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‘She lifted the flap of the envelope and pulled out the single white page. As she opened it up she stared, open mouthed. Four words were typed on the page. I am watching you.’
When Amy Whyte and Penny Brogan leave a local nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning and don’t arrive home, their families are beside themselves with worry. Conor Dowling has just been released from prison, a man full of hatred for Amy, the girl who put him behind bars in the first place.
The case is given to Detective Lottie Parker, when the girls’ blood-soaked bodies are found, days later, in a derelict squat. Chillingly, both girls are clutching silver coins in their hands – what message is this killer leaving behind? All the signs point to Conor but his alibi is water tight.
As Lottie examines Penny and Amy’s final days alive in a desperate search for clues, two more girls are found stabbed to death in a luxury apartment complex. Caught up in what is fast becoming her toughest case yet, Lottie is unaware that somebody is watching her every move.
Then Lottie’s two daughters, Katie and Chloe suddenly disappear from the town centre. Terrified that the killer has her girls, the stakes have never been higher for Lottie.
But as Lottie puts everything on the line to find her daughters and solve the case, she’s about to find herself in terrible danger – someone has a personal axe to grind with her and they know the best way to get to her is to hurt the ones she loves the most.

This is book #6 of the D.I. Lottie Parker series. It can be read as a standalone novel.
This book is fast paced and full of action. The story line twists and turns and kept me hooked from the very first page.
When Amy Whyte and Penny Brogan leave a local nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning and don’t arrive home, their families are beside themselves with worry. Conor Dowling has just been released from prison, a man full of hatred for Amy, the girl who put him behind bars in the first place.
Full of red herrings, thrilling circumstances, and dark and devious characters; 'Final Betrayal' is an atmospheric, twisted read and I LOVED every second of it
Looking forward to the next one already.
Highly recommend reading.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of Final Betrayal.
  
The Accountant (2016)
The Accountant (2016)
2016 | Drama
8
7.5 (36 Ratings)
Movie Rating
In the world of high finance keeping an eye on the numbers is essential. But when large incomes are derived from illegal activities speed, accuracy, and discretion are vital and that is why Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), is in such high demand.

In the new film “The Accountant” we are introduced to Christian as he prepares taxes for a rural couple. The quiet, and social awkward man is a whizz with numbers but thanks to a form of Autism, Christian is socially awkward and has an extreme series of regiments he uses to cope with the modern world.

Much of his life is told through flashbacks but we learn that his military father insisted that he and his brother learn to defend themselves after their mother left them.

FBI agent Ray King (J.K. Simmons) is facing retirement and has past history with The Accountant as he is known, and wants to resolve the situation before he retires. As such he recruits and coerces a young agent to help him track down The Accountant with little more to go on other than reputation and some vague photos.

 

At the same time Christian is introduced to a company via his service who suspects that money is being stolen from them. The C.E.O. Lamar Black (John Lithgow), is eager to get to the bottom of an irregularity found by bookkeeper Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick).

Christian tears through 15 years of books in one night and locates an intricate scheme to steal millions yet make the company look like it has kept gaining money and this sets into action a chain of events with dire consequences.

At the same time, a mysterious man (John Bernthal), is eliminating those in the way and has set his sights on both Christian and Dana.

Christian however is far from a weak pacifist as thanks to his work and his father’s training, he is brutally efficient and deadly with his hands, feet, and all manner of weapons.

With danger all around them, Christian and Dana must survive and get to the bottom of the mystery while avoiding Agent King and the authorities.

What follows is an action filled thriller that was an exciting adventure filled with twists, turns, and solid performances.

The film does offer a big twist which I saw coming 40 minutes out, but despite this the solid cast and great work by Affleck, Simmons, and company make this a pleasant surprise and one you will not want to miss.

http://sknr.net/2016/10/14/the-accountant/
  
    Handel

    Handel

    Donald Burrows

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music. His compositions form...

Big Hero 6 (2014)
Big Hero 6 (2014)
2014 | Animation, Family
Based on a short lived and obscure Marvel comic book series of the same name, Big Hero 6 was an attempt by Disney to develop a Disney feature from their newly acquired catalogue of Marvel properties after Disney's Marvel buy-out in 2010.

Popular though this movie is, I find it to be a little slow, plodding, patronising and trying too hard to evoke an emotional reaction from its audience. Focusing on Hiro, an orphan who's older brother is also killed in an accident, he ends up creating a team of superheroes from a group of geeks and his late brother's medical robot, B-Max.

