Disparate group of ten people are lured to an isolated island and killed off one by one by their mysterious host who, they realize, is one of them. One of the best-selling books of all time, its genius lies in combining the premise with murders that follow the lyrics of a well-known children’s rhyme. That, and Christie’s scrupulous integrity. What it lacks is atmosphere or humor: it’s clever, but it isn’t emotionally engaging. Rated as a novel; add an extra star if you’re just interested in the puzzle.
***
Disparate group of ten people are lured to an isolated island and killed off one by one by their mysterious host who, they realize, is one of them. One of the best-selling books of all time, its genius lies in combining the premise with murders that follow the lyrics of a well-known children’s rhyme. That, and Christie’s scrupulous integrity. What it lacks is atmosphere or humor: it’s clever, but it isn’t emotionally engaging. Rated as a novel; add an extra star if you’re just interested in the puzzle.
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** Less than thrilling account of spacefarer Olof Carlsen battling alien energy vampires who can move from one body to another. After an early encounter with one such creature, in the body of a beautiful woman, Carlsen finds himself psychically linked to her, with new powers of his own to drain the energy of others as well as read their minds, using his abilities principally to cheat on his wife. Perhaps it's not as bad as all that, but this is a slow-mover that talks a good game -- linking criminality (particularly in the sexual arena) to vampirism -- but fails to demonstrate it with any meaningful action. The book, says Wilson, is "indebted" to A. E. van Vogt's short story "Asylum." Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) directed the adaptation in 1985 as Lifeforce. ** Giant prehistoric shark — a 60-foot, 20-ton megalodon — inadvertently lured from its feeding grounds deep in the Mariana Trench, eats innocents and idiots alike, while a small band of marine lovers try to capture it. One teenage boy, after witnessing the gruesome death of a rival surfer, asks a suddenly available beach bunny for a date. An Author’s Note assures us of considerable research, then recommends a single book, on great whites. Superficial and largely puerile. *** Early thriller, breezily written, about a fairly ordinary man, Richard Hannay, whose neighbor reveals to him the existence of a conspiracy to start a war (World War I, as it happens). The neighbor is murdered, leaving behind his cryptic notebook and, of course, the murderers, who naturally believe that Hannay knows too much and must be silenced. Wanted also by the police, who suspect him in the neighbor's murder, Hannay is forced to run for his life. What follows is an episodic cat-and-mouse game that isn't quite fair since Hannay gets one lucky break after another. It's a book that is probably best read one chapter at a time in an approximation of how it first appeared, as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine. It's light stuff: amusing at times, exciting at others, and Hannay himself is a pleasant everyman, more given to action than self-reflection. In most chapters he meets a Scottish local -- the "literary innkeeper," the "spectacled roadman," the "bald archaeologist" -- who either wants to help him or kill him. The "radical candidate" wants him to make a speech! Unfortunately, it all builds toward a rather disappointing climax. But Buchan doesn't take any of it too seriously, so if you don't either, you likely will be entertained. The basis for the Alfred Hitchcock adaptation of 1935, The 39 Steps, which is, in fact, much better. ** Seven years after pissing off a high-ranking official at the FBI (The Silence of the Lambs), Clarice Starling is relegated to phone taps and drug busts with no prospects for advancement. Meanwhile, Hannibal Lecter, double-digit murderer and cannibal, is living it up in Italy. Bringing them together again is the function of grotesquely disfigured Mason Verger, one of Lecter's few surviving victims, who is plotting to capture Lecter and torture him for his own amusement. Take the tongue out of Thomas Harris' cheek and this is an unremittingly unpleasant story of ugly people doing ugly things; put it back in, and it's a tale that mocks the very readers who made Harris a bestselling author: that is, it's difficult to understand this book other than as an attempt to answer the question, How much will these fools stand for? Harris goes out of his way to position Lecter as the hero here -- he's like a mobster who only kills other mobsters, one with a strict code of conduct, with Harris at one point going so far as to botch one attempt on him from a woman so that Lecter can later kill a man for the same crime. Slick, but sickening. Made into an equally unpleasant film in 2001. **** Olsen's riveting account of how Dean Corll killed at least 28 boys between the ages of 13 and 19 from 1970-1973, aided and abetted by two teenaged accomplices and the city of Houston, Texas. While it's possible that later works on the case provide more detail (Olsen doesn't appear to have bothered to wait for the trials of Corll's accomplices, one of whom killed Corll before he could dispatch his latest victim), it's unlikely any are informed by the same passion. And it is Olsen's passion, though myopic and arguably elitist, that gives this work its driving force. It's about a hellhole called Houston that is inhabited by worn out, uneducated hicks and policed by overworked cops who have coined their own category of homicide, "misdemeanor murder," so as to be able to focus on the really important crimes -- or to take the weekend off. One gets the sense that Olsen wouldn't have minded much if Houston itself were wiped off the map, instead of just a relatively few children. Not that he doesn't appreciate the children; more that he cannot abide the idea that Houstonians themselves seem to care so little about them. The whole thing would be offensive if it weren't in some respects quite true. The case itself is fascinating in its scope and diabolical incestousness (so many of the victims were located, along with the killers, in the same small area of Houston, and interacted with each other), and even Olsen's recounting of Corll's history late in the book makes for interesting reading (which is not often the case). Unbiased? No. But forcefully written. *** First Fletch sequel picks up a year and a half later with the investigative reporter (now a freelance art critic) traveling to Boston in search of stolen paintings, finding murdered girl in his apartment. Not as satisfying as Fletch, perhaps because it isn't as personal, but a clever and enjoyable mystery in its own right, leavened with the character's usual dry wit. This time, however, Fletch isn't the smartest investigator in the book; that distinction belongs to Francis Xavier Flynn, the eccentric Boston cop in charge of the murder case, in which Fletch is the prime suspect. (Flynn would go on to star in his own series of novels.) A fast, pleasant, and amusing read. *** Liberal CPA turns vigilante after his wife and daughter are brutally attacked in his New York apartment. Slow-starter (the hero doesn't even take a swing at anyone until the halfway point) that develops into a thoughtful, non-exploitative discourse on crime and self-defense. You know it isn't all about the killing when a large chunk of the climax is in the form of a psychological profile of the unknown killer. Ends well. Made into a movie in 1974 starring Charles Bronson. Followed by a sequel, Death Sentence, in 1975. **** Lem's evocation of the eerie, the odd, and the mysterious highlights this novel of an English police inspector investigating a strange case of corpses seemingly coming back to life. The mystery itself is less important here than the theories advanced to explain it, which together create a world in which perception becomes its own reality. The terrific ending includes a particularly creepy scene set in the English countryside. At night. In deep fog. ** Flawed, sporadically exciting thriller by the author of Jaws about a marine biologist who encounters a deadly creature in the waters off the coast of Connecticut, the mutated fruit of decades-old Nazi experimentation. Begins with fine air of mystery and adventure, then refuses to give up the mystery until late in the book, by which time it has become merely confusing. The obligatory woman (a scientist herself, doing whale research using cameras mounted on sea lions) fits nicely into the story, but Benchley can't quite figure out how to handle the obligatory kid: he begins as a long-delayed experiment in fatherhood, then, at 12 years old, develops a life of his own, complete with deaf girlfriend. Manages, however, to end reasonably well. Worth reading, once, for those who like this sort of thing. |
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