I guess I was a bit premature on my news of Christopher Sharpe wrapping production on SEX MACHINE, as he is going back for a few more scenes. If you're in the Oklahoma City area, check out his blog, which includes a call for extras here.
I got two nibbles yesterday on some interesting projects that I hope I can report more on later.
As I have mentioned before, I write book reviews for a magazine called "Pomp and Circumstantial Evidence" that comes out in conjunction with the Magna Cum Murder Mystery Conference. In case you don't get the magazine or go to the conference, here are my latest reviews:
THE NARROWS
By Michael Connelly
Longtime fans of Michael Connelly’s work might be duly surprised at the outset of his latest novel, which features the sudden death of Terry McCaleb, the FBI profiler hindered by a heart transplant in the thriller Blood Work (and the movie of the same name). Although the death appears to have been by natural causes, Terry’s widow thinks otherwise, and brings in retired LA detective Harry Bosch (the star of his own series of novels, who crossed paths with McCaleb most notably in A Darkness More Than Night) to find out the truth. At the same time The Poet, a notorious serial killer who has cropped up in Connelly’s work before, seems to be back from the dead and wreaking havoc in Las Vegas. How Connelly picks up characters and plot threads from a handful of his other novels and weaves an edgy new work from them will be immensely satisfying to his faithful readers, but somewhat confusing to new ones. Still, the mystery elements stand on their own merits, and Connelly delivers a strong entry.
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
By Mark Haddon
Bittersweet story of an autistic boy who decides to uncover the mystery behind the killing of a neighbor’s dog, reasoning that there shouldn’t be any difference between an animal’s life and a human life. Unfortunately the boy begins to uncover painful truths about his own life at the same time, but as the story is told from the emotionless boy’s point of view the devastating facts are delivered rather matter-of-factly. A wholly original novel with a unique protagonist, with fully-realized drama and humor springing from realistic characters and situations.
LITTLE SCARLET
By Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley has used his reluctant detective character Easy Rawlins to chart race relations in Los Angeles from the post-World War Two era forward in a literate and compelling series of novels (and a solid film version of Devil in a Blue Dress, with Denzel Washington). The latest outing, Little Scarlet, is especially strong, taking place in the uneasy days after the Watts riots of the 1960s. A young black woman is killed after protecting a white man from a beating, prompting the police to once again conscript Easy to go on a mission to places they cannot reach. Easy feels the world shifting under his feet as he delves deeper into the killing, and the changing cultural landscape, with his steely-eyed friend Mouse by his side. A dynamic mystery in a mesmerizing political and social milieu.
Give me a shout at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.
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