Carl Deuker -- Books, Movies, TV

Malone rats out Torrez who then kills himself.  Malone struggling to hold it all together. Feds on him; his obligations to his team; Claudette. Monty wants to retire and move to the Carolinas.  Levin is brand new.  Malone could end up sending them all to jail.  What's an Irish cop to do?  Enjoyable

Malone in serious trouble with the Feds. They have him on tape accepting money from a lawyer and then passing it on to an asst. D.A. to get a client off.  Now, the guy who hates rats must rat out somebody or go to jail. He's trying to keep his honor by ratting out only lawyers and judges, but the Feds want cops, too.  His girlfriend, C., lapses back into heroin use.  M. threatens to kill her supplier.  Unsure where this is going as I'm only half done. Maybe the "ending" that started the book isn't the ending.  Maybe M. works himself out of trouble.  Liking this okay, but still find the "hard-boiled" tone a bit tough to swallow. Unremitting.

Liking it more, though the cynicism seems forced to me.  Black humor about shooting corpses how pop back to life. Dead cop who took viagra just before a heart attack at a brothel and has an erection when his wife identifies the body.  She's happy to know he went out a tiger.  That sort of thing. Malone gets a new member of the team. Levin. They quickly initiate him. He goes from boy scout to implicated in a series of "dirty cop" escapades in one day. Good passages on what it means to be black in America. The mystery is:  how does Malone end up in jail.

Finding this a bit overwrought.  Adjective upon adjective--hard-boiled, cynical, flashy.  Cop in NYC in Harlem. Fighting the bad guys but not unlike the bad guys.  Corrupt, but with honor.  Book begins with him in jail, so no suspense there.  Book describes how he gets there. 

VERY STRONG ENDING All the mysteries are nicely resolved.  It's a good ghost story, too, but the revelation comes all in a piece and pretty much explains everything.  A village with a secret. Since it's a short book, maybe the strong ending saves the whole thing.  I'll have to think about that. Spoilers:  The mother who was forced to give up her baby returns and lives near the child, as an aunt.  Child loves her; she loves child.  Boy goes out one day; mists come up; coach & child & nanny & driver all drown in marsh. Mother--angry and bitter about being forced to give up the child--dies later of heart failure, but comes back to haunt the village.  Whenever she is seen, a child dies. Our narrator learns that no child has died since his sighting . . . has the cycle ended? NO! In a very nice twist, even though reader could see it coming, it is his own firstborn child who dies.  The child is in a coach in London.  The ghost st...

Great atmosphere. Interesting characters. Slender, slender plot. Eel House is haunted by the woman in black. There also is ghostly death of a young child in a coach that is sucked up by quicksand.  Our hero, alone in Eel House, reads of a child years ago taken from a mother and adopted by relatives--no doubt the drowned child.  And that's it for plot, other than the locals all being reluctant to go near Eel House or discuss it or admit to seeing the Woman in Black.  Too bad the plot is so thin as the rest is very good.

Ghost story, but I'm 50% into it and so far I have all atmosphere and very little plot.  Perhaps there is going to be something about the drowning in quicksand of a child and an adult.  Woman who lives in creepy, but intriguing, old house has died. Lawyer goes out to clean up the estate.  The house can only be reached at certain low tides, so he needs to stay there. Woman in Black at the funeral, but only lawyer sees her. Child going down in quicksand, but lawyer believes (after a while) that this is also a ghost. Townspeople seem to expect him to see ghosts.  No one goes near the old lady's house. No one attends her funeral.  There is a story here  Problem is it's taking a long time to get to the story.

Very good. The most exciting part was when Ballard and her lawyer meet with Feltzer.  F. thinks he has the goods on her, but she has filmed F. with the LA Times reporter.  He's broken the law by leaking about investigation. Everything turns. The revelation of the cop-murderer at the restaurant is okay. Alivez and Ballard work together (they're sworn enemies because he has sexually harassed her) to bring him down. All in all.  It's almost as if Connelly is afraid to make Ballard less than perfect for fear he'll be labeled sexist.  She doesn't do anything wrong in the entire book.  I'll read another, figuring he'll relax a bit in book two.

