Skip to main content

Pacific Burn continued

Brodie isn't going to win any awards for effectiveness.  He flies to Japan to protect the younger brother of the artist found dead in Napa.  He meets the boy, the boy refuses his help, escapes his shadow, and is promptly murdered.  Surprising for a main sleuth to be so inept.

I'm still liking this.  Interesting bit of Japanese lore about the Steam Walkers, Japanese mountain people who can lure the enemies to fatal places near the volcanoes.  Odorless gases that kill; holes that open up beneath the feet, etc.  One of these steam walkers seems to be the villain, though there's some unconvincing talk of the murderer being the enemy of the SF mayor.

Weakest scenes so far have been Brodie's fights--one with a government man in the airport and the other with a knife-wielding Japanese assassin in an SF hospital.  Both went on too long.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Oppenheimer . . . film

 Solid opening 30 minutes (we're treating this like a mini-series).  O's involvement with left-wing causes . . . rift with Einstein (O thinks of him as over-the-hill and Einstein knows it.)  First splitting of atom.  Lawrence Lab in Berkeley--Lawrence practical applied physics . . . not O's strength.  Main actor is from Peaky Blinders.

The Master Chapter 2

February 1895 (Alice died in 1892) Money problems, jealousy of Wilde; time spent with Lord Wolseley1; off to Ireland to lick his wounds; Irish unrest--Irish landlords boycott all social events; much time spent with manservant Hammond (homosexual attraction again); fancy dress ball, appalling to James, who is only happy in company of Hammond, though Hammond remains a servant and no more; little girl alone on the grounds--inspiration for Turn of the Screw?; conflict with Webster who alludes to Wilde's successful play and HJ's failure; Wolseley was an  Anglo-Irish  officer in the  British Army . He became one of the most influential and admired British generals after a series of successes in Canada, West Africa, and Egypt, followed by a central role in modernizing the British Army in promoting efficiency. He served in Burma, the  Crimean War , the  Indian Mutiny , China, Canada and widely throughout Africa—including his  Ashanti  campaign (1873–1874) and the  Nile Exp