The Red Dahlia
8.0
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Detective Anna Travis is working on a horrific, brutal murder case that has created a media frenzy....
Murder Mystery Detective
The Adventures of the Crumpsall Kid
8.0
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Mike Harding has made generations of us laugh and cry at his stories of real life and growing up in...
Manchester Post-war Crumpsall
The Survivor (Jude Lyon #3)
7.0
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Jude Lyon of MI6 has narrowly foiled the traitor Fowle’s plot to level London, but the public are...
Breakfast on Pluto (2006)
9.0
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The story of Patrick Kitty Braden adapted from the Patrick McCabe story of the same name. A phantom...
The Shadow Earl
Book
At the end of his Grand Tour, somewhere between Athens and Constantinople, Christian Selwyn, the...
Historical Romance Mystery
Small Worlds
9.0
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Dancing is the one thing that can solve Stephen's problems. At Church with his family, the...
Just a Wild Ghost Chase (Unit 13 Book 2)
10.0
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When Tom signed up to the Unit to keep the world safe from paranormal threats, it was with the firm...
Urban Fantasy
ClareR (5674 KP) rated The Voice That Twists the Knife in Books
Jul 9, 2024 (Updated Jul 9, 2024)
The Voice That Twists the Knife wraps up the trilogy nicely, and starts with Bella and Ariana swapping places: Bella goes back to Ralph and the team, and Ariana goes to London with her father. Ariana is mad with her mother for keeping secrets, and this is her punishment. Quite who she’s punishing is questionable!
There are human/ animal hybrids, mind readers, kinetic powers and more. Lychen is more powerful and controlling than ever, playing God along with his research team.
There’s only one way this can go, and it’s an exciting journey. I’ve really enjoyed this trilogy. Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and to JM Briscoe for reading along.
Gareth von Kallenbach (977 KP) rated Paddington 2 (2017) in Movies
Jul 8, 2019
has found a home with the Brown family, and spends his days with new found
friends throughout London. Eager to find the “perfect gift” for his Aunt
Lucy’s 100th birthday, Paddington takes on several odd jobs in hopes of
purchasing a pop-up book of London that is for sale at an antique shop.
Little does Paddington know, this pop-up book carries the clues to a
treasure chest.
Narcissistic, has been actor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant)
learns that said pop-up in fact does exist, he puts his acting skills to
use and transforms himself into various characters to steal it. Witness to
the burglary, Paddington pursues the thief, but ends up being blamed for
the crime and gets put in prison. The Brown family, along with all of
Paddington’s closest friends try to clear Paddington’s name by uncovering
all the clues to get the book back before Buchanan locates the treasure.
It’s safe to say a sequel was expected after a successful first run. This
film definitely follows the template of the first, with the same amount of
exuberance, curiosity, and laughter.
You can’t help but fall in love with
Paddington. I must admit, Hugh Grant stole the show. His villainous
attempt at portraying 12 different characters was phenomenal. You can tell
he was having a fun time with his characters. A delightful, sweet movie
the whole family will enjoy that mainly focuses on the importance of being
kind and with kindness friends and help are always there. Nice guys always
finish first!
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Great Expectations in Books
Nov 13, 2019
For me Great Expectations is the archetypal Dickens novel, in that it is very uneven and full of dull and tiresome sections which do little to advance the plot but instead let Dickens show off his love of absurd names and his observations of social hierarchies in Victorian London.
The first part is fine - after the rather clumsy opening paragraph. The scenes on the marshes are evocative, Stella is well portrayed as the unobtainable target of his affections and Miss Havisham steals the show.
It is when Pip arrives in London that it all starts to go wrong. The characters become flat and two dimensional, only there to demonstrate how he is progressing in his quest to become a gentleman, the usual Dickens tool of the name that slightly indicates their character frequently used instead of actually providing them with any character. Very little of this section is actually relevant to the plot in hand and just seems to be filler to pad the book to the requisite number of episodes.
Once Pip returns home for the final chapters and the big reveal the story once again picks up as the various plot strands laid in the first part come together.
Overall the first and last parts of the book are worth reading, but the middle bit can be safely skimmed through as the reader won't miss anything important and will avoid much tedium.