s a Cat King, an immortal witch, the nasty Dandelion Sprites, and an eerie goth lady running a creepy butcher shop. While solving mysteries, Edwin and Charles must also evade the Night Nurse (Ruth Connell), the immortal tasked with rounding up the lost souls of dead children and making sure they’re all in their designated afterlives. And, of course, there’s Death to deal with too. I’m only four episodes in, but I can confidently pronounce this ghostly series a real winner! GRADE: Incomplete, but trending towards a B+

“A grandmother visits with her grandson.

‘He’s seven, she says to me. “We’ve been reading a lot of books and I’ve been reading aloud to him, and I’m hoping for some recommendations for some new books.’

I smile. ‘We can definitely do that.’ I look to the boy a say, ‘Well, my friend, tell me what you like. Do you like fantasy books or do you like books that are more realistic, stories that could happen in real life?’

Without missing a beat, the seven-year-old looks at me and says, ‘ I like realistic fiction with an emotional twist.'” (p. 239)

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading celebrates people who sell books and help readers find books. James Patterson and Matt Eversmann love reading and use these dozens of short descriptions of what librarians and booksellers actually do in the United States and Canada to reveal the joys of books.

Of the many stories of librarians in this book, the one that stood out to me was the one about Diego Sandoval Hernadez, the Supervising Librarian for Jail and Prison Services at the Brooklyn Publican Library in Brooklyn, New York. Hernadez brings library books to Rikers Island for the prisoners.

And, of all the dozens of stories of bookstore workers included in The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, my favorite was Mike Bursaw’s exploits as owner of Mystery Mike’s in Carmel, Indiana. Mystery Mike specializes in First Editions, signed books, and buying massive collections. I love the story of Mike getting a phone call from a woman in Madison, Wisconsin:

“‘When my mother died,’ says the woman on the other end of the line, ‘my father devoted himself to collecting books. He took excellent care of them right up until the day he passed away.’

‘How many books are you looking to sell?’

‘Roughly fifty thousand.'” (p. 119)

Mike Bursaw recruits George Easter and Mike Dillman to join him in journey to Madison, Wisconsin to check out this massive book collection. Fascinating!

If you love books, booksellers, and librarians, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians shows how wonderful they truly are! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

AUTHOR’S NOTE — vii

Part one. To be a bookseller, you have to play detective — 1

Part two. I could talk about books forever — 71

Part three. I can’t imagine what people do without books in their lives — 141

Part four. It doesn’t matter what you like to read, as long as you like to read — 213

Part five. Just one more chapter, please, just one more chapter — 279

The off-season for the Buffalo Bills, after losing in the NFL Playoffs for the third year in a row, features upheaval and change. Wide receiver Stefon Diggs was traded to the Houston Texans. DE Leonard Floyd–who had 10 sacks for the Bills last season–opted to sign with the 49ers. And WR Gabe Davis is headed to Jacksonville as a free agent.  Other notable cuts: CB Tre’Davious White (injury), C Mitch Morse (salary cap), and WR Deonte Harty, S Jordan Poyer (too old). DB Siran Neal headed for Miami.

Bills General Manager Brandon Beane surprised Bills fans by moving out of #28 in the First Round to #32. Then, Beane moved back again to #33–the first pick in the Second Round. That’s when he drafted Keon Coleman.

The Bills made the following draft picks in the 2024 NFL Draft:

• Round 2: WR Keon Coleman, Florida State, No. 33 overall (from Panthers)
• Round 2: S Cole Bishop, Utah, No. 60
• Round 3: DT DeWayne Carter, Duke, No. 95 (from Chiefs)
• Round 4: RB Ray Davis, Kentucky, No. 128
• Round 5: C/G Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, Georgia, No. 141 (from Panthers)
• Round 5: LB Edefuan Ulofoshio, Washington, No. 160 (from Packers)
• Round 5: DE Javon Solomon, Troy, No. 168
• Round 6: T Tylan Grable, UCF, No. 204
• Round 6: CB Daequan Hardy, Penn State, No. 219
• Round 7: G Travis Clayton, International Player Pathway, No. 221 (from Chiefs)

Hopefully, these draft picks will help rebuild the Bills. How did your favorite NFL team do in the Draft?

AMAZON PRIME Video’s new 8-episode series, Fallout, is based on the award-winning 1997 video game of the same name. China and the U.S. have a nuclear exchange that pretty much destroys civilization. Now, 219 years later, events come to a critical point.

The first two episodes of Fallout introduce the characters and the plot. The post-nuclear holocaust world of Los Angles consists of “Vault dwellers,” communities who live underground in planned communities and “Surface dwellers” who live in the Wasteland. After a raid by the Surface dwellers on Vault 33, Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) leaves her safe bunker to search for her father who was kidnapped by the raiders. Lucy has never been on the surface before and the experience shocks her with its savagery and bleakness. After a slow start, the series picks up steam in Episode 3.

Another key character is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, a religious warrior organization. Maximus (Aaron Moten), a squire who serves a brutal Knight who lives in a massive metal exoskeleton, finds the quest they are on more complicated than he first thought. The quest is to track down Michael Emerson as Dr. Siggi Wilzig, an enigmatic scientist who aids Lucy, and his  his experimental dog, CX404. 

The wild card in this mix is Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), an actor who survived the nuclear attack but mutated into something called The Ghoul who has lived over 200 years. The Ghoul, a bounty hunter now, is also hunting Dr. Wilzig down to collect the bottle cap reward (bottle caps are money in the Future).

I really liked Production Designer Howard Cummings’ distinctive sets for the Vaults and the Wasteland. Creators Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner create a compelling mood in these episodes. Executive Producers Lisa Joy and Johnathan Nolan of Westworld bring an antic vibe to the series. High production values! A second season has already been approved. If looking for something very different than the current streaming TV series,  Fallout might be what you’re looking for. GRADE: B+