Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

1.  Hong Kong as far too nice to be the real China 2.  Visit to an island. Unable to read the news. Island is in path of Mega Typhoon.  Typhoon doesn't hit island directly 3. Friend (Republican) visits.  Takes him to real China.  Cats, Dogs, Toads for sale to be eaten.  Siberian Tiger Paw, rhino horn, etc. available to buy.  Anything rare is valuable and so sought after. 4. Girls adopted by Westerners.  Great good fortune since women are so undervalued in China.  Island with many Westerners with their new babies waiting to go home.  Chinese have rules:  must be married.  Not fat.  Good income.

Good sense of humor and sharp observation 1. Enormity of China--he thinks he's visiting a small resort town and it turns out to be a city of 7 million 2. Personal space, not so much.  Resorts to pushing grandmas out of the way 3. Playboy is banned; sex toy stores are everywhere 4. Drivers 3% of world; 25% of fatalities 5. Soupy air 6. Skill with replicas. No embarrassment either.  Why pay $100 for MS Windows if you can get a pirated version for $10?  Some replicas are quite good; some are terrible. Hard to know, even for Chinese 7. Chinese enjoy watching arguments in the street 8. For a country that dominates sports, he never sees anyone "doing" sport. Too polluted to jog, play basketball, etc.  Athletes are chosen like scientists, moved to academies, trained. They are not part of everyday life. 9.  Food!  He is served jellyfish head, barbecued toad, and live squid.  (Grab the squid, pull its head off, dip it in sauce, swallow.)

Good sense of humor and sharp observation 1. Enormity of China--he thinks he's visiting a small resort town and it turns out to be a city of 7 million 2. Personal space, not so much.  Resorts to pushing grandmas out of the way 3. Playboy is banned; sex toy stores are everywhere 4. Drivers 3% of world; 25% of fatalities 5. Soupy air 6. Skill with replicas. No embarrassment either.  Why pay $100 for MS Windows if you can get a pirated version for $10?  Some replicas are quite good; some are terrible. Hard to know, even for Chinese 7. Chinese enjoy watching arguments in the street 8. For a country that dominates sports, he never sees anyone "doing" sport. Too polluted to jog, play basketball, etc.  Athletes are chosen like scientists, moved to academies, trained. They are not part of everyday life. 9.  Food!  He is served jellyfish head, barbecued toad, and live squid.  (Grab the squid, pull its head off, dip it in sauce, swallow.)

Good sense of humor and sharp observation 1. Enormity of China--he thinks he's visiting a small resort town and it turns out to be a city of 7 million 2. Personal space, not so much.  Resorts to pushing grandmas out of the way 3. Playboy is banned; sex toy stores are everywhere 4. Drivers 3% of world; 25% of fatalities 5. Soupy air 6. Skill with replicas. No embarrassment either.  Why pay $100 for MS Windows if you can get a pirated version for $10?  Some replicas are quite good; some are terrible. Hard to know, even for Chinese 7. Chinese enjoy watching arguments in the street 8. For a country that dominates sports, he never sees anyone "doing" sport. Too polluted to jog, play basketball, etc.  Athletes are chosen like scientists, moved to academies, trained. They are not part of everyday life. 9.  Food!  He is served jellyfish head, barbecued toad, and live squid.  (Grab the squid, pull its head off, dip it in sauce, swallow.)

Good sense of humor and sharp observation 1. Enormity of China--he thinks he's visiting a small resort town and it turns out to be a city of 7 million 2. Personal space, not so much.  Resorts to pushing grandmas out of the way 3. Playboy is banned; sex toy stores are everywhere 4. Drivers 3% of world; 25% of fatalities 5. Soupy air 6. Skill with replicas. No embarrassment either.  Why pay $100 for MS Windows if you can get a pirated version for $10?  Some replicas are quite good; some are terrible. Hard to know, even for Chinese 7. Chinese enjoy watching arguments in the street 8. For a country that dominates sports, he never sees anyone "doing" sport. Too polluted to jog, play basketball, etc.  Athletes are chosen like scientists, moved to academies, trained. They are not part of everyday life. 9.  Food!  He is served jellyfish head, barbecued toad, and live squid.  (Grab the squid, pull its head off, dip it in sauce, swallow.)

Good sense of humor and sharp observation 1. Enormity of China--he thinks he's visiting a small resort town and it turns out to be a city of 7 million 2. Personal space, not so much.  Resorts to pushing grandmas out of the way 3. Playboy is banned; sex toy stores are everywhere 4. Drivers 3% of world; 25% of fatalities 5. Soupy air 6. Skill with replicas. No embarrassment either.  Why pay $100 for MS Windows if you can get a pirated version for $10?  Some replicas are quite good; some are terrible. Hard to know, even for Chinese 7. Chinese enjoy watching arguments in the street 8. For a country that dominates sports, he never sees anyone "doing" sport. Too polluted to jog, play basketball, etc.  Athletes are chosen like scientists, moved to academies, trained. They are not part of everyday life. 9.  Food!  He is served jellyfish head, barbecued toad, and live squid.  (Grab the squid, pull its head off, dip it in sauce, swallow.)

The non-specialist approach.  J Maarten Troost uses his "lay" status to advantage, telling it "like it is." Opening chapters describe harrowing taxi to hotel from airport, air thick with smog, take-out girls in front of hotels, menus featuring Cattle Penis and Ox Larynx.  Great fun so far.

