The Family Plot
Book
From the author of The Winter Sister and Behind the Red Door, a family obsessed with true crime...
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2165 KP) rated The Plot and the Pendulum in Books
Oct 12, 2022
This book is perfect for its October release day. It’s got a spooky edge to it, but fans of the series don’t need to worry, we still have plenty of laughs and fun with the characters we know. I appreciate how the large cast is balanced with some of them given more page time, but everyone making an appearance. The pacing of the plot was a bit uneven, with a bit too much set up leading to an abrupt climax. Still, along the way, we get some fun surprises and suspects. As always, we get some good extras for a book club meeting like Lindsey hosts at the library. If you are looking for a slightly spooky book filled with fun, be sure to pick this one up.
The Book of Cold Cases
Book
A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two...
ghost story
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2165 KP) rated Public Anchovy #1 in Books
Aug 2, 2024 (Updated Aug 2, 2024)
This is a mystery trope we don’t see very often any more, and I was a little concerned about the author pulling it off when I sat down to read it. I need not have worried. There was plenty here to keep me engaged and confused as we worked toward the logical climax. We do see most of the regulars (only one gets a cameo as a result of the set up), and it was nice to get updates on them. Meanwhile, the suspects kept me guessing. The atmosphere of the storm also added to the fun of the story. There are some recipes at the end, and the focus on creating a pizza with alternative ingredients. This is the best book in the series to date.
Lee (2222 KP) rated Max Winslow and the House of Secrets (2019) in Movies
Oct 13, 2020
Max heads into school, where we’re introduced to some more teens who are set to join her later on, including a social-media obsessed girl, a boy addicted to gaming and a boy who enjoys trolling people online. As they settle down at their desks, the face of eccentric billionaire Atticus Virtue (Chad Michael Murray) takes over all of the TV screens throughout the school. He tells them that five students are to be selected to spend the night in his high tech mansion, and undertake a series of games, with the winner becoming the new owner of the mansion. When the confirmation text messages start coming through to the student phones later that day, we already know most of those that receive the big green tick on their screens, so they head off to the mansion, ready to spend the night.
Atticus himself isn’t at the mansion to greet the group. Instead, an AI named Haven (voiced by Marina Sirtis) opens the door for them, orders a takeaway delivery and gives them their instructions for the night. Basically, whoever solves the most puzzles and earns the highest score wins the mansion!
The puzzles start off ridiculously hard, with a locked door requiring a six-digit code to open, and only three attempts allowed. Max spots three jars of candy in the room and automatically decides that the total pieces of candy in each jar can be combined into a six-digit number, obviously. And you’re not supposed to think about how she managed to get them in the right order, or why the plate of cookies on the table wasn’t included in the code…
From there, the points come a lot easier for the team, such as simply putting on a pair of sunglasses(!), before turning slightly sinister as the group separates and everyone heads off on their own. Haven begins to go a little bit rogue, although with her monotone delivery of thinly veiled threats, she never really comes across as scary as I think she is meant to be. The games become a way of showing each individual the error of their ways - narcissistic Sophia is trapped in a bathroom talking to her mirror reflection, which has now turned into a nastier version of herself, while others are trapped in VR scenarios designed to show them where they’ve gone wrong in life.
It’s at this point that the movie struggles. The VR recreations are mostly dull, while other scenes utilise some pretty dodgy VFX and there’s never any real feeling of peril or threat. The young cast, for the most part, give some pretty good performances. However, with a mediocre script, none of them is really given very much to work with. Consequently, some of them, particularly the character of Max, feel a little wasted, not fleshed out enough.
While entertaining at times, Max Winslow and the House of Secrets is too scary for young children and not dramatic or scary enough for adults to really enjoy. Hopefully, though, the teen audience that this is squarely aimed at will pick up on the strong moral messages at the heart of the movie and will manage to gain some enjoyment from it.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2165 KP) rated The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, #2) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
I remember enjoying this one as a kid, and I enjoyed it just as much now. The plot is good with enough twists to keep me entertained, although the climax was a bit easy. Likewise, the characters are a tad flat, but not too bad. It’s easy to bit on the flaws, but this book shows why Nancy is still so popular today.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2015/10/book-review-hidden-staircase-by-carolyn.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Dean (6925 KP) rated Murder Mystery Mansion in Tabletop Games
Mar 29, 2018 (Updated Mar 29, 2018)
The other player has so many steps to guess all four right. There are only about 6 choices for each category to choose from. For a longer game I think you can say the person has so many of the 4 guesses right without saying which. Given the title I hoped for more than a guessing game.
Travels with Chufy: Confidential Destinations
Book
Travel and style influencer Sofia Sanchez de Betak invites readers on a journey to off-the-radar...
Demon Seed: A novel of terror to horrify you this Halloween
Book
Susan Harris lived in self-imposed seclusion, in a mansion featuring numerous automated systems...
And Then There Were None
Book
Agatha Christie's world-famous mystery thriller, reissued with a striking new cover designed to...