Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security
Book
"I can’t imagine a more important book for our time." ―Sebastian Junger The world is blowing...
Politics
The Girl Who Lived Twice
7.0
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Book
The sixth in the Millennium series featuring THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO - more than 100 million...
Disgraceland
8.5
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Podcast
Disgraceland is a true crime podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very...
Dark disturbing tales of musicians.
The Ice Beneath Her
8.0
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Book
Winter’s chill has descended on Stockholm as police arrive at the scene of a shocking murder. An...
I also tend to find 'book club picks' to be rather off-putting; generally finding those I have previously read to be rather tedious and just not generally all that interesting (while able to admire the literary sophistication of the works).
This is both a crime fiction novel, and a 'Richard and Judy book club pick', so that would - normally - have been 2 marks against picking it up, in my books.
However, I have read - and generally quite enjoyed - most, if not all, of Simon Scarrow's other works - in particular his Cato and Macro series - so, when I saw this on a Kindle deal for something like 99p, I thought to myself 'why not?'.
And, I have to admit, I did actually quite enjoy this.
Set in 1939 Berlin just at the start of WW2, I found this to be unusual in that it told the story from the Point of View of a German criminal inspector - most WW2 novels (that I am aware of) usually feature either American or Brits as their main protagonists - who is not a member of the Nazi party: a fact that, here, is usually held against him but is also the reason he got handed the assignment as he has no links to any factions within the party.
It's both a very different time and 'headspace' than modern sensibilities; interesting to see how the man-on-the-street could have viewed the headline events of the time. As someone from Northern Ireland, there's also aspects of the novel that hit frighteningly close to home for me ...
A Dangerous Breed
6.0
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Book
Van Shaw’s past and present collide when an ingenious blackmailer pushes him to the brink in this...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Honor Among Thieves: The Honors Book 1 in Books
Aug 25, 2022
Book
Honor Among Thieves ( The Honors book 1)
By Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that’s made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn’t much better than a prison cell.
Still, when Zara commits a crime that has her running scared, jail might be exactly where she’s headed. Instead Zara is recruited into the Honors, an elite team of humans selected by the Leviathan—a race of sentient alien ships—to explore the outer reaches of the universe as their passengers.
Zara seizes the chance to flee Earth’s dangers, but when she meets Nadim, the alien ship she’s assigned, Zara starts to feel at home for the first time. But nothing could have prepared her for the dark, ominous truths that lurk behind the alluring glitter of starlight.
This was a unique story and I really enjoyed it. I liked the concept especially with our current climate I really hope we get some mystery aliens save us from ourselves. I was hooked from the beginning the only thing that knocked me a little of track was I just seemed to lose myself in the middle not sure if that was me or the book seemed a little rushed in the middle. I absolutely love Rachel Caine and with every book I read or reread I feel sad that We will never get a new book and story from her.
Corpse Thief (Joshua Hawke #1)
7.0
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PART ONE of the searing new thriller featuring Joshua Hawke; Criminal, Informant, Body Snatcher,...
Whatever It Takes (The Kit Hanover series #2)
Book
In Las Vegas, informants learn the hard truth that snitches get stitches. Or in Myra Taylor’s...
Crime Thriller
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Green Hornet (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
When it was first announced that Seth Rogen would star as the title character many people were first skeptical that a chubby comedian would be able to pull off the part. While the Green Hornet is not as iconic as Batman, the casting did bring to mind the controversy of casting Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight for Tim Burton’s take on the Caped Crusader.
Further complicating matters were the delays and in the announcement that the film would be converted to 3-D in postproduction even though it was shot in 2-D. When the film failed to meet its anticipated holiday debut there were those that had wondered if the film would fail to meet even modest expectations as January certainly isn’t the time of year that action films, especially those based on a superhero, are released.
Thankfully the film is an extremely pleasant surprise that deftly mixes comedy and action with smart pacing in a winning formula. The film tells the story of Britt Reid (Rogen), the son of a wealthy newspaper owner who, despite his best efforts, always disappoints his father who never runs out of ways to criticize his only child. Britt, to his father’s dismay, has no ambition in his life and is content to live in the guesthouse of his father’s mansion, womanizing and embracing the party scene.
When his father dies unexpectedly, Britt is forced to take control of the newspaper, a job for which he is woefully unqualified. It is at this time that Britt meets Kato (Jay Chou), his father’s long-time employee, responsible for taking care of the elder Reid’s very impressive fleet of cars.
One evening in an act of rebellion against the benevolent image of his father, Britt and Kato intervene to stop a crime. Motivated by their success and by Kato’s amazing ability to invent technology and modify vehicles, as well as his superb martial arts abilities, the duo set out to make a name for themselves by taking on the city’s criminal element.
While it first appears that Britt sees this as just some grand adventure, he soon becomes dedicated to the cause and sets upon a path to use his newspaper to play up his newly created hero. The plan is to make the Green Hornet appear to be a bad guy when in reality he is fighting to end crime. The convoluted idea has some initial success despite Britt’s lack of fighting ability. Britt and Kato soon begin to make a name for themselves in the local underworld as well is dominate the media.
At this time a young assistant named Lenora case (Cameron Diaz), comes to work for Britt. Britt and Kato are both captivated by Lenora and use her knowledge of criminal psychology to detail their plan of action for their alter egos. While Britt and Kato are buoyed by their initial success they soon find themselves under the scrutiny of the local crime boss Chudnofsky (Christopher Waltz), an insecure criminal who believes people don’t think he is scary enough or stylish enough.
Finding them an annoyance, Chudnofsky decides to wage all-out war on the Green Hornet and Kato and will rest at nothing to see them dead. As if this was not bad enough, Britt and Kato find themselves in a jealous rivalry over Lenora as well as their roles. Britt sees himself as the real hero and Kato as merely his sidekick. Kato naturally takes umbrage with this being not only the one who develops all of their gadgets, including the awesome black beauty equipped with bulletproof glass, machine guns, rocket launcher and a flamethrower, but also the one with the amazing fighting skills.
What follows is a hilarious and action packed film that is one of the most satisfying action-buddy-comedies ever made. Rogen is in his element cleverly playing Britt as an everyman who, despite having all the advantages of wealth, is still very much a kid playing superhero who has to learn about the important things in life .
The action sequences are fresh and entertaining and both Rogen and Chao pull off their roles very convincingly. While the plot is not overly complex it serves its point and propels the characters along without getting bogged down or becoming too ridiculous. Director Michel Gondry keeps the film moving at a steady pace without overstaying its welcome and does not allow the action to overtake the characters.
The supporting cast is very strong and the only real issue I had with the film was the converted 3-D that was totally unnecessary and did little to enhance the film. Very few sequence appeared to benefit from it. That being said I had a fantastic time at this film and I surely hope that we’ll be seeing other films in the series in the not too distant future.