RogerBW's Blog

28 Days Later 31 October 2022

2002 horror, dir. Danny Boyle, Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris; IMDb / allmovie. The zombies are out, and now they're fast.

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Sad Cypress 30 October 2022

1992 audio adaptation by Michael Bakewell of Christie's 1940 mystery, in five 30-minute episodes. The old woman had a young protégé, and now they're both dead, the protégé certainly poisoned.

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Goblin Fruit, Celia Lake 29 October 2022

2019 romantic fantasy, second of its loose series. In a slightly sideways magical 1924, Elspeth Penhallow finds herself looking into the suppliers of an addictive magical drink. As does Lord Geoffrey Carillon…

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The Big Dig, Linda Barnes 28 October 2022

2002 mystery, ninth in the Carlotta Carlyle series (neo-noir private investigation). As the Big Dig tunnels under Boston, Carlotta's picking up regular work working undercover for the inspectors. But people are behaving strangely, and then one of them has an "accident"…

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Last Man Out, Elliott Kay 27 October 2022

2018 SF, continuation of the Poor Man's Fight series. Tanner Malone left the Navy with a reputation as a bloody-handed butcher, and went to university to study planetary surveying. The reputation won't leave him behind, and neither will the corporate assassins, so he joins a xenoarchaeological expedition…

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The Last Word, Lisa Lutz 26 October 2022

2013 mystery-adjacent; sixth and last in the Spellmans series. Izzy took over the family private investigation company, but that doesn't mean her parents are happy with it. Oh, and someone seems to be trying to set her up for an embezzlement charge. Vt Spellman Six: The Next Generation.

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The Weekly Challenge 188: Divisible Zero 25 October 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved more list searching and a variation on the greatest common divisor. (Note that this is open until 30 October 2022.)

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Rimward Stars, Glynn Stewart 24 October 2022

2017 space-navy SF, fifth of its series. An ally of the Federation calls for help against pirates; they can't spare many ships, but they can send Captain Roberts, a hero with a reputation for winning against the odds.

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There Will Be Blood (2007) 23 October 2022

2007 drama, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano; IMDb / allmovie. Horrible oilman is horrible.

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Who Saw Her Die?, Patricia Moyes 22 October 2022

1970 mystery, ninth in the series about Superintendent Henry Tibbett. An old woman who was a Bright Young Thing between the wars thinks her life is in danger, and asks for Tibbett to be her food-taster – and with all the old "friends" who are now powerful people, she can get him. So he's right there when she drops dead… US vt Many Deadly Returns.

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Royal Flush, Rhys Bowen 21 October 2022 - 2 comments

2009 mystery/thriller, third in its series. Georgiana Rannoch, 34th in line to the throne, travels to Scotland to try to find out who's trying to arrange "accidents" for various of the Royal Family…

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Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 17 October 2022 20 October 2022

This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet in the Britannia.

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Savor the Moment, Nora Roberts 19 October 2022

2010 romance. Laurel McBane and three of her childhood friends run a wedding business, everything from engagement photos to the Big Day; she does the cakes. Delaney Brown is the brother of one of the other friends, who's known them all for years and treats them like little sisters…

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The Weekly Challenge 187: Magical Days Together 18 October 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved date overlaps and combination searches. (Note that this is open until 23 October 2022.)

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Trail of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz 17 October 2022

2012 mystery-adjacent; fifth in the Spellmans series. Izzy Spellman is by now the most normal member of her family. But that really doesn't take much.

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Pan's Labyrinth (2006) 16 October 2022 - 1 comment

2006 SF action, dir. Guillermo del Toro, Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdú: IMDb / allmovie. As the Spanish Civil War grinds to an end, a woman goes to live with her new husband, taking her daughter with her. But there is dark wonder behind every tree.

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While Other People Sleep, Marcia Muller 15 October 2022 - 1 comment

1998 mystery, eighteenth in Muller's series about Sharon McCone, private investigator in San Francisco. This time there are two separate cases: Sharon's secretary Ted is suddenly being secretive and angry, and someone seems to be passing herself off as Sharon…

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The Weekly Challenge 186: Makeover List 14 October 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved combining lists and squashing unicode characters. (Note that this is open until 16 October 2022.)

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No Medals For Secrets, Elliott Kay 13 October 2022

2017 space-marine SF, side story in the Poor Man's Fight series. Alicia Wong keeps getting tapped for special missions that she's not allowed to talk about…

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Essen 2022 12 October 2022 - 4 comments

At the start of October I went back to Internationale Spieltage SPIEL, or "Essen" as it's generally known in the boardgaming world.

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Fallen Into the Pit, Edith Pargeter 11 October 2022

1951 mystery; Pargeter's first mystery, and first about the Felse family. The War has come and gone, and the heroes have got their "thanks very much" and been thrown back to pick up what they can of their lives; and a German displaced person, working locally, causes so much trouble that nobody's at all surprised when his body is discovered in a stream. But even so, suspicion leaves everyone on edge. (Later republished as by Ellis Peters.)

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I, Said the Fly, Elizabeth Ferrars 10 October 2022

1945 murder mystery. Kay Bryant lives in a grotty bedsit in London; as her neighbour is having a gas fire installed, the workmen turn up a revolver under the floorboards, and it's linked to the murdered former tenant of the flat. Suspicion follows.

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Children of Men (2006) 09 October 2022 - 3 comments

2006 SF action, dir. Alfonso Cuaròn, Clive Owen, Clare-Hope Ashitey: IMDb / allmovie. Twenty years after babies stopped being born, there may still be some hope.

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Call to Arms, Jay Allan 08 October 2022

2017 space-navy SF, second of its series. War has broken out in earnest, and Captain Barron and Dauntless are rushed out of the repair yard to join the desperate defence.

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Book Lovers, Emily Henry 07 October 2022

2022 romance. Nora Stephens is the other woman, the city-living partner who gets dumped after the man in her life has a life-changing rural experience. Until her sister takes her on a rural experience of her own…

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The Weekly Challenge 185: Big MAC and Mask 06 October 2022

I’ve been doing the Weekly Challenges. The latest involved various string manipulations. (Note that this is open until 9 October 2022.)

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ConVocation 2022 05 October 2022 - 3 comments

A return to Leeds for my favourite RPG convention.

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When the Tide Rises, David Drake 04 October 2022

2008 military SF, sixth of this ongoing series. Another small war, another planet.

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Walk the Line (2005) 03 October 2022

2005 biopic, dir. James Mangold, Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon: IMDb / allmovie. Hello. I'm Johnny Cash.

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Dark Blood, Stuart MacBride 02 October 2022

2010 police procedural mystery, tartan noir, sixth in the Logan McRae series. McRae is assigned to the team keeping an eye on the convicted, imprisoned and now released sex offender Richard Knox. But there's more to Knox than rape and torture, and many other things are going on too…

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September 2022 Trailers 01 October 2022 - 3 comments

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…)

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