The Dark Magician: A Murder In A Town With No Name

tags: conjurer, Japanese, murder mystery

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads

Mayu has just moved back to her hometown to plan her wedding when tragedy strikes. Her father is murdered. Her uncle, Takeshi, a former Las Vegas marquee magician, impulsively decides that he'll catch the culprit himself. Who needs the police? When Mayu's former classmates emerge as the prime suspects, it takes a conjurer's dazzling sleight of hand to unravel this teasing pandemic-period puzzle.

Who's next? The murderer holds the high cards, always one step ahead. But who better to unpack this twisty, turny mystery than a master illusionist? Mayu's naive eyes are about to be opened wide--as she hurtles headlong into a nightmarish narrative with a shocking conclusion!

I like very much Keigo Higashino murder mystery novel, set after Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. This reads closer to previous KH novels because it was translated by Alexander O. Smith who really captures the Japanese way of acting and speaking and unlike Guilt, the only curse word used is crap. 

Takeshi, the younger bother of the victim is a brilliant magician. He uses his expertise in making things happen to find out who murdered his brother and why. His method is both effective and remarkably entertaining to the annoyance of the police. There are lots of suspects to consider and plenty of humor courtesy of Takeshi and his niece Mayu's interaction with each other. 

Highly recommended for mystery and Keigo Higashino readers.

Paranormal Nonsense

tags: humor, mystery-crime, supernatural, urban fantasy,vampires 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads

If Jack Reacher was a paranormal investigator…

The paranormal? It’s all nonsense but proving it might just get me killed. I won’t tell you what I used to do in the army, it’s not important. Let’s just say I picked up some skills. Now those skills are proving useful, but I didn’t choose my second career as a paranormal investigator; I don’t even believe in vampire and werewolves.

Sometimes though, I secretly worry that I might be wrong. People call on me to solve cases too weird for the police to take on. Take today for instance; a third victim was found with a bite mark in her lifeless throat. It’s happening in my town and I take that sort of thing personally. I’ll take the case on without having a client, but one soon arrives in the form of Amanda Harper, a disillusioned police officer who wants the killing stopped just as much as me. Together, and with back up from a cast of friends, we are going after whatever is behind the deaths, but my probing draws its attention and now my family are the hunted. But when someone I know is taken, a race against time begins which will pitch me into a battle for my life. Good thing I have some skills then.

If you are a fan of fast-paced paranormal thrillers, then this urban fantasy series is sure to please.

This is the first novel written in 2017 by the author, Steve Higgins. I read 2 of his newer books and I find them just so so. 

I like this one better than the "culinary tour" murder mystery series. The ex military main character, Tempest Michaels, reluctantly opened a private investigation office for paranormal activities because of a typo in the advertisement. He let the mistake pass so he started accepting jobs with supernatural complaints, not to validate or solve them, but to prove they are nonsense and that they don't exist. 

He lives alone with his 2 cute dachshunds, Bull and Dozer, Dozer being the dumb one but very sweet. (aren't all dachshunds dumb? ) He visits his parents in their home regularly and vice versa. Sometimes, he is assisted by a group of male friends in uncovering some incidents. 

The guy is very health conscious, flirts with several women, and a bit annoying but I can't help but compare him to M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin who has a sharp tongue and can't stand insufferable people. The author just like Beaton, is not afraid to be politically incorrect specially when he described  one female character as overweight, oversexed, and unattractive because she has a Lando Carlissian moustache.  

The writing is not very good but it is fine with me. It is his first book published and he just needed to polish his writing. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this series.

JJ Cale And Leon Russell

 

79 minutes. Recorded live at Paradise Studios, Los Angeles, 1979. 

I bought the DVD after watching this recording. We made music CDs from the DVD.

The Final Problem

 

tags: murder mystery, Netflix, Spanish

4 less than an hour episodes

⭐⭐⭐⭐

An isolated hotel. A mysterious death. Thirteen guests under suspicion. And only one person capable of solving the enigma. The game is afoot!

