Browsing Area Books for July 2013--Whodunits

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs. Call Number: PS3568.E476345S65 2010.

          Reich’s 13^th book starring Temperance Brennan has the forensic anthropologist trying to unravel a mystery concerning James Lowery, a man recently drowned in a bizarre fashion in Quebec.  But Lowery died 40 years before, in a helicopter crash in Vietnam. And in Hawaii to reanalyze the old remains, Brennan finds yet a third body identified as Lowery. It’s obvious something sinister is at work, but what?

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane. Call Number: PS3562.E426M66 2010.

          Twelve years earlier, police investigators Kenzie and Gennaro had tracked Amanda McReady down when she’d vanished at the age of four, taking her from a loving couple who’d gone to prison and returning her to a drunken, neglectful mother because that was the law.  Now, haunted by the wrongness of that act, the duo once again tracks Amanda’s steps, a hunt that takes them to identity thieves, ruthless Russian mobsters, meth addicts and a priceless religious icon.

 

Mad River by John Sandford. Call Number: PS3569.A516M33 2012.

          Virgil flowers is back in his sixth story, this time chasing three teenaged thrill killers who are rampaging through southern Minnesota, shooting  a woman during a robbery, then killing a man for his car. And after that, they can’t seem to get enough.  But Virgil can’t quite make the pieces fit and as the dragnet tightens around the killers, he knows there’s more to the story.  But he never sees how it’s going to end.

White Heat by M.J. McGrath. Call Number: PR6113.C4775W55 2011.

          McGrath’s first book features Edie Kiglatuk, an Inuit woman living on the top of the world. Guiding two men on an alleged hunting expedition, she realizes they are looking for something besides ducks. Then one of the men is shot and killed.  Anxious to avoid the authorities, the elders on Ellesmere Island call it an accident.  But Edie knows better.  And when her nephew kills himself because of something to do with the murder, Edie takes matters into her own hands.

 

 

 

 

 

Library Videos for July 2013--Private Eyes

Private Eye, Starring Jeong-min Hwang, Dal-su Oh, Deok-Hwan

 Ryu and Ji-won Uhm. Directed by Dae-Min Park.

Call Number: PN1995.9.F67P75 2012.

   A Korean import that shows their directors have been paying

attention to American noir.  In the 1900 Korean empire, Hong-Jin

Ho is a private eye barely surviving on money made by spying on

cheating spouses.  Then a rich man’s son is found murdered in

the woods and Hong-Jin is hired to find the culprit.  With the help

of a medical student, he uncovers a far more complex crime than

it seems. Film noir meets an Asian Sherlock Holmes.

 

The Zero Effect, starring Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan O’Neal and Kim Dickens.  Directed by Jake Kasdan.  Call Number: PN1995.9.D4Z47 1998.

     Daryl Zero is a brilliant detective who can’t function in the real world.  Steve Arlo is hired to be his leg man and gofer, dealing with people Zero can’t talk to—which is everybody.  When Daryl is hired to find a millionaire’s missing keys, it leads to a lot of unexpected complications for him—like love.

 

 

 

The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Directed by Howard Hawks.   Call Number: PN1995.9.D4B56 2000.

   A Faulkner screenplay from a Raymond Chandler script revolves around legendary detective Philip Marlowe, trying to save a family’s name from the indiscretions of the youngest sister.  The plot takes a lot of watching, but the characters and atmosphere carry everyone along through the murky world of blackmail, pornography, gamblers and murder.  And of course, whenever Bacall and Bogart are on the screen the dialog and sexual tension sizzle.

 

 

The Girl by the Lake, starring Toni Servillo, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Gifuni.

Directed by Andrea Molaioli. Call Number: PN1995.9.D4G57 2010.

     Called to a small Northern Italian village, Inspector Giovanni Sanzio investigates the murder of a beautiful young girl, and uncovers many of the secrets of the town in the process of recreating her last day.  It’s a place of great beauty, but beneath the idyllic setting, there are many things people are trying to keep hidden—and the Inspector is one of them.

Library Video of the Week, January 21, 2013.

