I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved subsets of primes. (Note that this is open until 3 April 2022.)
1994 audio adaptation by Michael Bakewell of Christie's 1942 mystery, in a single 90-minute episode. Amyas Crale's widow went to prison for poisoning him, and died there; now their daughter plans to marry, but worries about the possibility of a hereditary murderousness, and asks Poirot to investigate.
2022 SF/mystery; 54th novel of J. D. Robb's In Death series (SF police procedurals). The woman's body, throat slit, is dumped on a playground bench, neatly dressed and made up but decades out of style. And the note reads Bad Mommy.
2017 SF horror, dir. Dagen Merrill, Sarah Habel, Dominic Monaghan: IMDb / allmovie. Something's amiss at a nuclear power plant… of the future.
1900 anthology of short stories (first published in Pearson's Magazine), dealing with Newton Moore, top agent of the British Secret Service. (The "Fund" part is never explained, though it seems to have been in general use at the time; I think the idea may have been that Britain wouldn't want an actual secret service like those filthy foreigners, but could have a fund to pay for occasional distasteful but necessary actions.)
2014 fantasy, dir. Mark Atkins, Scott Martin, Ross Brooks: IMDb / allmovie. In the Second World War, the Nazis have got dragons. That's about it really.
2001 alternate-history war story, fifth of six books. Belisarius and his allies take the war to the Malwa, invading the subcontinent and pushing them back into their heartland.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved a variety of means and more number theory. (Note that this is open until 27 March 2022.)
1992 western, dir. and starring Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman: IMDb / allmovie. William Munny was a bad man, until his wife reformed him. But she's dead.
Back together (cautiously, tested and well-ventilated as usual) for a day of games at home.
1919 dystopian science fiction. Three friends accidentally inhale a strange dust, and find themselves in a Philadelphia… of the future!
1991 science fiction, dir. James Cameron, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger: IMDb / allmovie. Two more soldiers from the future, and a different target to kill or protect.
2022 spy-jinks audio drama by Julian Simpson. Clara Page is an agent set to track down the Themis Group, a criminal conspiracy so powerful nobody's even heard of it.
1980 thriller, a stand-alone novel. Philippa Palfrey, who's always known she was adopted, makes use of a change in the law to discover the identities of her biological parents – who turn out to be a notorious rapist and murderess.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved more number-theory definitions. (Note that this is open until 20 March 2022.)
1903 anthology of short stories (first published in Pearson's Magazine), in which various catastrophes are visited upon London.
1984 science fiction, dir. James Cameron, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger: IMDb / allmovie. Two soldiers from the future fight to kill, or save, the mother of the revolution.
2019 SF/romance. Ada von Hasenberg, younger daughter of one of the three Houses that together rule human space, has been on the run for two years from an arranged marriage. She's finally been caught… but then they made the mistake of putting her in a cell with the man-monster.
1991 drama, dir. Ridley Scott, Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis; IMDb / allmovie. It was just supposed to be a weekend trip to a cabin in the mountains…
This Meetup-based boardgames group continues at the Marlow Donkey.
1995 mystery, sixth in the Carlotta Carlyle series (neo-noir private investigation). She may not have a client but, when shenanigans affect the cab company she drives for part-time, Carlotta can't help but get involved.
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved more number theory problems. (Note that this is open until 13 March 2022.)
1990 science fiction/comedy, dir. Robert Zemeckis, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd: IMDb / allmovie. You're just not thinking fourth dimensionally!
1891 fantasy (perhaps 1885). Tourmalin, bored on a long sea voyage, discovers the Anglo-Australian Joint Stock Time Bank, into which he can deposit his unwanted time, only to reclaim and spend it later.
I avoided the crowded pub over Christmas, but went back to this group for their next meeting.
1989 science fiction/comedy, dir. Robert Zemeckis, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd: IMDb / allmovie. We've got to do something about your kids!
2014 action/mystery novella. Miranda's working at the mall to get some money together for Christmas presents for her friends while pining over her not-quite-a-boyfriend-yet. Then things happen.
1961 audio thriller by Francis Durbridge, in 8 parts. While Paul's away on a lecture tour, his wife Steve is briefly kidnapped as a warning about… something… and left in her car is a coat with the unusual label "Margo".
I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved permutations and primality testing. (Note that this is open until 6 March 2022.)
2019 contemporary thriller. After the events of the last book, DC Constance Fairchild is on suspension and hounded by the press. But she's a born copper, so when a man turns up by her bins, mutilated and barely alive, she can't keep out of it…
Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: I want a trailer to tell me what's different about this film; the marketers want it to tell me why it's like all the others…)