The Final Problem is the period mystery thriller starring Jose Coronado, María Valverde, Martiño Rivas and Maribel Verdú, based on the novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Premieres September 25, only on Netflix.

Spring, 1959. A storm cuts off a small island near Mallorca. At the hotel where the guests take shelter, Elisa Mander, a quiet English tourist, is found dead. What looks like a suicide soon turns out to be something far more disturbing: a murder. Basil (Jose Coronado), a retired actor who once played Sherlock Holmes on the big screen, is drawn — almost against his will — into unravelling what happened. Alongside Adela Figueroa (María Valverde) and Foxá (Martiño Rivas), he searches the halls of the luxurious hotel for answers, testing the composure of the hotel's manager, Mrs. Ausländer (Maribel Verdú).

In a place no one can leave and no one can reach, every guest and every member of staff becomes a suspect in a crime that grows more complex by the minute.

An actor who played Sherlock Holmes was invited by a producer to an island in Mallorca to discuss possible future projects. When a guest was murdered, originally ruled as suicide, the actor Benjamin Basil started to investigate just like his role as Sherlock. He keeps saying he's just an actor but he can't help himself when 2 more guests were murdered. 

The mystery is good and has a different angle than other Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie mysteries. It has a little bit of similarity to And Then There Were None. I guessed correctly the murderer but not the twist and the reference to a famous Sherlock Holmes adversary.

Highly recommended.

***********************************************************************************

I recognize the actor Martino Rivas playing the young novelist Foxa who acts as Benjamin Basil's Dr. Watson. I saw him in the 2007 Spanish telenovela El Internado with the young Ana de Armas, Blanca Suarez, and my idol, Yon Gonzalez.

In Plain Sight

tags: magic, paranormal, runewright, urban fantasy, YA

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads

When a magical plague is released in a Depression-era New York soup kitchen, private detective Alex Lockerby finds himself in a desperate hunt to catch a madman before he can strike again.

His investigations lead Alex to a famous thief, a daring heist, and the search for a mythic book of ancient magic, but none of that brings him any closer to finding the man responsible for the massacre.

With the police and New York’s Council of Sorcerers desperate to find the culprit, Alex becomes a suspect himself, thanks to his ties to the priest who ran the soup kitchen.

Now Alex has his book of spells, a pack of matches and four days to find out where the plague came from, or that authorities will hang the crime squarely on him.

The book is free to borrow from Amazon Prime. I believe this is under YA category but I find it okay for adults who like reading urban fantasies, magic, private detectives, 1930s noir, mystery, etc. 

Alex Lockerby is a Private Detective occasionally working with NYPD using runes he writes and gets paid for it. The book has 3 different cases that are tied to each other. The first is a man-made bioweapon that killed a priest and several poor people his mission feeds everyday. The priest is like a father to him. He took Alex in as a child until he was of age. The second case involves the murder of a man who worked at a warehouse for imports, and the last one is a missing person who is also an amateur runewright. 

Alex helps solve the crimes with his cop friend, Danny Pak (a Japanese with a Korean name and explained later why), some FBI agents whose leader is a beautiful sorceress, and his landlord, a British doctor who is in his 70s and also knows runes and magic.

This is the first book in Arcane Series by this author. The writing is very simple, probably for young adult readers. I don't mind as long as it tells a good story, doesn't have sex scenes and bad language, and highly entertaining. 

Highly recommended.

The Ordinary Jackpot

tags: Korean dramedy 

ongoing Monday and Tuesday

Things rarely change, but everything began to change. Eun Tae, who has been working as an ordinary employee, is burnt out from everything that happens to him. Everything from work to relationships with others, his life is filled with boredom. Suddenly, he becomes a lottery winner and gets 1.3 billion won. While it is a huge amount, realistically, it is hard for him to even purchase his own house in Seoul. After reviewing everything, he decides to live his life as he used to, but with a somewhat different mindset, as he has "insurance" that he can depend on.

