LAPD detective Lena Gamble is assigned to a double murder in MURDER SEASON, Robert Ellis’ third in the series. It’s a challenging enough assignment, but Gamble quickly learns exactly how tough it is when her own law enforcement allies turn against her.
She is awakened before dawn to learn that her day off has been canceled. Instead, she is called to immediately report to Club 3 AM, an A-list hangout in Hollywood, where she finds the bloody bodies of two men, both shot to death. One is Johnny Bosco, the club owner and one of the most connected men in town. The other man is Jacob Grant, a 25-year-old recently acquitted of raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl who lived next door.
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A number of stories intersect in William Dietrich’s BLOOD OF THE REICH, so a bit of plot exposition is in order. In 1938, Kurt Raeder is a good little SS officer in the Nazi hierarchy. He teaches at university but his career has become somewhat stalled. That’s why it’s a little surprising, and indeed scary, to be called to the office of Heinrich Himmler.
But Himmler has a special mission for Raeder: Return to the land of Tibet, where Raeder once undertook a scientific expedition, and discover the secrets of the lost city of Shambhala, secrets that may reveal untold powers which could be useful in, say, any potential war. Raeder leaves with a throng of tough men in tow to do as Himmler asks.
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Steven Gould’s JUMPER was one of those sci-fi novels that seemed like a no-brainer for a cool movie adaptation. In fact, when I first read it back in 1994, I fantasized about one day securing the rights to the novel and pitching it to Hollywood. (I still have that fantasy about Lucius Shepard’s GREEN EYES.)
Unfortunately, Hollywood beat me to it with the underwhelming 2008 film, in which they strayed so far from the original plot, it may as well have been an entirely different story altogether. Too bad, really, because the book is so much better than that herky-jerky filmed mess. (Although the movie does have a scene with Rachel Bilson in a bra, but whatever.)
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T. Jefferson Parker’s THE JAGUAR is the fifth novel to feature Charlie Hood, the stoic L.A. sheriff’s deputy who divides his time between local and federal assignments, and has recently been trying to stem the flow of drugs and guns running between the U.S. and the powerful Mexican cartels.
In this latest story, Hood actually shares the narrative with two other characters. The focus may be split, but the result is the most character-driven novel of the series, and easily among Parker’s career finest.
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Now updated from its 1999 publication, the paperback release of Kenneth E. Hall’s JOHN WOO: THE FILMS is able to tell a more complete story of the Hong Kong director. At the time, Woo’s MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II hadn’t been released, which would mark his American commercial peak, followed by the disappointing underperformer WINDTALKERS and the downright disastrous PAYCHECK, after which the filmmaker retreated to Asian cinema.
Now, you get the whole Woo, and nothing but, in a book that doubles as biography and critical assessment, covering the director’s entire career, from his early start in throwaway martial-arts pictures and comedies to the recent epic RED CLIFF. Naturally, the focus is on his late-’80s/early-’90s body of work that redefined the action film, both at home and abroad.
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