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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Deadly Harm in Books

Nov 25, 2019

Deadly Harm

Owen Mullen | 2019 | Contemporary, Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Thriller

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Mackenzie is a survivor. She has survived a brutal kidnap ordeal and now runs a refuge for women who need to escape domestic violence. But when she has to turn a young woman away only for her husband to kill her, Mackenzie blames herself and resolves that she will do anything to prevent anything like that happening again. It isn't long before she must test her resolve. She has survived before. What will she do to survive now?

Once again Mullen demonstrates his credentials as one of the best crime writers out there, throwing a couple of extra murders into the mix and once again having dogged and dog-eared policeman Andrew Geddes play a large part, not only as an upholder of the law but also as Mackenzie's potential love interest. But how can a man who lives in terms of black and white cope when his girlfriend lives in the grey areas? The moral choices made by the leading characters may be questioned by the reader, but their motivations are always clear.

And what a cast of characters. The beauty of this is that everyone - Mackenzie, Geddes, the women at the refuge and killer Malkie Boyle - are all damaged from their lives and experiences. Even when Mullen's clean-cut private investigator Charlie Cameron crops up, it only serves to cast a light that reveals the shadows around the others. Everybody rings very true and the whole plot is very believable, and could be playing out at this moment.

And speaking of the plot, as usual this moves along at a breezy pace, introducing characters as it goes without slowing its momentum. This isn't a classic 'whodunnit' - it is clear exactly who did what - but isn't without twists and surprises, several plots simmering along next to each other and coming to the boil perfectly throughout the book.

Another fantastic read from simply one of the best authors there is. Very highly recommended

Kudos

Telling Stories

Tim Burgess

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Book

Telling Stories by Tim Burgess of The Charlatans is one of the decade's most revealing rock books...

Journey: Memoirs of an Air Force Chief of Staff

Norty Schwartz and Ron Levinson

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Book

The General's dysfunctional home life drove him to apply to the Air Force Academy almost 40 years...

Stone of Tears (Sword of Truth, #2)

Terry Goodkind

8.4 (5 Ratings) Rate It

Book

In Wizard's First Rule, Richard Cypher's world was turned upside down. Once a simple woods guide,...

The Periodic Table

Primo Levi and Raymond Rosenthal

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Book

Primo Levi's The Periodic Table is a collection of short stories that elegantly interlace the...

Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated #Alive (2020) in Movies

Oct 17, 2020

#Alive (2020)

2020 | Action, Drama, Horror

8.0

(9 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Contains spoilers, click to show

#Alive is a Korean zombie movie that focuses on the survival of Oh Joon-woo, a young man who is stranded in his family's apartment at the outbreak of the zombie virus and follows him as he tries to work out what is happening, how he can survive and how he can cope with the fact that his family is probably dead.
#Alive is defiantly a film of 3 parts, the first part focuses solely on Oh Joon-woo and his attempts at survival alone in his apartment as he struggles to cope with the zombies, running out of food and the lose of his family. The portrayal of Isolation and loneliness is very well done, leading up to what could almost be a very short film.
Then Oh Joon-woo meets Kim Yoo-bin, another survivor who lives in the apartments across the street from him. The isolation continues as the two find ways to communicate and survive but now there is hope.
The two are eventually forced from their apartments and have to meet up and move up as they try to find somewhere safe to survive.
#Alive is a film without a big main cast and this helps the sense of isolation and loneliness which is only increased by the fact that they spend most of the film separated by a street full of the undead.
Surprisingly #Alive manages to avoid becoming a love story. Normally when you have two survivors who meet in films like this they fall for each other and, at least part of the film is taken up by their relationship. However #Alive doesn't do this, Oh Joon-woo and Kim Yoo-bin obviously become friends but they are too busy surviving but their relationship doesn't overtake the main point of the film, survival.
There are moments of tension and relief in the film and they work well making #Alive a different type of film than a lot of other zombie films, including the other Korean zombie blockbuster, Train to Busan.