One plot seems to have come to an end.  Tom Trent stalks Ballard, captures her, brings her to his upside-down house (the same house where he tortured Ramon Romana.)  He plans on torturing, raping, killing Ballard.  He discovers she has a key to his house, figures out his ex-wife must have given the key to Ballard. He goes off to kidnap the ex-wife. Ballard escapes from her bonds and kills him (broom, stick sharp as a knife) when he returns. But . . . someone on the force has it in for her and leaks to the LA Times the possibility that she killed Trent unnecessarily. So, she's worried for her job and worried that someone would betray her.  more at: https://deukerreading.blogspot.com/2017/10/late-show-75.html Restaurant murder still unsolved. Olivez still on the force. Two hours left.

Getting better.  Ballard's old partner is murdered.  She speaks with a lawyer for one of the restaurant victims and learns that he was about to be arrested but was contemplating turning in a dirty cop for a reduced sentence.  Could the restaurant murderer be that cop?  Olivez (I'm listening on audio so am unsure of spelling) is the obvious suspect, so it's not he. Ramon Ramona beaten by Thomas Trent.  Ballard talks to his ex-wife porn star, producer and director who confirms her suspicions of Trent.  How do these two plots fit? Or do they.

Ballard spends this day working on the first crime in the book--the credit card theft.  She, with help from a call center in Mumbai, tracks perp (Nettles) to a motel room and busts him. She does not follow procedures to the letter and is criticized by another cop.  After that, she sleeps with the parole officer who has come out because Nettles is on parole.  She awakens in his apt and gets a call from Jenkins, her partner.  Her old partner, Chastain, has been murdered. (Chastain did not tell the truth when she complained about sexual harassment from Olivez.) She drives out to Chastain's place but Olivez sends her away. There is a suggestion that Chastain's murder is connected to the murders in the restaurant.  Murder was execution style.

Liz as "easy" dress model who was abused as a child "and loved it!" by her mother's boyfriend.  She seems to be truly in love with Laurence Harvey, but he can't quite break from his wife. Liz is sure he won't really forget her promiscuity. Eddie Fisher is Liz's childhood friend who somehow is able to resist her sexual advances even though he's single and alone all night in a room with her, and she's eager.  What a guy!  Ends tragically .  .   .  if you were engrossed. Liz races away from Harvey. He follows. Car crash. Dead Liz. She apparently hated the movie but was forced to make it by the studio.  She'd just "stolen" Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, so the Fisher role in the movie is weird. A soap opera, but Liz is by far the best thing in the movie.  She puts on a great performance.

Didn't read much today.  Ballard gets herself assigned to the restaurant murder case for the weekend.  She calls parents of killed waitress--learns of druggie boyfriend. Ballard was harassed by police sergeant and then not supported by her partner which is how she ended up on night shift. Ballard paddle boards during the day and sleeps in tent on beach (homeless cop, essentially).

Just started. New detective, female,  Renee Ballard. I don't have much feel for her yet.  Murder at restaurant. Man kills four companions, then kills waitress on way out the door. The waitress seems peripheral to the main crime, but . . . Also, drag queen is murdered brutally the same night. Two crimes seem unrelated, but . . .

Very satisfying ending. The two sisters are reconciled . . . to a degree. Nora is nasty to Teresa at the wake, but she visits her at her Ramada Inn before Teresa returns to her cloister. Both sisters ask forgiveness of the other; both receive it. Terrific book. Characters: Nora, older sister, pragmatic no-nonsense mother after being a timid adolescent. Truth is not a necessary fact of life for her. She adapts truth to fit her concept of family and a proper life. Charlie:  Her husband. Not clear if he loved her, but it's definitely a marriage that grows into mutual respect that is a form of love.  He accepts Patrick as his own son. Patrick:  Teresa's son, doesn't know it.  Wild. Blinded a boy in a fight as an early teen while protecting a friend.  Family moves away from Dorchester because of it. Owns a bar . . . dies in car crash after night of heavy drinking connected to the return from the past of the story of the boy he blinded.  John: Brother. ...