Wonderful cozy mystery.  Bright, shiny language throughout.  Characters are perfectly exaggerated so that they remain somewhat plausible and yet slightly cartoonish.  Lots of snappy one-liners that made me laugh out loud.  The weakest part of the novel (the only weak part) is the plot. At various points our detective wonders why he is considering doing X, Y, and Z.  We, as readers, wonder, too, because it makes no sense.  He's not even being paid by anyone. I will definitely read something else by Terry Mort.

Great fun.  Terry Mott writes beautifully.  Funny, learned, a great main character who is a wonderful male fantasy. He beds every gorgeous woman he meets, leads a glamorous life, and -- unlike most detectives -- hasn't been beaten up even once. Plot is weakest part.  Stolen Monet. Owned by a couple.  An artist friend (forger) perhaps steals the original and replaces it with a copy.  She hires our detective to find out, but she is promptly found dead--and the forger/friend is dead, too.  The accepted version is that the artist was trying to rape her or maybe rob her and that she shot and killed him. Then, for some inexplicable reason, she killed herself.  As I wrote, the weakest part. Also weak at times is the motivation for our detective, who renamed himself Bruno just as a lark. At one point, after conceiving a plot to break into a house and switch Monet's, Bruno wakes up and asks himself why he would do this. yes, Bruno. Why?  He decides not...

Enjoyable if you (like me) don't mind lots of dialogue to solve a crime as opposed to physical action.  If you're looking for physical action, this isn't your book. It was also interesting to get a glimpse into an earlier time.  All men wear a top hat.  Prostitution common.  Speakeasies. Just a general rougher feel, even in high society.  And then there is the blackmail "fact" that must be hidden at all costs! Spoilers--Barry is the murderer.  Monty Fields, in a way I didn't catch, discovered that Barry has BLACK BLOOD.  Of course, this means he couldn't marry the Industrialist's daughter.  Fields blackmails Barry.  Barry hears about poison distilled from gasoline at the industrialist's house, makes some, kills Fields. Queens figure out it, but have no proof.  Then they trap Barry into trying to kill Field's valet, Michaels, who also has access to the incriminating documents.  Barry is caught trying to commit murder.  Quee...

Talk about transcending the genre.  This is advertised as a spoof of slasher films, and it is that, but it is so much more.  Wonderfully acted, clever screenplay, and some very moving scenes between mother and daughter trapped in a movie. Basic plot.  Young girl & mother are in car accident. Mom, an actress in slasher movies, dies.  Young girl grows up.  At a showing of her mom's movie, fire breaks out.  She and her friends escape by going through the screen (and into her mother's movie).  Girl tries to save Mom.  Mom, in the end, dies to save daughter. Terrific most of the time; clunky now and again.  All in all, really an admirable movie.  I'm jealous of the writers.

I didn't do badly at all with my prediction.  The murderer is an actor, the guy in love with the industrialist's daughter (Frances). He killed Monty Fields with gasoline he'd put in his flask, but he was ready with a hypodermic needle, too. Queen the Elder traps him with a fake letter from Monty Field's lawyer's man-servant. Yet to be determined (and I'm almost done) is the motive for the murder.  It is to stop the blackmailing, of course, but blackmailing over what?  Odd that there are no hints.  Actor Barry is hoping to marry into a rich family.  Is he already married?  Is he an ex-con?  Is he a woman?  First two, maybe. Last one --- I don't think so! I'll find out tomorrow.

Okay, the book stopped and the author says we have enough to figure out the murderer.  Here's my guess.  The hat lining held blackmail information.  Our crooked lawyer wore the hat to the play.  He'd meet with his victim, collect the cash, and then give the victim his hat.  So, must be a male. Next, nobody left with two hats.  No ripped up hats.  Meaning, person came in without a hat.  But who goes to a play without their top hat? (Well, I do, but this is 1929.)  Apparently no self-respecting play goer does.  That means, not a play-goer.  Leaving ushers and actors.  The ushers so far have all been women, so I'm betting on an actor.  The only actor we've heard about is the boyfriend of the rich industrialist's daughter.  Motive?  No idea.  Method?  Adulterated gasoline, but how do you get somebody to drink it?  And when is an actor up in the audience?  Intermission, ginger ale bottle adulte...

Still very enjoyable.  It's really a series of interviews with all the possible suspects and witnesses.  Very little physical action.     Death is by poison from a gasoline derivative--prohibition liquor must have been something!  It's a mystery to me how a top hat could be the key to this story, but then it is a mystery. Goodreads comments indicate this is one of the bad "Ellery Queen" books. Not bad at all!

"Nice passages on "touch," the feeling of being one with whatever sport a person is playing. In this case it is tennis. Interesting, and black comedy, that these very insightful passages are part of a long lecture Dad gives to his son, a lecture that reduces the son to tears. Still moving forward."

A real screamer.  Paul Newman is alcoholic former athlete fighting with his unloving father and his wife (Elizabeth Taylor).  He won't sleep with Liz because of the death of Scooter, his buddy, which he blames on her.  Weird plot--she sort of seduces Scooter to get Paul Newman (Brick) to see that his good friend isn't so good, but then changes her mind and doesn't sleep with him. (!?)  Scooter then calls Paul Newman who hangs up on him--what a phone call I was thinking of sleeping with your wife and --.   After Newman hangs up, Scooter jumps out the window.  (All off screen.)   At the end, Newman reconciles with both Dad and Liz, deigning to sleep with her. Ha!  What a sacrifice!

"Still enjoying this very much. Lots of questions of different people. Where is our dead lawyer's hat? Why doesn't he use a walking stick? What's equally interesting is the fact that NO MALE goes to the theater without his hat, and similar other time-dated facts. The Queens, father and son, live together and seem to sleep in the same room together. No idea who the murderer is, though others say they solved early."