Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

Someone is trying to kill our good doctor.  A mysterious fire at his home.  A trowel falls from a building.  Priscus, the hospital administrator, acting suspiciously--so he's probably not the villain.  Lightly likeable.

Tilla (slave girl) is planning to run away.  Medicus (Ruso) is little by little falling in love with her.  We have two or three dead slave girls.  Ruso is sort of searching for the murderer.  I've decided that this is a chick book.  I'll make it through, hoping the murder stuff grows stronger . . . but this will be my last Downie book unless a dramatic change.  I can't say I'm learning much about Britannia from any of this.

Not much progress today.  Ruso now has another dead body.  He keeps maintaining that he is NOT investigating the murders, but everyone else assumes he is and keeps passing on information.  My guess, at this point, is that the murderer is our too tidy hospital administrator who is responsible for the death of the custodian's harmless dog.  Our slave girl is catching Ruso's eye.  His need for money grows, and he can't spend any on her, so he must sell her soon.  But of course he won't.

Ruso gets a place for the slave girl whose arm he has mended.  Financial troubles grow.  Letter from his brother asking permission to sell the farm.  Ruso says no, not yet.  Ruso hopeful of becoming Chief Medical Officer--increase in pay.  Continues to live with Valens, another Medicus, who is well-meaning but a slob.  Ruso is being harassed by hospital administration which wants to control so much of the day to day expenses that Ruso feels they are impinging on his medicine.  Moving along nicely.

Our main character has a final encounter with the deathless man. Superstition, mixed with Balkan tragedy of WWII and then post-Tito era.  Beautiful descriptions.  The individual parts of the book were much better than the overall whole. Long scene in a fictional Mostar just before the beautiful bridge was destroyed.  Grandfather and the deathless man eat at the hotel where Anne and I stayed, looking out over the river.

Ruso is a Roman doctor stationed in Britania during time of Hadran/Trajan. Right away he is confronted with a dead prostitute and then a slave girl with a broken arm.  He saves the slave girl's arm and is bothered that no one will do anything about the murdered girl.  Ruso has, back in Rome, a divorced wife.  He has family debts--his father died leaving them for him and his brother. It's supposed to be historical fiction, and I guess it is, but it's more a murder mystery set in historical times.  Ruso seems almost completely modern.  Nevertheless, fun so far. (The slave girl is now his slave girl.  He talks repeatedly about how he wants to get rid of her, so no doubt she will be with him the entire novel (:.

Very arty film. Colin Firth's gay lover is killed in car crash. Firth has lost his will to live.  Scenes with him teaching students, one of the boys reaches out to him.  Scenes with Julianne Moore.  Scene with gay pick-up (Madrid native) who Firth talks with, but no more.  Firth gets gun out to kill himself. He is interrupted.  Meets with boy from his class again.  Dies from heart attack (drugs, alcohol?) In a word . . . boring.  The more one suffers, the more alive one is.  Only dumb people can be happy.  I try to imagine a person who has struggled with poverty watching this. Firth is rich, nice house, housekeeper, has a job that lets him leave at three, has numerous people trying to engage him in the process of life . . . but no, can't be pulled out of his self-absorption.

Another beautiful chapter.  This time the deathless man meets grandfather at a fictional city that is clearly Mostar, the city with the famous Roman bridge destroyed in the war.  They eat at a hotel where I stayed, look out over the bridge, discuss death and war.  Description also of the animals in the zoo bizarre, dislocated behavior during bombing.  Remarkable.

So, my early prediction regarding the fate of Peck (Tiger, Tiger, burning bright) came true.  Really enjoyed this book.  Sandford knows how to move a story along. Other nice touches:  Virgil is lousy with his gun. Peck is constantly screwing up--this time firebombing the wrong house Apple locations is just off a little bit Sandford has random, chaotic stuff perfect.  Sort of an anti-Sherlock Holmes.  Things do go wrong, and they go wrong all the time.

Professional hunter brought in to kill Tiger.  He has interesting past--sister is epileptic who is on verge of death (and dies) young.  Killer is drawn to taxidermy, then hunting, as a life-in-death occupation.  Grandfather wants the tiger to live, wants Luka's wife to be left alone.  In an (almost) magical way, the tiger escapes the traps of the hunter.  Luka's wife, magically, is able to get out at night in the snow and protect the tiger.  Scene concludes with Grandfather (as a boy) killing the hunter to protect Luka's wife.  Was the hunter attacking her?  Not entirely clear that he was.

Gets more and more exciting.   Virgil is on to Peck. Interesting plot.   We, the readers, know before Virgil does the ins-and-outs of the crime.   Then we follow along with Virgil as he figures it out.   Peck continues to commit murders to cover up the theft of the Tigers and for profit.   Both of his accomplices dead and dismembered.   Chinese customer killed as well—this time by his son along with Peck.   Other interesting plot devices:   Peck talking to himself.   Am I a serial killer?   A spree killer?   Neither.   He decides neither because killing is a pain in the neck that he wishes he could avoid. Peck goes out to firebomb Virgil's house.   He screws up his courage—then firebombs the wrong house. Peck hides both bodies in great spots, and both are quickly found. I'll finish tomorrow.