Tears of the Sun, starring Bruce Willis, Monica Belluci, Cole Hauser, Eammon Walker.  Directed by Antoine Fuqua. 2003. Library Call Number: PN1995.9.W3T43 2005.
          Critics weren’t kind to this movie when it came out, for some reason.  Maybe it seemed too dark, or disjointed.  Certainly there is a sharp break from the beginning half of the movie to the battles at the end.  Willis stars as Lieutenant Waters, a Navy SEAL who leads his team into the Nigerian jungle to save four American doctors and nurses from being killed by one side of a raging civil war.  The doctor, however, won’t go without her patients, so the SEALs involuntarily force her and the others onto the helicopter for extraction.
On the way out, Waters sees the advancing army burning and murdering as it comes.  Suffering a sudden pang of conscience, he decides to do the right thing, turns the helicopters around and lands to protect the 70 or so refugees from the hospital.  His superiors, however, will not send the copters back, forcing the SEALs, the American medical staff and the refugees to flee on foot to safety in Cameroon, pursued by an overwhelming force.  The dialog might be standard and the battles seem like Hollywood intruding on a thoughtful movie, but the tone and scenes, the camera-work and the emotional weight of the characters are all remarkable

Library Video of the Week, October 8, 2012

To Have and Have Not, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, directed by Howard Hawks. (1945.) Written by Jules Furthman and William Faulkner, from a short story by Ernest Hemingway.

            A film most notable for being the first screen appearance of Bogart and Bacall as a duo, this pick from the Library’s classic collection features great dialog and undeniable sparks from the stars.  Bogart plays essentially the same character he played in Casablanca—the expatriate American who doesn’t want to get involved in the World War but finds himself drawn into a fight between the Free French of Caribbean Martinique and the Nazi collaborators of Vichy France who run the island.   Unlike Casablanca, this time Bogart gets the girl.  Spare in settings, the action and characters carry what is arguably one of the Bogart/Bacall team’s best movies.
           If you haven’t seen it for awhile, or if you’ve never sen it, add it to you watch list.

Library Video of the Week, September 19, 2011.

The Narrow Margin, starring Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor and Jacqueline White. Directed by Richard Fleischer. 1952. Library Call Number: PN1995.9.F54N37 2005.             One of the best pictures ever made in the noir  period of Hollywood gangster pictures, Fleischer’s film features plenty of twists and surprises as a pair of detectives are assigned the task of escorting a gang boss’ girlfriend from Chicago to L.A. aboard the Golden West Limited, where she’s going to testify about mob activities to a grand jury.  One of the detectives is knocked off before they even get to the train, and as it rolls through the night, the remaining police escort finds himself facing ever higher odds.  This is one of those movies that has no real scenery, just the claustrophobic sleepers of the train and relies almost solely on plot and character, neither of which disappoint the viewer.  If you like old action movies, you should like this   B-movie classic.

June Videos --The Caper Film

 

The Score, starring Robert DeNiro, Edward Norton and Marlon Brando. Directed by Frank Oz.  2001. (Library Call Number: PN1995.9.C66S36 2001.)

     Four films on the theme of robbery are featured for June. In The Score, DeNiro plays master thief Nick Wells, who’s ready to retire until his partner (Marlon Brando in his last film appearance) pleads with him to make one last, big score: a priceless European scepter, locked away in a safe. There are only two problems: the vault is in the high-security Quebec Customs House and Nick has to work with an arrogant—and undependable—newcomer.
 

A Fish Called Wanda, starring Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Palin and John Cleese. Directed by Charles Crichton. 1999.  (Library Call Number: PN1995.9.C55F56 2006.)

In the hilarious A Fish Called Wanda, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis are crazy Otto and sexy, devious Wanda, part of a gang of diamond thieves.  They double-cross their partners, Ken and George, but George has already hidden the diamonds and won’t divulge where they are. What follows is laugh out loud mayhem of the Monty Python kind, not surprising with two of the former Pythons on screen.

The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham and David Suchet. Directed by Roger Donaldson. 2008.   (Library Call Number: PN1995.9.S87B36 2008.)  

In The Bank Job, Terry Leather (Jason Statham) is offered up entry to safe-deposit boxes in a small Baker Street bank.  He and his low-level crew steal millions in cash and jewelry, unaware that the boxes also contain the property of a vicious gangster and state secrets that the government will go to any lengths to protect. David Suchet, known for playing Hercule Poirot on PBS' Mystery, gives a remarkably different performance as vicious gangster Lew Vogel.

The Heist starring Pierce Brosnan and Tom Skerritt. Directed by Stuart Orme. 1989. (Library Call Number: PN1995.9.J8H45 1989.)

     And in The Heist, Pierce Brosnan, in one of his best efforts on screen, is Neil Skinner, fresh out of jail after being framed for robbery by his best friend—who also used the occasion to steal Skinner’s girlfriend. Out for revenge, the ex-con plots to steal the daily take of the racetrack where his friend runs security--and avoid the police detective still hounding him--in a game of double- and triple-cross.