This new Kdrama is different from the typical romcom dramedy. It looks like there won't be romance. Thank you writers. 

The lead male is getting fed up with being a salaryman. He was promoted to his position as team manager and the more senior and older employee resents him for it. The coworker is disrespectful and ignores him everyday and doesn't include him to have lunch with the group. 

Eun Tae, the team manager does his work diligently. He is the first to arrive at work and the last to leave. Even his own family takes advantage of him always asking for financial help. He did not complain when his laundromat guy lost one of his shirts without offering compensation. In other words, he is a pushover.

He went to buy beer but the convenience store's credit card machine was not working and didn't have change. The clerk suggested to get a lottery ticket instead. He reluctantly accepted because there is nothing he can do about the situation. He asked himself when was it that he stopped getting mad. He is worried what the consequences would be if he doesn't control his anger and he couldn't afford to lose his job. He won the lottery. 

I thought this will be a revenge or a scenario of getting fed up and destroy his place of work and beat up his colleagues. It turned out it's going to be a good feel dramedy. Instead of retiring from an unhappy work environment, he decided to continue the good work he was doing but will not be a pushover anymore. He wants to make the company a better work place. He is also thinking $800,000 is not enough to retire.

Only 2 episodes are out. The drama started airing this past Monday and Tuesday. I don't know how many total episodes. I like it already. I first saw the actor Lee Jun-Hyuk in 2011's City Hunter with Lee Min-ho. He hasn't aged a lot since then. What's his secret? LOL

Lee Jun-Hyuk

City Hunter trailer with Lee Min-ho as City  Hunter. Lee Jun-Huyk is City Hunter's nemesis and appears only at the very end of the trailer. Jun-Hyuk was excellent as the relentless cop pursuing City Hunter. The series is going to be shown on Netflix soon.

Never Forget

The 25th year of terrorist attack on the USA and never forget who those America hating people were and who their followers and cheerleaders are. Many of them are now in government positions, all in the Democratic Party.

New York City

 

The Pentagon

Pennsylvania

Guilt

tags: Japanese, Keigo Higashino, mystery 

⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads

A tour de force crime novel from one of the international masters of the form, where a simple murder case questions the simple notions of good and evil, guilt and redemption.

Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate the death of a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, whose body was found on a Central Tokyo riverbank. His investigations leads him to one Tatsuro Kuraki, who claims to have had limited contact with Shiraishi - but, surprising the investigators, Kuraki not only confesses to the lawyer's murder, but another one from thirty years ago - for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. This brings unexpected resolution to two cases but there is one problem: to Detective Godai the confession rings false.

And Godai is not the only one who cannot accept Kuraki's explanation of both murders and his professed motives. The confessed murderer's son and the victim's daughter both feel strongly that both the act and the motive claimed are untrue. As Godai investigates further, he discovers that the relation between the murder of thirty years ago and the recent one is complex, raising multi-faceted questions of guilt and innocence.

Guilt is a rich novel about crime and its aftereffects on those left behind by both the victim and perpetrator, a twisting, compelling work that will surprise and astonish.

Keigo Higashino's latest novel translated into English was written in 2021 and set in 2017. For a few years now, I noticed that the newer books do not have the same vibe as the older ones. I believe it is the translation problem. I prefer the books translated by Alexander O. Smith because his translations are closer to the Japanese culture and manner of speaking, IMHO. 

The newer books have Western style conversations using cheap words and plenty of cussing even from someone not expected to use cuss words. In this new novel, there are 5 total F words which I never read in 10 previous books. I'm not sure if the author himself included those words to introduce this new detective series and I'm a bit disappointed. I guess I have to get used to it. The book now reads like a dime store mystery novel although it is redeemed by the great plot and characters, thus saving the book from a 2 star rating. I also like that he excoriates detestable social media and tabloid journos calling them the newest scourge of society.