The wake for Patrick.  Nora decides it's time to tell her children that Patrick isn't her son, but her sister Teresa's son.  So, she tell them that she has a sister (news to them) and that she is a nun and will be at the wake.  The wake is busy with people; she doesn't get time to tell more--though it's unclear if she wants to tell more. Brigitte, her gay daughter, wants to tell Nora that her lover Natalie intends to have (an artificially inseminated) baby, but doesn't get the chance.  Just when it looks like Teresa won't show up . . . she shows up. Brian brings a "date," to the wake.  Ashley, who is dressed inappropriately.  John and Julia stop to get a special holy medal that Teresa gave Patrick at birth. Nora wants this medallion on Patrick in his grave. Mauve, their adopted Chinese-born daughter, is surly. Holy cards and prayers. Good book

All about Brigette joining the convent, her attraction to the cloistered life, what she gains and what she (finally) doesn't miss.  A final meeting with her son Patrick.  Yawn for me.

The themes are better developed in the Patricia Highsmith novel. Psychology is better, characters better.  But the movie has some wonderful cinematic moments.  Tennis match with Bruno staring straight ahead at Guy as everyone else follows the ball.  Amusement park . . . shadows of couples kissing are ominous . . . Tunnel of Love is dark, scary . . . wild final scene on the carousel when Bruno dies. 

Christopher Orr, the Atlantic Like Villeneuve’s recent films  Sicario  and  Prisoners , the movie is at once evocative and mysterious. As events unspool, we can sense that—like Louise with the heptapods—we do not entirely comprehend them. (We are correct in this.) As she and Ian try to decode the creatures’ language, they are constrained in their efforts by Colonel Weber and, especially, a CIA agent named Halpern (Michael Stuhlbarg). Until we know more of the aliens’ intentions—conquest? tourism? cup of sugar?—Weber and Halpern are greatly concerned that we do not accidentally teach them more about ourselves than we learn about them. Moreover, there are geopolitics to consider. Eleven other craft hover elsewhere on Earth: Shanghai, Siberia, Sudan, Sierre Leone, and even a few places not starting with “s.” What if China or Russia makes a breakthrough with the aliens first and uses what it learns against the United States? What if shots are fired, bringing alien wrat...

"Moonlight is one of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching films that I have ever seen. Many users are expressing disdain or presumed it to be dull. Yet, to see it as such misses the whole point of the film. Moonlight wasn't intended to overtly wow us or give us knowledge about something we didn't already know. Rather the film allowed us to enter and follow a life that I'm sure many have never considered living. Yes, we know some about poverty, queerness, masculinity, and Blackness individually, but to see the conflict of it all so succinctly woven together allowed the complexity of some folks lives to be seen in an unadulterated way. Moonlight wasn't supposed to give us some grandiose finale or even answers, but simply present a narrative that we often don't see. And that's what makes it so simple, painful, yet outstandingly beautiful." from review on Imdb Pretty much agree with the reviewer. Thought performances were excellent.  Gave insigh...

Nora adopts Theresa's baby, Patrick.  Nora, surprising herself, comes to love the baby. Theresa leaves, unable to watch Nora raise her baby, and goes to teach in Queens.  The night of Patrick (adult) death is described.  A bit of a mystery. He's drinking the night he dies, but denies it. Won't take a ride from his brother Brian. Nora sees Charlie in a new light--he adopts the baby and loves it. Nice scene with Charlie giving baby Patrick a bottle of milk and "chatting" with him. Nora finally (two years into their marriage) has sex with Charlie.  Second son John born two years later.