Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig return in a second Knives Out film, and Craig, along with everyone else involved in the production seems to be having the time of their life. Craig’s detective, Benoit Blanc, finds himself caught up in a whole new mystery this time around, and while there is a tonal shift from…
Tag: detective
Night Call: A Walking Shadows Novel (2020) – Brenden Carlson
Brenden Carlson’s Night Call, available from Dundurn Press is set in the past, an alternate 1933, and yet in describing it, I lean towards the phrase retro-future noir. We are introduced to the cynical hard-boiled detective, Elias Roche, who is haunted by an incident in his past and walks a fine line between the law…
Absentia (2011) – Mike Flanagan
So digging into Mike Flanagan’s work, I found his first horror feature film, which you can source on YouTube. Sure, it’s shot on a digital camera, and looks a little less sleek than some of his later works, but damn if a lot of recognizable elements aren’t there from the off; the use of family…
Murder on the Orient Express (1934) – Agatha Christie
This week I dug into one of Agatha Christie’s most iconic novels, Murder on the Orient Express which features that Belgian detective and his little grey cells, Hercule Poirot. Summoned back to London, Poirot must forgo a layover and board the Orient Express to make it to his next assignment. Unfortunately, the train car is…
The Nice Guys (2016) – Shane Black
With the exception of The Predator, I love me some Shane Black. From the moment I first saw Lethal Weapon, I knew I had found a writer (and later a director) that I would enjoy following. Keeping in the vein of his other film, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys plays with the detective…
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) – Shane Black
Excluding The Predator (what the hell was that?) Shane Black has been one of my favorite Hollywood writers, and I was super-excited when it was announced he was getting into the director’s chair for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Set, like most of Black’s tales, at Christmas, this one is a slice of modern noir. Robert…
Star Trek: Picard – Rogue Elements (2021) – John Jackson Miller
The year is 2391, four years after the Romulan star was destroyed, and Simon & Schuster’s next entry in the Star Trek: Picard, is an enjoyable entry that mixes a lot of humor with a very noir detective story that ties back to one of the biggest events of the 23rd century. The longest of…
The Hardy Boys: The Missing Chums (1928/1962) – Franklin W. Dixon
Frank and Joe Hardy are back in their fourth adventure, The Missing Chums. This quick-paced, fast read book sees the brothers asked by the local Bayport P.D. to help investigate a local shantytown, while their father, Fenton, the renowned detective is called in to investigate a series of national bank robberies… and then there’s one…
Whispers Under Ground (2012) – Ben Aaronovitch
The third book in what has become known as the Rivers of London series takes Peter Grant beneath London in the next volume of the urban fantasy series. Working a murder case, while still hunting down the Faceless Man and his students, Grant, alongside Lesley, who has now joined the Folly (where they work from)…
The Hard Boys: The Tower Treasure (1927/1959) – Franklin W. Dixon
When I was a young boy in the late 70s, early 80s, I was devouring books at a variety of reading levels, and was delighted with the blue border hard cover editions of The Hardy Boys, I didn’t have them all, but I had a collection that would grow whenever I lacked anything else to…
The Mind Reels 