2017 contemporary police mystery, eighth in Cleeves' Vera Stanhope series. A corrupt policeman, now in prison, offers a solution to a decades-old disappearance, if Vera will look out for his bastard daughter…
2020 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, fifth in the Jack Logan series. Logan and Neish are sent to the island of Canna, population 47. Well, 46 now.
I still love Essen SPIEL. So I went back.
2025 science fiction. The corporate plundering mission meets an enigma: a gas giant's moon, with obscuring toxic atmosphere and so much radio noise that they can't even get a map of the terrain. Of course, no human should go down there… Mild spoilers.
1956 historical fiction for young people. Frytha and Bjorn are descendants of Vikings and part of a community of the same, resisting the new kings' rule in newly Norman Britain.
Back to the boardgame café.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved array filtering. (Note that this ends today.)
2022 horror novella. Alex Easton has returned to what's left of the ancestral home, a hunting lodge in Gallacia. The caretaker has died, but nobody quite wants to say how…
2006 horror, dir. Neil LaBute, Nicolas Cage, Kate Beahan: IMDb. Not the bees! Spoilers.
1912 mystery/adventure anthology, including the stories of Thorpe Hazell, the Railway Detective.
The organisers of Essen Spiel produce maps for download, but not the good ones.
How does it actually work, and what are your options? I found this slightly fiddly so I thought I'd arrange it differently to try to make more sense of it.
1973 horror, dir. Robin Hardy, Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee: IMDb. Where is Rowan Morrison?
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved string parsing and reassembly, and word squares. (Note that this ends today.)
2023 historical mystery; eleventh in Huber's Lady Darby series (post-Regency amateur detection). The Gages rush to Sebastian's father, who was attacked and wounded on the road in Yorkshire, and soon find that this matter will go deeper than it appears.
More gaming with nearby friends.
Jitsi Meet is a free video-conferencing package of which I have been hosting an instance since 2020. Here's how I have it set up.
This is part of an ongoing series about the preparations I've made to run Mongoose's revised edition of the Bayern campaign for 2300AD. Spoilers for Interlude 7.
I went to a nearby one-day ukulele festival.
1927 horror. Dr Daniel Dreeme is working a remote valley in New England, and it becomes increasingly clear that the people are Strange.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various case and substring tests. (Note that this ends today.)
1917 Swedish comedy, dir. Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjöström, Karin Molander; IMDb. Thomas Graal is a struggling scriptwriter who falls for, and takes inspiration from, his secretary… Vtt original Thomas Graals bästa film and in rerelease Wanted - A Film Actress.
1943 mystery/thriller, sixth in the Miss Silver series. Meade Underwood's fiancé was thought drowned when their liner was torpedoed, and now she's living in a flat with her aunt. The man turns up again, having lost his memory, but can the "fast" actress on the top floor really be his former wife? vt Miss Silver Deals with Death.
Back to ACWest and back to the Ramada. With images; cc-by-sa on everything.
1903 crime, dir. Edwin S. Porter; IMDb. The robbers tie up the telegraph clerk, board the train, and make their getaway…
2018 SF/horror. Shannon Moss is an investigator in a clandestine division of the NCIS. In 1997, she looks into the torture and murder of a SEAL's family, perhaps by the man himself… Spoilers.
2026 fantasy anthology, stories in Roberts' Teacup Magic setting.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved finding Pythagorean triples and prime numbers. (Note that this ends today.)
I found myself with a sudden vision of a Roger who might have been…
2026 romance and more. Roxie Mitchell is happy working temp jobs to save up for wild excursions, and reading romance novels with her book club between times. But then an unwise wish leads her into a sideways world…