Recommended for Keigo Higashino readers.

The Secret Woman

tags: Denmark, drama, Netflix, Nordic noir, psychological thriller

⭐⭐

The Secret Woman is a Danish thriller centered around Louise who has amnesia and is living a quiet life in Norway. She gets engaged to a local guy. 

She begins investigating her identity when a Danish man approaches her and calls her Helene. She had her DNA tested that proves she is Helene, goes back to Denmark and finds that she is an heiress to a shipping empire. Her husband, young son, and mother-in-law live in her home which belonged to her family. She learns that her father died right before she went missing that triggered her psychotic episodes.  She slowly discovers her husband has something to do with her disappearance. But of course, it's always the spouse, with assist from someone unexpected, a twist I already guessed very early in the movie. It's too predictable. 

I always wonder why characters in so-called thrillers have no common sense and self awareness. She already suspects her husband, yet she goes alone investigating in a seedy part of the city then goes walking in a very dark alleyway. Death wish? Dumb. She also drinks wine poured by the sinister husband without suspecting it might be drugged. Dumber still. 

The other woman, Louise, whose identity she assumed was not given enough back story. Her connection to the human smuggling was not expanded. Speaking of human smuggling (women trafficked as prostitutes) is a very lame story plot. 

The acting of the main female lead is middling; the only commendable acting and storyline is the evil husband.

Skip it. Not worthy of almost 2 hours viewing time. I watched so you don't have to.

I Will Always Love You

R.I.P. Dolly. I will always love you and your music.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

tags, 18th century novel, humor, satire

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wikipedia

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, often known simply as Tristram Shandy, is a humorous novel by Laurence Sterne. It was published from 1759 to 1767, in nine volumes across five instalments. The novel purports to be a memoir, but the titular Tristram is an effusive and digressive narrator who begins the story with his conception and does not reach a description of his birth until the third volume. While attempting to explain four accidents in his early life which have doomed him to an unhappy future, Tristram describes domestic conflicts between his irritable father Walter and his gentle Uncle Toby, and inserts humorous discourses on a range of intellectual topics.

Read the rest from Wikipedia 

I read many conflicting reviews of this book and just like Ulysses, I tried to avoid reading it. It is a long-ish book at almost 700 pages. I ended up loving it. The bawdy humor, the style of writing and many digressive stories, his father, his poor Uncle Toby's unfortunate accident, fort construction, and love affair. 

I laughed out loud several times at the absurdity of some of the topics his father, his Uncle Toby, Uncle Toby's servant Corporal Trim, the pastor Yorick [alas poor Yorick], and the bumbling male-midwife Dr. Slop, and of course Tristram's four "accidents" starting from his conception, birth, baptism, and the unfortunate encounter with a window sash. Tristram even used his name as a verb, as in tristramed. The part where the household helper Obadiah made everyone annoyed for making a superior job of tying and securing the doctor's stuff that Tristram's father cursed him in so many different ways on several pages, is hilarious. His father is a book lover and seems to consult his favorite authors and philosophers in even mundane things such as a boy's breeches. 

The stream of consciousness writing style, the abrupt and unfinished/hanging end to some chapters remind me of one of my favorite books and it's no wonder I also find this book a treasure. A must read. 

Hamnet

tags: melodrama, historical fiction, Shakespeare's son Hamnet

⭐

Hamnet dramatises the family life of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes Hathaway as they cope with the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet.

This movie is based on the death of Hamnet, the 11 year old son of William and Anne Shakespeare. I consider it fiction because there is no recorded story of Hamnet. He was born and died at 11 years of age but no record of how he died. So the whole movie is made up except for their children. According to Shakespeare historians, the play Hamlet was written 4 years after Hamnet's death.

