Dune: The Duke of Caladan by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

 

(hb; 2020: first book in the Caladan Trilogy. Twentieth novel in the Dune series.)

From the inside flap

“Lord Atreides, Duke of Caladan and father of Muad’Dib. While all know of his fall and the rise of his son, little is known about the quiet ruler of Caladan and his partner, Jessica. Or how a Duke of an inconsequential planet earned an emperor’s favor and the ire of House Harkonnen to set himself on a collision course with his own death. This is the story.

“Through patience and loyalty, Leto serves the Golden Lion Throne. Where others scheme, the Duke of Caladan acts. But Leto’s powerful enemies are starting to feel that he is rising beyond his station., and House Atreides rises too high. With unseen enemies circling, Leto must decide if the twin burdens of duty and honor are worth the price of his life, family, and love.”

 

Review

Duke is a well-written, solid entry in the Dune series, with plenty of science fiction drama, action, and familiar characters from the source Dune novel as well as mentions of events and characters from Dune-centric prequels and sequels. In it, Paul Atreides, fourteen years old, struggles with his sense of advanced self and his boyish emotions while his father and mother, also caught between real-world concerns and their desires and fears, struggle with theirs. Meanwhile, others scheme around them (including Baron Harkonnen and his sly, treacherous brood), a new synthetic drug (ailar)─sourced from Caladan─causes empire-wide overdoses, and another terrorist element threatens the foundation of the Corrino rule.

While not a necessary story in the Dune-verse, Duke is fun, relatively light, and small in scale compared to other Dune works (even though it leads to the social upheaval shown in the original Dune), and worth reading. Might be worth owning for Dune completists.

Followed by Dune: The Lady of Caladan.

Vic Valentine: Fever Dreams by Will Viharo

 

(pb; 2021: serial-vignette anthology. “Foreword” by J.J. Sinisi.)

Review

Writing about Viharo’s work is different than reviewing most other authors’ works because of Viharo’s fierce, neo-pulp and pop-culture quippy insular logic, surroundings, and characters, which mix explicit lust, violence, melancholy, jubilation and other relatable emotions in intuitive slip-slide “cross dissolves” (Viharo’s words). True to that creative and intensely personal adherence, Fever’s sixty-three serial-vignettes, originally published online in serial form during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, force stick-with-it readers to let go of real-world preconceptions and just enjoy the go-damn-near-everywhere ride (provided its not far from a tiki bar, a retro-cool movie soundtrack, or a salvation-or-damnation vixen). While Fever continues in the vein of relatively recent Viharo books (e.g., Things I Do When I’m Awake, Vihorror! Cocktales of Sex and Death and his Mental Case Files trilogy), it reflects further maturation, less wallowing-in-despair in its often-clever prose.

Fever’s loose storyline, such as it is, takes place during a pandemic where Vic time, place, and character travels through vivid, possibly crazy, and highly personal scenarios, any of which are merely titular fever dreams or reality. Vic has guides for this wild rollercoaster─namely his wife (Val, who’s appeared in previous Valentine books and stories), Rose (another Vic-chronicled lover) and Harold Floyd, a client, a demon of sorts, and who-knows-what-else.

The vignette chapters are short, possibly excessive for those who like tight, logical narratives. As I’ve written before, fans of David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and other offbeat creative types may revel in this blink-and-everything-changes anthology, with its strangely satisfying and collection-true ending, one worth owning.

The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2014: fifth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by Martin Aiken. Translation Consultant: Steve Schein.)

From the inside flap

“All fifteen-year-old Marco Jameson wants is to become a Danish citizen and go to school like a normal teenager. But his uncle Zola rules his former Gypsy clan with an iron fist. Revered as a god and feared as a devil, Zola forces the children of the clan to beg and steal for his personal gain. When Marco discovers a dead body─proving the true extent of Zola’s criminal activities─he goes on the run. But his family members aren’t the only ones who will go to any lengths to keep Marco silent. . . forever.

“Meanwhile, the last thing Detective Carl Mørck needs is for his assistants, Assad and Rose, to pick up a missing persons case on a whim: Carl’s nemesis is his new boss, and he’s saddled Department Q with an unwelcome addition. But when they learn that a mysterious teen named Marco may have as much insight into the case as he has a fear of the police, Carl is determined to solve the mystery and save the boy. Carl’s actions propel the trio into a case that extends from Denmakr Africa, from embezzlers to child soldiers, from seemingly petty crimes to the very darkest of cover-ups.”

