Crime, Thrillers, Horror and Mystery Recommendations

[DATo]

clintessential.

Nice call. Schell was in another movie based on the same theme called Judgment At Nuremberg. In it he played the role of the German defense attorney, Hans Rolfe. He is a great actor and still capable of delivering a memorable performance. The last movie I remember seeing him in was Deep Impact and, as always, he nailed his part.

[clintessential]

DATo: I think I must be aquaphobic. That's why I keep missing the boat. I thought you meant that your fascination
with the subject matter had temporarily overuled the value system that is second nature to you. The example I
gave, the Nazi in the courtroom, was meant to be corroborative. Hardly. You were warning people about the
nature of the book you were recommending. What I described was an example of what can happen when someone
choses form and ignores substance.

-- 06 Feb 2013, 10:31 --

The book I'm reviewing is actually a play written by Robert Shaw(JAWS). The Man in the Glass Booth
is Colonel Dorf, a Nazi who has been living in New York as Arthur Goldman, a weathy Jewish financier.
He has been kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents and brought to Israel to stand trial for war crimes
he committed while Kommandant of a concentration camp. The book does not qualify as "unputdownable."
So I don't recommend it. However, I do recommend the Arthur Hillman movie starring Maxmillian Schell as Dorf.
Schell's performance is spectacular. It is so mesmerizing I felt as if I was one of the assembled masses in The Nuremberg
Stadium answering Der Fuehrer's preemptive "Sieg" with an unequivocal "HEIL!!" "Deutschland uber Alles, meine Fuehrer!!"
Schell created a character so powerful that it supplants the serious moral endeavor that the Israelis have undertaken.
Not everyone who watches the movie is going to have the same response I did. I have
described my response because it bears witness to DATo's fascination with the executions
in Cook County. He is entertained by the wealth of minutiae surrounding each case. The
stimulus and response in that case are different from mine, but the effect is familiar. It's
like the arsonist who enjoys watching his fire burning. Taken in extremis, without any moral
limits, these are very dangerous thoughts to entertain.
Several months ago I recommended a book by Joseph Wambaugh called "The Firewatcher."
It is about a serial arsonist who was an arson inspector for the City of Glendale, in San Bernadino County, California. When he is finally apprehended, they find a manuscript for
a book he has written. It is a detailed account of each fire he set AND the devices he left
behind that would only be known by a professional arsonist(someone who earns a living at it)
or an arson investigator. In over 20 fires he set, the connection was never made.

NB: The directors last name is Hiller, not Hillman

[simonharris71]

'Asset' by Jonathan Orvin:

I was handed this book: a gift from a friend of my wife (the wife's friend knows the author or knows someone who does). The plot touches on the oil exploration industry in Central Asia. I did a number of years in the oil industry (before marriage) and have worked in a few countries, one being Siberia: so thought, “Uhmm, might be interesting.” It’s far more than that: it’s riveting. This is right up there with the best of John le Carré: it’s fiction but brilliantly believable. You’re swept into the plot early on by the author’s attention to scene setting, geo-political history, and character. I can believe it all: the smuggling, the money laundering, the governmental corruption. The tension and suspense builds in the subtlest way until the protagonist goes on the run: from then it escalates sharply. There’s a clever twist at the very end, which tells me a sequel is on the way. I’ve not read a better spy/crime/thriller for a long time.

[prasadkunala]

Murder on the Orient Express is a great mystery book to pick up if you're looking for a good read.

[Maud Fitch]

I've just discovered S J Bolton and read the first book in the Lacey Flint series "Now You See Me" which is a modern twist on Jack The Ripper and will read stand-alone novel "Blood Harvest" which is deemed a superlative thriller.

[lady_charlie]

We have been discovering PD James and Death Comes To Pemberly was, well, Pemberly, with PD James.

So you sort of have to be a fan of both, and even then you might think, a murder mystery at Pemberly?

We liked The Black Tower and also rented the movie.

Also heavily into Poirot and Miss Marple, just watched Murder on the Orient Express

Have you read Fuenteovejuna? Lope de Vega
interesting

[Jamil Thornton]

I Just read A New World Book 1: Chaos by John O'Brien and one word to describe it :AWESOME! It is about zombies, but not your risen from the dead but your infected 28 weeks later violent aggressive strong zombies. The main character is am Ex-Air force pilot, and Special Operations Soldier. He is suddenly found in this world inhabited by dangerous creators that lucky fear sunlight. He has to get his children, and girlfriend and find a safe place to go. The key phrase: There is no Sanctuary. Everywhere he lands there is a problem. His girlfriend is also in the military, stationed in a desert camp overrun with the infected. Its night more than day. This book is really great, humorous and heartfelt. The author uses his own children as characters and really describes what he would do. He gives a realistic view into what a military father would do to keep his children and girlfriend safe during a zombie apocalypse. Fantastic I would definitely recommend the series.