Anne is called Agnes here for no given reason. She is an herbalist and rumored to be the daughter of a witch. Anne Shakespeare must be rolling in her grave. Authors and moviemakers think they can just make stuff up and I find taking liberties with stories of real life people a disgrace. I don't care if they tell a great story.  

The overly dramatic ending is supposed to be captivating, full of symbolism, and has deeper meaning. Sorry, I was not impressed. It is no different from ordinary tearjerkers. The only significant part is that Agnes realized that William is after all grieving for their dead son. She previously was mad at him for not being present when Hamnet died but William was in London working. What did she expect? There were no cellphones then so he didn't know. Typical unreasonable wife.

I can't recommend it. Streaming on Netflix.

The Red House Mystery

tags: A. A. Milne, mystery

⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads

The Red House Mystery is a classic "whodunit" set in an English country house. An eclectic cast of characters are gathered in the house when the owner's brother, recently arrived from Australia, is found murdered in a locked room. Two of the house guests take the investigation upon themselves and they wade almost playfully through the abundance of evidence and theories.

I never knew A. A Milne wrote a whodunnit novel. It's a locked room mystery and I liked it although a bit forgettable and formulaic. 

Recommended because of the author and it is a short read.

Black Trick: The Lawyer Who Controls Justice

tags: Gackt, Japanese dorama, legal thriller, Netflix

From MyDramaList

“If justice is crushed by lies, then let lies be used to protect justice.”

Set in a modern society where information spread through the internet and media can easily shape public opinion, the story follows Naoto Uramashi, a man who refuses to accept public judgment without uncovering the truth for himself.

When innocent people are branded as criminals and silenced by society, Naoto stands by his clients and fights to prove their innocence. In order to confront powerful figures willing to fabricate anything to escape punishment, he uses deception of his own to expose the truth hidden behind lies.

It looks quirky and it stars Gackt, therefore. a must watch for me.

Similar to Galileo series and Jun Matsumoto's 99.99%, both streaming on Netflix.

Slow Horses

tags: espionage, mystery, thriller

⭐⭐

Goodreads

You don't stop being a spook just because you're no longer in the game.

Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent's Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb's misfit crew of highly trained joes don't run ops, they push paper.

But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a 'slow horse'. A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net. And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quiet and watch.

I tried reading British spy novels again after the death of John le Carré but got disappointed with all of them. 

I find Slough Horses just okay. It has tons of characters not unlike John le Carré​'s books and there are some humor although not as witty nor funny. The author invented his own jargon but again not as effective and unique as John le Carré's, making the book IMHO the poor man's le Carré spy novels. It's not even as good as Ian Fleming's James Bond series.

I finished reading it regardless and am currently reading the second book in the series, Dead Lions hoping it will be better than this novel. In Dead Lions, the author introduced an old lady, Molly, a character very similar to Connie Sachs who is one of my favorite recurring characters in John le Carré's Karla Trilogy. I'm not too thrilled with this copycat addition. I think I'll stop at the second installment. 

Wyrd Sisters

tags: Discworld series, fantasy, humor, parody, Terry Prachett

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads

Three witches gathered on a lonely heath.

A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin. A child heir and the royal crown, both missing.

Witches don't have these kinds of leadership problems themselves - in fact, they don't have leaders. Granny Weatherwax is the most highly regarded of the leaders they don't have. But even she finds that meddling in royal politics is a lot more complicated than certain playwrights would have you believe. Particularly when the blood on your hands just won't wash off . . .

Wyrd Sisters is the second book in the Witches series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.

Wyrd Sisters is one of the 41 books in Discworld written by Terry Pratchett. It is a parody of Shakespeare's works specially Macbeth and Hamlet and King Lear's Fool. Here, the Fool is a major character. There are several references to other works like Romeo and Juliet, etc.. The travelling theatrical group's playwright is a dwarf named Hwel (William?) and just like Shakespeare is drawn to ghosts, witches, and death themed plays. 