Big Hero 6 was an attempt at blending Disney's brand of sentimental animation with that of Pixar's more imaginative stylised family action, The Incredibles springs to mind, along with Marvel's more family friendly action romps which make up the Avenger's franchise.

The result? Well, not so good. Entertaining? Sort of. Interesting? Okay if not derivative and what about innovative? No.

The 3-D was deep but also flat and uninteresting as was the story and the plodding pacing. The ideas were there but the execution was weak, with 2-D characters to make up a confused team. Was it supposed to be the X-Men or The Avengers? I believe that the Comic book the team was started not by Hiro but by an X-Man in the source material and the tone did lean towards X-Men: First Class (2010) at times, but overall, I found this to tick all the boxes in order to meet the expectation of fans of both superhero and Disney films.

As Hiro and B-Max fly across the city of San Fransokyo, I thought that I was watching How To Train Your Dragon (2010)! This borrows too much and offers too little to impress me and it was a shame as the notion of Disney producing an action hero movie is interesting but the results are nothing short of disappointing.
  
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
2019 | Sci-Fi, Thriller
Robert Downey Jr (0 more)
Hulk and Thor (1 more)
Little screen time for many favourite characters
Solid end to an epic series.
So back in 2008 (which is 11 years ago at the time of writing - where did the time go!) the film Iron Man came out starring Robert Downey Jr. I loved that film but little did I know at the time that over the course of the next 11 years we’d have such a huge universe created for us by Marvel over a plethora of films culminating in one 3 hour epic film (no consideration for my bladder.) The whole scale of this movie is mind blowing in that context.

This film has plenty of action and lots of homage to the films in the franchise. It does a solid job of tying things off. It's just not going to be one of my favourites (although an improvement on Infinity war.)

Now the Marvel universe has built up a heck of a lot of characters, some I love, some less so but fundamentally we just have too many characters. Trying to cram them into one film is just unwieldy and we lose the sharpness many of the films had. For me, unfortunately this film focuses more of the characters I’m less keen on. The ones I do love, that were front and centre, seemed to have all undergone personality changes to make them terrible. OK I get it seeing half the life in the universe wiped out is going to ruin anyone's mood but the changes we saw in Hulk and Thor were just way off for me. Downey fortunately manages to carry a lot of the film, with some great revisiting of tension between Stark and Cpt. America. Only Rocket seemed vaguely recognisable as a character I love. Many barely get a line in when they do turn up.

The fun that is so evident in most of the best marvel films didn’t feel as present, I just needed more of that Marvel feel before a big huge battle to save the day.
  
Patron Of Mercy (Lords of The Underworld #3)
Patron Of Mercy (Lords of The Underworld #3)
Sam Burns, W.M. Fawkes | 2019 | LGBTQ+, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was missing . . . .something!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

This is book 3 in the Lords of The Underworld series, and it CAN be read as a stand alone. However, personally, I felt I was missing. . . something . . .that I can't quite put my finger on, for not having read books one and two YET. I have them, but I have not got round to them yet! I will do, now though!

Lach walked away from Thanatos a milennia ago, because now he was immortal, who wanted to hang aroudn the God of Death? But both Thanatos and Lach lusted after the other for all that time. When Lach discoveres a way to save the world from starvation, he knows he will need Thanatos. Can Lach win back the only man, the only GOD he would ever love?

I did enjoy this, apart from the previously mentioned . . .something . . . I really did!

All the major players get a say, and you don't see what fate has instore for Lach and his friend till all is made clear in the book.

It is HEAVY on the Greek gods history. I *sort of* managed to keep up, because I paid no attention to histoy at school, but I felt I was given enough to *sort of* keep up! Someone else will have paid far better attention, and followed it beautifully.

Thanatos and Lach's story, though, I had no trouble following!

It;s not overly explicit, but hot enough. There is some detailed descriptions when Lach is in major trouble, though.

It is the first book I've read of Sam Burns or WM Fawkes. I'd like to read more, as I said, I have books one and two to read. Their collaboration is really well written, and you really can't tell how they split the writing! (sometimes, it's very obvious!)

So, ONLY because of that . . .something . . .I (personally, me, myself, and no one else!) was missing. . .

4 solid stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**