[catsy_red]

I like the books by Karin Slaughter, they run in a series and are quite descriptive. It has characters that you can follow through and are very cleverly written. I found I couldn't put these books down and have enjoyed all of those I have read by this author.

[Bananacat]

Wanting to read a new crime series?

The Vampire for Hire Series by J. R. Rain combines the supernatural and crime mysteries together to provide a gripping series. Brilliant for any crime loving people.

[lydia51]

I grew up reading Edgar Allan Poe's stories. If you are a fan of scary, dramatic stories, his are first class. I think I have probably read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries, and Agatha Christie is still my go-to choice for a good scare. "And Then There Were None" is one of my all time favorite reads.

[booklvr62]

Rippler: Book One in the Ripple Series by Cidney Swanson
Over Two Weeks on the Amazon Teen Bestseller List!
When Samantha Ruiz turns invisible in front of team mates on a rafting trip,
she knows something's wrong with her. According to her knowledgeable
friend Will, she's got a rare genetic disorder. Fearing a lifetime
sentence as a lab-rat, Sam wants to keep her ability secret. But she
also wants to know if there's a connection between dark Nazi experiments
on others like her and her own mother's death eight years earlier. At
the same time that Sam is sleuthing, she's falling hard for Will. And
soon, she'll have to choose between keeping her secrets hidden and
keeping Will safe.

[Critiq]

From Latin, the title translates to "blank slate." In terms of this book's credentials in the mystery genre, its unique departure into a bizarre pattern of arson as told by Shelly Reuben, a 20-year veteran in the field, involves the joys and dangers of adoption and psychological subterfuges, fully qualifying it as an exceptional crime thriller... and, with a twist! The final section (of three) will take a strangle hold on your attention and is likely to also take your breath away. It establishes Reuben, in my mind at least, as a master of suspense and dramatic structure.

[DATo]

From Latin, the title translates to "blank slate." In terms of this book's credentials in the mystery genre, its unique departure into a bizarre pattern of arson as told by Shelly Reuben, a 20-year veteran in the field, involves the joys and dangers of adoption and psychological subterfuges, fully qualifying it as an exceptional crime thriller... and, with a twist! The final section (of three) will take a strangle hold on your attention and is likely to also take your breath away. It establishes Reuben, in my mind at least, as a master of suspense and dramatic structure.

Hi Critiq,

I have not read this book but your description of it has really caught my attention. I have put in on my "to-be-read' list.

Don't know if you know this but the term Tabula Rasa was used by the philosopher John Locke in his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The term comes from the practice by the Romans of putting wax on slate and leaving it out in the sun to melt and spread over and coat the slate. Students would then use a stylus to write on the waxed slate by scratching the wax and the marks would appear in the form of impressions upon the wax. Locke used the term to mean the impressions that experience leaves upon our psyches. At the end of our lives we are the sum total of all the impressions made upon the "wax slate" of our life experience.

Without having read the book you've mentioned, but drawing upon your description, I wonder if Reuben is using this title as a metaphor for the impressions made upon the characters in the book in the form of their accumulated experiences as delineated in the text.

[Critiq]

Hi DATo,

Partly right, as to a metaphor. In a review I said that I'd have preferred it being translated to "razed tablet." But to say anything more would be a spoiler. I certainly hope you'll give it a read and get back to me with your reaction.

-- 01 May 2013, 20:26 --

If there's a better way to get the feel of early American history than when it's the setting for a taut mystery thriller, I can't think what it could be. It's 1908 New Orleans, where author David Fulmer picks up the story of his intense Creole detective, Valentin St. Cyr, after the Black Rose Murders of his prior novel, "Chasing the Devil's Tail." It's a time when motorcars
are beginning to clog up the streets and crowd the horse-drawn hacks, wagons and surreys over the road cobbles. The "banquettes" (sidewalks) in the district are teeming, you light up your stogies with "Lucifers," the whore houses are packed, there's a new music in the air, and Williams Jennings Bryant is the running favorite for president against Howard Taft.

[michelesbooksplus]

My favorite genre is Mystery. One of my favorite authors is an Australian, Kerry Greenwood. Kerry's series on her character Phryne (Frinie) Fisher is set in Melbourne, Australia during the early 1900's and have mystery, suspense and a little sex to tantalize the reader.