 

Review

This is one of my favorite Department Q novels thus far. Adler-Olsen’s usual, deft mix of mainstream cop procedural thrills, humor, pathos, and social conscience is kicked up a notch by the author’s especially sympathetic portrayal of teenager Marco Jameson, who’s far from sainthood, but still a real, especially relatable victim (and avenger). Like previous Department Q novels, this jumps between multiple characters and their outlooks in an easy-to-follow manner, with enough action (some of it quite brutal and moralistic) to satisfy those looking for a violence kick with their law-and-order entertainment. Worth owning, this, like earlier books in this series.

Followed by The Hanging Girl.

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The resulting Danish film was released on May 27, 2021 in Denmark. Martin Zandvliet directed it, from a screenplay by Anders Frithiof August and Thomas Porsager.

Ulrich Thomsen played Carl Mørck. Zaki Youssef played Assad. Sofie Torp played Rose. Thomas W. Gabrielsson played Hardy.

Lisa Carlehed played Mona. Mads Reuther played Gordon. Lobus Olàh played Marco Jameson.

Joen Bille played Jens Brage-Schmidt. Anders Mattheson plays Teis Snap. Caspar Phillipson played Rene Erickson. Zdenek Godla played Zola.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

 

(pb; 1974)

Review

This is one of my all-time favorite pulp-thriller novels, a hard-to-set-down, entertaining mix of pulpy corruption, class warfare, a killer monster, character development and cinematic-vivid (without becoming verbose) writing. Obviously, given its setting, this is a great beach read, one worth owning (I’ve re-read it three times in four decades, and been wowed anew every time).

Followed by Hank Searls’s notably-different-from-the-film Jaws 2.

Note: The novel is considerably different than its streamlined 1975 film version, by having Martin Brody as a native of Amity, Long Island (in the film he’s “not an islander. . . [he's] from New York”). The book, which may upset those sensitive to bad things happening to cute land animals, also has equal-to-shark-time focus on corrupt mayor/real estate agent Larrry Vaughan (it’s Vaughn in the movie) and his likely criminal “silent partners.” A subplot about a key character’s infidelity and Amity’s history is also highlighted, as well as how the Brodys have three sons (not two, like the film version) with different fates for one of the main characters.

#

The resulting film was released stateside on June 20, 1975. Steven Spielberg directed the film from Carl Gottlieb’s screenplay (Gottlieb also played Harry Meadows in the film).

Roy Scheider played Brody. Robert Shaw played Quint. Richard Dreyfuss played Matt Hooper.

Lorraine Gary played Ellen Brody. Chris Rebello played Michael Brody. Jay Mello played Sean Brody.

Murray Hamilton played Larry Vaughn. Peter Benchley played an “Interviewer.”

Skin Crawl magazine (issue 1) written and illustrated by Skinner

 

(pb; October 2021: first issue in the Skin Crawl illustrated magazine, created by artist/writer Skinner)

Overall review

This EC/Creepy-inspired horror magazine has entertaining illustrated tales whose art straddles the line between Old School horror-mag artwork and modern-technology glory and storylines that, familiarly moralistic, sport solid twists within their sometimes-rigid frameworks. This is a promising genre magazine, whose first issue is above average and worth owning. 

 

Review, story by story

The untitled origin of Rotten Rollie, Skin Crawl’s tale telling and face-in-its-hand-palm mascot, is up first: in 1692, a witch’s hand used in magickal cursing is severed and locked away. 300 years later, it is discovered, and free to tell the following moralistic and phantasmagoric microstories. . .

 

“Mother Earth”: Life-sucking aliens create an alien goddess to better harvest subjugated humans, without fully considering the consequences of their intentions.

 

“Homecoming”: A carnival appears in a dreary little town late one night, dramatically altering the fate of its inhabitants.

 

“Sight Unseen”: A town derelict (Meighan O’Connor) sees something not meant to be observed, and is perhaps driven made because of it.

 

“The Shed”: A cry-wolf tween boy (Danny) and his dog (Duke) encounter a terrifying, tentacular monster on the outskirts of their small town and try to destroy it.