I like the humor throughout maybe because I already like Pratchett's witty fantasies and satires. There is an animated series based on the book which you can watch on YouTube. I haven't watched the entire video but it looks true to the book.

Happy 250th Birthday USA

Several countries are celebrating our 250th birthday with red white and blue lights on their most well-known buildings. Beautiful!

Enola Holmes 3

 

tags: Enola Holmes 3, Netflix movie

⭐

In 1886, Enola and Tewkesbury prepare for their nuptials, with the ceremony in Malta honoring Tewkesbury’s late father’s service there.

Enola insists she can be both a wife and a detective, but her brother Sherlock, already skeptical of the marriage, is secretly working on another case.

On the wedding day, Sherlock is abducted, and Enola must drop all plans to find him.

I think I'm done with Enola. This third movie is woke to the max. Haven't they heard woke is passe. I also don't like the Moriarty Moriarty Moriarty theme. It is overdone and also the reason I stopped watching Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock series. It got boring. Enola Holmes 3 suffers the same too much Moriarty. Adding to the negative is that Moriarty is played by the ugliest Black actress I have ever watched. And not a good actress either. Dr. Watson played by an Indian actor is not so bad but I've had enough. 

The movie is full of political correctness nonsense and I think the faithful followers of Enola will all go away. People are tired of being lectured about the sins of White people in the 19th century and making the you know who their victims.  

It's a pity because Enola and Tewkesbury are getting married and the movie should have been fun but it was ruined by the script and Moriarty story.

Citizen Vigilante

Citizen Vigilante is a 2026 vigilante action thriller film produced, written, and directed by Uwe Boll. It stars Armie Hammer as Michael Sanders, a vigilante enraged by the breakdown of law and order and the violence perpetuated by criminals, mostly migrants.

He decides to take justice into his own hands, killing criminals and corrupt officials. The film was inspired by a 2016 case in Hamburg where a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped by migrants while they received only suspended sentences.

The film was released in select theaters and digitally on June 19, 2026. It received negative reviews from critics while audience reception was positive.

It did not receive an age rating in Germany, effectively banning it in the country. Boll said this was due to concerns the film would incite violence against immigrants. Elon Musk released the film on X, boosting its reach. 

Streaming on Amazon and Apple TV 

Communion

tags: JD Vance, Catholicism, memoir, nonfiction

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazon

From the bestselling author of Hillbilly Elegy—an intimate account of why Vice President JD Vance strayed from the Christianity of his youth and what led him back to faith.

Communion is a spiritual exploration of what it means to be a Christian in all the seasons of life JD Vance has experienced—as a child, a young man, a husband, a father, and a leader. Picking up in some ways where Hillbilly Elegy left off, Communion recounts how Vance's pursuit of material privileges ultimately led him into a secular wilderness.

Communion reveals how Vance regained his faith and discusses his conversion to Catholicism, how his faith guides his work in public life, and how it shapes his thoughts about the future.

I liked his first memoir, Hillbilly Elegy and of course I want to know what made him reject Christianity and became an atheist for 10 years, returning to the faith and eventually was baptized a Catholic instead of returning to the Protestant denomination he and his family grew up with.

He lost his faith right after the death of his grandmother. Poverty also contributed to it. He started getting interested again in Christianity after the birth of his first son but couldn't decide which one to join. Although he has an uncle who is Catholic, he didn't particularly know anything about Catholicism. His birth father's religion is I think Pentecostal Christianity but he rejected that. His beliefs are more aligned with Catholicism although he didn't know it yet. He had conversations and discussions about religion with a friend, a Jewish convert to Catholicism. Two years hence, he started considering being a Catholic with the encouragement of his own wife, a Hindu, who thought Catholicism might be the best for what he is looking for according to his needs and beliefs.  He was baptized in 2019 to the Catholic religion. He once was lost and now was found. Amazing grace indeed.

Highly recommended for people who have open minds and are willing to set aside politics.