DVD Review: Blue Bloods: The Ninth Season and Blue Bloods: The Tenth Season The police procedural has been a staple of television screens for nearly seventy years, and for just as long, viewers and critics have critiqued how dramatic descriptions of police. In the early 1950s, Dragnet (a continuation of the radio series of the same name) was […]
Author Archives: Christopher Chan
Book Review: Clean Hands
Book Review: Clean Hands Clean Hands is a slick, fast-moving thriller, written with skill and aplomb by a talented writer who knows how to keep action flowing swiftly. It’s very neatly crafted, and reads like a taut suspense movie. Patrick Hoffman does a lot really well with his novel, but there are a few shortcomings that […]
Book Review: Five More American Mystery Classics
Book Review: Five More American Mystery Classics The American Mystery Classics series continues to republish some great crime novels of the past, featuring some of the greatest talents in the genre, including some legends who have unfortunately fallen into undeserved obscurity. John Dickson Carr made his name with the “locked room” mysteries and impossible crimes […]
DVD Review: Monk: The Complete Series (2020 Rerelease)
DVD Review: Monk: The Complete Series (2020 Rerelease) Critics and pundits love to bandy the word “relevant” around certain creative works, arguing that because of its topic, themes, or political agenda, a certain book or movie or TV series is exceptionally “relevant” to the current era. Often, this terminology means nothing more than “this work […]
DVD Review: True Detective: The Complete Third Season
DVD Review: True Detective: The Complete Third Season True Detective burst onto the television landscape six years ago with a highly acclaimed first season, while its sophomore effort was roundly viewed as a disappointment. I’ve been a bit of a contrarian for both of these earlier seasons, as I thought that Season One was […]
Book Review: New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by MX Publishing
Book Review: New Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by MX Publishing MX Publishing specializes in Sherlock Holmes-themed fiction and scholarship, and here are some of their recent releases. A Baskerville Curse– Another Sherlock Holmes Alphabet, by P. James Macaluso, Jr. This little book is a delightful adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles, told […]
DVD Review: Richard Jewell & Book Review: The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle
DVD Review: Richard Jewell & Book Review: The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle By Chris Chan When Richard Jewell dreamed of becoming a hero, he must have made his wish on a cursed monkey’s paw, because though he did save a […]
Book Review: The Irregular Adventures of Sherlock Holmes!; The New Adventures of Solar Pons: Tales of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street; Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Tales of a Retro Future; & Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Mechanical Men and Other Otherworldly Endeavors.
Book Review: The Irregular Adventures of Sherlock Holmes!; The New Adventures of Solar Pons: Tales of the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street; Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Tales of a Retro Future; & Sherlock Holmes: Adventures in the Realms of Steampunk, Mechanical Men and Other Otherworldly Endeavors. Belanger Books is a […]
Book Review: Sherlock Holmes is Everywhere!
Book Review: Sherlock Holmes is Everywhere! This anthology takes a look at the various ways that Sherlock Holmes has influenced the real world. The essays in Sherlock Holmes is Everywhere! illustrate the different paths that brought the authors into the Sherlock Holmes fandom. Some of them read the original stories as children, others later […]
Book and Puzzle Review: Cain’s Jawbone: A Novel Problem
Book and Puzzle Review: Cain’s Jawbone: A Novel Problem Cain’s Jawbone is a unique book and puzzle. The title comes from the first recorded murder weapon. The premise is irresistible. A one hundred page-long novella, with all of the pages out of order. The goal is to rearrange the pages into the correct order– […]
Book Review: The Last Thing She Remembers
Book Review: The Last Thing She Remembers When a woman claiming to suffer from amnesia wanders into an English village, the aftershocks of her arrival will change the town forever. Who is she? Does she really have amnesia, or is she lying? This is the opening premise of J.S. Monroe’s The Last Thing She […]
Book Review: The Inspector Dover Novels
Book Review: The Inspector Dover Novels DCI Wilfred Dover is lazy, unhygienic, rude, gluttonous, ill-tempered, sticky-fingered, and one of the most entertaining detectives of twentieth-century crime fiction. His creator, Joyce Porter, wrote ten novels and several short stories featuring Scotland Yard’s most boorish and crude sleuth, along with two other series featuring an amateur […]