 

“The Familiar”: A wizard’s black cat sets out to bring down a hellish kingdom run by an equally hellish monarch. (I especially enjoyed “Familiar.”)

The Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2013: fourth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitkin.)

 

From the inside flap

“In 1987, Nete Hermansen plans revenge on those who abused her in her youth, including Curt Wad, a charismatic surgeon who was part of a movement to sterilize wayward girls in 1950s Denmark.

“More than twenty years later, Detective Carl Mørck already has plenty on his mind when he is presented with the case of a brothel owner, a woman named Rita, who went missing in the eighties. New evidence has emerged in the case that destroyed the lives of his two partners─the case that sent Carl to Department Q.

“But when Carl’s assistants, Assad and Rose, learn that numerous other people disappeared around the same weekend as Rita, Carl takes notice. As they sift through the disappearances, they get closer and closer to Curt Wad, who is more determined than ever to see the vision of his youth take hold and whose brutal treatment of Nete and others like her is only one small part of his capacity for evil.”

 

Review

Purity, like its three prequels, is an entertaining, character-interesting, and slick police procedural that not only focuses on the main story (Storyline A) about a villain─or villains─that Carl Mørck and his associates are investigate, but also reveals more their personal-life mysteries and histories (the shooting involving Mørck’s two previous partners, Rose’s possible-alternate personality Yrsa, and Assad’s real home address). This one sports a wild twist near the end that turns Purity’s climax on its head. Worth reading and owning, this. Followed by The Marco Effect.

#

The resulting Danish film, retitled Journal 64, was released on October 24, 2018 in Denmark. Christoffer Boe directed it, from a screenplay by Nicolaj Arcel and Bo Hr. Hansen.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas reprised his role of Carl Mørck (from the first three Department Q films). Fares Fares reprised his role of Assad (from those same films). Johanne Louise Schmidt reprised her role of Rose Knudsen (from The Absent One and A Conspiracy of Faith). Søren Pilmark reprised his role of Marcus Jacobsen (from the first three films). Michael Brostup reprised his role of Børge Bak (from the first three films).

Fanny Bornedal, billed as Fanny Leander Bornedal, played a young Nete. Birthe Neumann played Nete as an older woman. Clare Rosager played Rita, Nete’s untrustworthy roommate. Luise Skov played Gitte Charles.

Elliot Crosset Hove played a young Curt Wad. Anders Hove (Full Moon Pictures's Subspecies franchise) played Curt Wad as an older man. Marianne Høgsbro played Beate Wad. Nicolas Bro played Brandt. Anders Juul played Gunnar.

 

Note: This is the final Department Q film to retain the cast of Journal and its three prequel films, since screen rights for the franchise are no longer owned by Zentropa, but Nordisk, the latter of whom released the fifth Department Q film (The Marco Effect) in Denmark on May 27, 2021.

Resident Alien: An Alien in New York by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse

 

(pb; 2018: graphic novel, collecting issues 1-4 of the Dark Horse miniseries. Volume 5 of the six-volume Resident Alien novel series, published by Dark Horse Comics.)

From the back cover

“A stranded alien visitor to Earth hides in plain sight in Patience, Washington, posing as the small town’s doctor. He has no intention of leaving─unless it’s to get back to his own planet! When a startling new mystery catches the odd-but-friendly Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle’s attention, he takes a trip to New York City with a close confidante and the hope of finally finding a way to communicate with his home world. Peter Hogan (2000 AD, Tom Strong) and Steve Parkhouse (Milkman Murders, Doctor Who) continue their unique, acclaimed science-fiction/murder-mystery series!”

 

Review

When Harry sees a symbol, an alien phone number, on a famous artist’s paintings, he dials it. An electronic voice tells him to head to New York City, prompting Harry and Dan (Asta’s father) to go there. Once there, they meet Violinda Darvell, agent to the artist (Raoul “Goliath” Benoit), where the mystery surrounding Benoit’s disappearance deepens.