Plot:  Drop of blood leads to identification of one of the kidnappers.  Peck (main villain) kills him with tranquilizer dart, stuffs him in refrigerator, and dumps him in river.  Immediately discovered by fisherman.  Peck then kills again--this time the brother of his first victim--because the brother would kill him once he discovers the first murder.  Peck (MD who can't practice because he drugged and assaulted female patients) feeds 2nd victim's legs to the female tiger still alive. Exciting stuff.  Chase sign with animal activist trying to kill dealer in bear gall bladders.  Virgil's girlfriend beaten up by non-union bosses (she's mistaken for her sister). Funny stuff:  Peck set up nipple emojis that failed.  Fishermen buy fudgesicles, beer, chew for morning cat fishing. Nice mix of suspense and comedy.  Fast-paced.

Grandfather's story of the "Tiger's Wife."  She is a deaf-mute girl who was married off to Luka by trickery.  Luka beats her.  She befriends (apparently) the tiger.  Luka disappears.  Villagers believe she has killed him and had the tiger eat him.  She is pregnant, and the villagers believe that the father is the tiger.  Grandfather, under the direction of Mother Vera who is taking care of him, brings the girl baskets of food.  Villagers believe her child will be a devil child, though they sympathize with her killing of her husband.  Very interesting book.

Virgil is closing in on the names of the tiger killers/kidnappers.  They are on the verge of talking their Chinese payer (40 year old son of a millionaire about to marry a 15 year old) into paying them to  kill his father.

A Mythic Novel of the Balkan Wars By  LIESL SCHILLINGER MARCH 11, 2011 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Share Tweet Pin Email More Save Think back to the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, with their profusion of names that are difficult to pronounce and acts that are painful to recall: the massacres at Brcko and Srebrenica, the bombing of bread lines in Sarajevo, the destruction of Mostar’s 400-year-old bridge. None of these appear in Téa Obreht’s first novel, “The Tiger’s Wife,” yet in its pages she brings their historic and human context to luminous life. With fables and allegories, as well as events borrowed from the headlines, she illustrates the complexities of Balkan history, unearthing patterns of suspicion, superstition and everyday violence that pervade the region even in times of peace. Reaching back to World War II, and then to wars that came before, she reveals the continuity beneath the clangor. A metaphor for the author’

Enjoyable, but a little odd for a mystery.  Virgil Flowers is figuring out things we already know.  Tiger stolen for Chinese medicine.  House for sale as staging ground.  White van for an early morning escape.  So, what will be the mystery?

About 40% done. Granddaughter working to inoculate children in  an orphanage following Yugoslavia's break up.  As she does so, a family is up in the hillside trying to dig up the body of a relative and rebury him properly in order to free the family from a curse. Children, ill with fever, are out digging for the body--buried nine years earlier.  Dawn, digging, our main character appearing like a ghost in her white medical coat.  Superb contrast of science/superstition.  Memorable scene--third one!  Also, more reminiscences about her grandfather, contrasting his life (professional and personal) with hers.  Like the book a lot. (Grandfather does emergency appendectomy on Marshall Tito.)

Virgil Flowers Minnesota detective Great first chapter.  It seems we are with the murderers as they kill two people and then drag their bodies away.  Neighborhood is a place where people have "day jobs and their kids go to school."  Chapter two--Virgil skinny dipping with his girlfriend.  Much weaker.  Ch. 3  Not murdered people but tranquilized tigers. Virgil to investigate. We know that one of the tigers has already been killed.  Their is a sense that the second tiger will revenge her mate. Motive:  body parts for Chinese medicine?  Probably not, since that seems to be the motive and it's early in the book. Uneven so far--I don't remember Virgil Flowers as randy stud from other book I read.  Doesn't ring true here--seems like Sandford is pandering.  So, we shall see. Audio version

Chapter Four:  Tiger escapes/freed from zoo during WWII by warfare.  Chapter describes Tiger's movement from zoo animal to wild animal.  Villagers, psychically destroyed by war, are even more undone by the knowledge that up on a ridge above their homes is an animal that doesn't belong there and by their confusion as to what, if anything, should be done.  Terrific chapter.

Back from Cleveland Clinic . . . resuming blog This is very well written and I will definitely give David Jackson another read . . . but . . . the basic motivation here just didn't work for me at all.  Spoiler coming, so stop if you haven't finished.  The whole idea of the murderer being motivated to capture birds and then plant them on the bodies of the police he kills was fine until Jackson reveals why the "birds" are so important.  Our murderer, the photographer Chris, was a little boy at a soccer tragedy caused by police incompetence. 96 people died, fans of Liverpool, 1989.  Liverpool has a bird crest on the uniform, so the dead were all "birds" to Chris.  Just too much. Oddly, I'm guessing Jackson wanted the book as a tribute (we won't forget) to the victims.  But the "birds" theme falls flat for me, ultimately trivializing what must have been a horrific event.  It also seems to me that "tapping at my door" could have work