Just Completed
(Off to a slow start in July although to be fair I've got a few tomes on the go. Of those I'm reading at the moment I think my favorite two are Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood)
"The Charles Paris mystery series is kind of a comfort read for me. I first heard of it when I discovered my wife listening to a radio dramatization of the series on BBC radio, starring Bill Nighy as Charles Paris. When I discovered it was also a book series, I decided to check it out. Dead Side Of The Mike by Simon Brett is the sixth book in the series and oddly finds the erstwhile Paris working within the BBC itself.
Paris is a constantly struggling actor, divorced... maybe just separated from his wife Frances, who occasionally has some success writing his own material, sometimes not so successful. He's managed to work his way into the BBC for some spot work and suddenly finds himself on a committee to improve the BBC's production quality, the Features Action Group Meeting. He's there as an outsider, to bring some freshness to the inputs. As usual, Paris is somewhat lost and also bored.
Things begin to pick up when he meets a young producer, Steve (a pretty young woman with fantastic eyes) and then even more so when they find the dead body of Steve's roommate in her production studio. All evidence points to suicide, but Steve can't believe her friend would kill herself and Paris's investigator's nose smells a potential mystery.
So that's the premise and it will lead to another body, a trip by Paris and Frances to New York, ostensibly for Frances's mother's funeral, but also provides Paris with more clues to the mystery of the murder (s)... maybe suicides...
The stories are always neat because they do provide an inside look at the actor's life and this time into the workings of the BBC (a very glossed over look, but still interesting). There are never any police involved in these investigations, basically, it's Paris snooping around with sometimes help from Frances or another of Paris's buddies, his lawyer friend, Gerald. There are the ongoing frustrations about Paris's personal life, his on and off relationship with Frances, his efforts, as a slightly over the hill (in his mind, anyway) man, to start new relationships or maybe just have sex..
The mystery is solved after a few twists and turns and it's reasonably satisfying. The books are usually short, page turners and satisfying. Check out Charles Paris if you like that sort of story. (3.0 stars)"
Currently Reading (started since my update 27 Jun)
"As THE BEASTS OF TARZAN begins, Tarzan -- as Lord Greystoke -- is settled in civilized London. But two of his enemies, Nikolas Rokoff and henchman Alexis Paulvitch, are on his trail. The pair abducts Jane -- and Tarzan's son, Jack. Tarzan himself is stranded on a desert island, but with the help of Sheeta the panther and Akut the great ape he makes it back to the mainland. There he meets Mugambi, the giant chief of the Wagambi tribe, who becomes Tarzan's lifelong friend and ally. The group heads into the deep jungle after the kidnappers -- and when Tarzan finds them he lets the beast inside him wreck his vengeance. There's a beautiful irony, here -- Tarzan has come from the jungle into civilization, and his son must go from civilization to the jungle. Where Tarzan grew up without human guidance or moral direction, he has become an honorable man -- chivalrous, almost noble; a genuinely good man. And now his son, raised in civilization, must now walk a similar path. . ."
Newest Additions (3 books since my last update)
"June 1984. Timmy Graco is looking forward to summer vacation, taking it easy and hanging out with his buddies. Instead his summer will be filled with terror and a life-and-death battle against a nightmarish creature that few will believe even exists. Timmy learns that the person who's been unearthing fresh graves in the cemetery isn't a person at all. It's a thing. And it's after Timmy and his friends. If Timmy hopes to live to see September, he'll have to escape the...GHOUL."
"Roald Dahl's darkly funny masterpiece, The Witches, now available as a graphic novel from Eisner Award-winning artist Pénélope Bagieu!
Witches are real, and they are very, very dangerous. They wear ordinary clothes and have ordinary jobs, living in ordinary towns all across the world -- and there's nothing they despise more than children. When an eight-year-old boy and his grandmother come face-to-face with the Grand High Witch herself, they may be the only ones who can stop the witches' latest plot to stamp out every last child in the country!This full-color graphic novel edition of Roald Dahl's The Witches, adapted and illustrated by Eisner Award winner Pénélope Bagieu, is the first-ever Dahl story to appear in this format. Graphic novel readers and Roald Dahl fans alike will relish this dynamic new take on a uniquely funny tale."
And like most legends, there’s truth buried among the roots and bones.
In 1983, the church burned to the ground following a mass suicide. Among the survivors were Jacob’s six children and their grandparents, who banded together to defy their former minister. Dubbed the “Stauford Six,” these children grew up amid scrutiny and ridicule, but their infamy has faded over the last thirty years.
Now their ordeal is all but forgotten, and Jacob Masters is nothing more than a scary story told around campfires.
For Jack Tremly, one of the Six, memories of that fateful night have fueled a successful art career—and a lifetime of nightmares. When his grandmother Imogene dies, Jack returns to Stauford to settle her estate. What he finds waiting for him are secrets Imogene kept in his youth, secrets about his father and the church. Secrets that can no longer stay buried.
The roots of Jacob’s buried god run deep, and within the heart of Devil’s Creek, something is beginning to stir…"
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