New York is my favorite Resident Alien graphic novel thus far. Beautiful is a word I rarely apply to comic book collections, but New York fits the bill. Its theme of kindness, love, loss, immigration and hope is deftly and palpably written and illustrated, elevating Resident to another level, making this one of the best books I've read this year. New York is worth owning, like other previous entries in this standout hexalogy. Followed by Resident Alien: Your Ride’s Here.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. by Michael Avallone

 

(pb; 1965; a.k.a. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Thousand Coffins Affair: first book in the Man From U.N.C.L.E. series, based on the 1964-8 MGM Television/NBC show)

From the back cover

“In Utangaville, Africa, it took two days.

“In Spayerwood, Scotland, it happened overnight.

“In each town, the people suddenly turned into mindless, babbling creatures who thrashed about wildly, uttering weird, half-human cries─and died. Doctors were baffled as to the cause.  A sudden plague, some mysterious virus?

“But to the members of the United Force for Law and Enforcement, there could only be one answer: THRUSH had a deadly new weapon for world conquest.”

 

Review

After the horrible, mysterious death of a fellow U.N.C.L.E.* agent and friend (Stewart Fromes) and an outbreak of similar deaths in two obscure places, Napoleon Solo and U.S. government agent Geraldine “Jerry” Terry jet around the globe trying to stop the biological viral threat of the terrifyingly scarred villain Golgotha, a member of the worldwide terror group T.H.R.U.S.H. (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity). This leads Solo and Terry to the dangerous German village, Oberteisendorf, where Fromes, screaming and insane, expired. Meanwhile, fellow U.N.C.L.E. agent Illya Kuryakin and their commander Alexander Waverly work elsewhere to further prevent the culmination of Golgotha’s machinations.

Avallone’s U.N.C.L.E.─an often-wry spy spoof, like the 1964-8 television series that inspired his original, one-off book tie-in─is a tautly written, action-oriented and silly (Napoleon is catnip for all women) read, entertaining with its waste-no-words, swift pacing. This genre-true entry, worth owning, set the tone and pace of the twenty-three U.N.C.L.E. novels that followed (none of them penned by Avallone, who felt betrayed when the publisher, Ace Books, did not hire him to write follow-up books in the series).

[*U.N.C.L.E. = United Network Command for Law and Enforcement]

Next book: The Doomsday Affair by Harry Whittington.

The Hammer Horror Omnibus by John Burke

 

(pb; 1966: novella collection)

From the back cover

“The Gorgon

“What is the terrible secret of the village of Vandorf, where a murderer’s victims turn to stone?”

 

“The Curse of Frankenstein

“Baron Victor Frankenstein creates a grotesque monster─and is himself condemned to death for the creature’s brutal killings.

 

“The Revenge of Frankenstein

“Escaping the guillotine Baron Frankenstein repays the dwarf who aids him─by giving him a new body! But his creation is a killer; worse─a cannibal.

 

“The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb

“From Egypt of 3000 B.C. to the London of 1912 comes the monster that would not die!”

 

Overall review

Hammer is an excellent quadrilogy of horror film-based novellas, with taut writing, succinct characterizations and descriptions, storylines that are mostly fresh takes and twists on familiar themes and tales. If you’re a Hammer film fan and a bibliophile, this out-of-print book is worth seeking out. Followed by John Burke’s The Second Hammer Horror Omnibus.

 

Review, novella by novella

The Gorgon: After his father and his brother die under mysterious circumstances, medical student Paul Heitz comes to the German town of Vandorf, where he─along with his mentor, Professor Meister─are caught between two dangers: the secretive, terrified and angry villagers, and a mythological, transformative beast that is stalking all of them.

In the ninety-page Gorgon, Burke’s prose is brisk, bare bones, and tight, with enough description and character development to give you the feel of an intense Hammer Film Productions tale and quick enough to focus mostly on the action, romance, and horror of Vandorf, a small village living in the shadow of the history- and dread-haunted Borski castle. Its ending is short, sharp, and startling, a fitting and memorable ending for a well-written and darkly entertaining work, which correctly identifies the Gorgon as Medusa, not Megaera (“jealousy,” one three Furies, sibling goddesses of revenge)─the film version calls her Megaera.

The counterpart film of the same name was released in England on August 21, 1964, half of a double bill with The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, also released in 1964. Terence Fisher directed Gorgon, from a screenplay by John Gilling, based on J.Llewellyn Devine’s original story.

Richard Pasco played the lovestruck Paul Heitz. Barbara Shelley played Carla Hoffman, the object of Paul’s affection. Christopher Lee played Professor Karl Meister. Prudence Hyman played Megaera, a.k.a. the Gorgon.

