SOME OF YOUR BLOOD (1961) by Theodore Sturgeon

OK folks, this one might get a little bit tricky. For the record, let me state that Exhibit A, Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon, is a remarkable book. It describes an investigation into a person’s character, via a case history of a GI under psychiatric assessment after he punched out the lights of a senior officer, and does so in a unique manner. It’s not whodunit or a whydunit or even a howdunit. If anything, it’s a ‘whatdunit’. Chances are that you have never read anything like its truly unforgettable conclusion. Trouble is, that is precisely the one thing I cannot talk about. Although this is a book that only males sense after the final revelation, it would not be fair to spoil it. Instead, I’m going to try to persuade you to read it without revealing its trump card. Are you sitting comfortably? We’ll soon change that …

I offer the following review as part of Friday’s Forgotten Books meme run by Patti Abbott at Pattinase, though as she is temporarily indisposed, this week Todd Mason is guest hosting over at his Sweet Freedom blog.

The new Sherlock: An ‘Elementary’ preview

Photo by Craig Blankenhorn – © 2012 CBS BROADCASTING INC. All Rights Reserved

Having previously posted about Lucy Liu as the new TV Watson, I thought there might be some interest in a slightly more detailed look at the modernised take on Sherlock Holmes being prepped by CBS for broadcast this Autumn. The broadcaster has now released the first official image (right) and the first official video too (see below).

Johnny Lee Miller plays Sherlock, who appears here sporting a grungy mane and a very large tattoo over his left shoulder (hmm, not too sure what I think of that). He is established here as having acted previously as an unpaid Scotland Yard ‘consultant’, but is now living in New York. The big departure of course is Liu being cast as ‘Joan Watson’, who we discover has been hired by Holmes’ father (!) to take care of the great detective after what appears to have been a bout in rehab (or maybe prison given that tattoo …).

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

Imagine a 40s Hollywood movie shot in gorgeous black and white, backed by a swelling Miklos Rozsa score and costumed by Edith Head. Add a dream cast featuring Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Lana Turner, Vincent Price, Joan Crawford, Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. Shake well, add a dash of postmodern irony and what you have is Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, a zany comedy that is to Film Noir what Woody Allen’s Zelig (1983) is to the historical docudrama.

The following review is offered as part of the Tuesday’s Overlooked Film meme hosted by Todd Mason over at his Sweet Freedom blog and you should head over there to see the many other fascinating titles that have been selected.

THE HOURGLASS KILLERS by Justin Richards

The title may sound like an episode of The Man from UNCLE but in fact this is the cracking climax to the fourth season of Jago & Litefoot. And one of the things that becomes clear almost immediately is that this season has in fact been following on directly from the previous one, with the aftershocks of the time-meddling that featured so prominently there still being felt as the eponymous heroes join forces with Leela and Professor Dark for a final battle with the slippery duo of Kempston and Hardwick.

Ostara Crime imprint launch

There’s some exciting news from Ostara Publishing which I am very glad to be able to help pass on. After three years (and 28 titles) as Series Editor of Top Notch Thrillers, Mike Ripley has taken on the additional role of Editor for a new series of more contemporary crime fiction for independent publisher Ostara which specialises in print-on-demand trade paperbacks and e-books.

Ostara Crime, launched this month, aims to collect and republish quality British crime writing for new readers and its schedule for 2012-13 features three books each from three female crime-writers: Christine Green, Denise Danks and Lesley Grant-Adamson.

Keeper of the Flame (1943)

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn starring in a murder mystery, produced by MGM and directed by George Cukor – really? Oh yes, though there is no denying that this is perhaps one of the more unlikely of the nine Tracy & Hepburn pairings made between 1942 and 1967. Indeed, some viewers may be more familiar with it due to the use of some clips in Carl Reiner’s clever parody, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) starring Steve Martin alongside stars from several classic and not so classic movies of the 1940s. In its own way though it deserves to be remembered as more than a footnote in movie history, not least because this combination of propaganda and whodunit also plays like a more commercially orientated,  star version of Citizen Kane, the classic directed, produced, starring and co-written by ‘enfant terrible’ Orson Welles that had impressed and upset Hollywood in equal measure just a little over a year before. Like Kane it begins with the death of a rich and powerful American and charts a journalist’s investigation into that man’s life …

The following review is offered as part of the Tuesday’s Overlooked Film meme hosted by Todd Mason over at his Sweet Freedom blog and you should head over there to see the many other fascinating titles that have been selected.

A TRICK OF THE LIGHT by David Ashton

“That’s done it!” is what Arthur Conan Doyle is reputed to have said upon completion of his historical novel, The White Company, before throwing his pen across the room! I felt a bit like this after reading the last page of David Ashton’s highly entertaining historical mystery, in which incidentally Conan Doyle features prominently. For some reason it took me ages to actually get through the book, this despite the fact that I was greatly enjoying it. But why?

I offer the following review as the third in my 2012 Local Library Challenge, in which I am supporting a great and valuable institution currently under threat in the UK under the draconian cuts of the present government.