Peter Cushing played Dr. Namaroff. Jack Watson played Ratoff. Patrick Troughton played Inspector Kanof. Redmond Phillips played Hans.

Jeremy Longhurst played Bruno Heitz, Paul’s fanciful brother. Michael Goodliffe played Professor Jules Heitz, their father.

 

The Curse of Frankenstein: The aloof, unrepentant, and ambitious Baron Victor Frankenstein, awaiting state execution, narrates his journey from adolescent inheritor of his family’s Switzerland to adult scientist who has resurrected a dead, damaged brain in a patchwork-limb body─a brain accidentally scarred by his former tutor and assistant (Paul Krempe), who renounced Frankenstein’s experiment.

This new take on the iconic Frankenstein/created “monster” is a thrilling and adept reinvention, with the Baron as arrogant and forward-looking as ever (scientifically speaking), even in the face of certain, immediate death. Like the screenplay/film that birthed it, Burke’s writing, which adds a few non-filmic details here and there, is tight, fast-moving, and a clever re-working of the oft-replicated Frankenstein tale.

Excellent read, this.

The counterpart-source film was released of the same name was released in England on May 2, 1957. The film was directed by Terence Fisher, from a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster (who based his work on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus).

Peter Cushing played the adult Baron Victor Frankenstein. Christopher Lee played The Creature. Robert Urquhart played Paul Krempe. Hazel Court played Elizabeth Frankenstein.

Valerie Gaunt played Justine. Melvyn Hayes played “Young Victor” Frankenstein. Andrew Leigh played Burgomeister.

 

The Revenge of Frankenstein: Picking up immediately after the events of The Curse of Frankenstein, Baron Victor Frankenstein escapes the gallows, with help from a murderous dwarf and prison guard (Karl Werner)─the experimental scientist-now-prisoner Baron struck a deal with Werner to move the smaller man’s brain into a bigger, more healthy body.

Upon escaping, Frankenstein (now Victor Stein) relocates to the faraway town of Carlsbruck, where he uses his medical skills to help rich and poor (the latter in Workhouse Hospital) alike. Frankenstein gains an earnest young assistant (Hans Kleve), who blackmails the former Baron into letting Kleve work with him. Another complication appears in the form of Margaret Conrad (fetching and ambitious daughter of an important official), who insists on playing nurse to the poor in Workhouse Hospital.

Of course, repercussions of Werner’s brain-in-another-body transfer are largely catastrophic, between Karl’s health issues, Margaret’s good intentions, and her sway over Hans. The ending is shocking, tale- and character-true, and exciting in one of the best genre ways.

Like the two previous novellas in this collection, Revenge is a consistently taut, brisk,and vivid Frankenstein narrative (Frankenstein/Stein again tells the story), scuttling that franchise’s tropes with aplomb.

The counterpart-source film was released of the same name was released stateside on June 18, 1958. Terence Fisher directed it, from a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster, with additional dialogue provided by Hurford Janes and George Baxt.

Peter Cushing played Baron Victor Frankenstein, now going by the name of Victor Stein. Michael Gwynn played Karl Werner. Francis Matthews played Hans Kleve. Eunice Gayson played Margaret Conrad. Oscar Quitak played “Dwarf.” Marjory Gresley, billed as Margery Gresley, played Countess Barcynska. Anna Walmsley played Vera Gresley.

 

The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb: In the early 1900s, a group of archeologists unearth the tomb of an ancient Egyptian prince (Ra Antef) and, in doing so, awaken curse that immediately begins a cycle of murders committed by the resurrected mummy. Mummy’s is a waste-no-words tight and fast-moving (if largely genre-familiar) work, with a solid, effective twist, and an abrupt and memorable finish.

The counterpart-source film was released of the same name was released in England on October 18, 1964. Michael Carreras directed and wrote the screenplay for the film.

Dickie Owen played The Mummy (Ra-Antef). Jeanne Roland played Annette Dubois. Terence Morgan played Adam Beauchamp. Ronald Howard played John Bray. Jack Gwillim played Sir Giles Dalrymple. George Pastell played Hashmi Bey. Fred Clark played Alexander King.

Resident Alien: The Man with No Name by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse

 

(pb; 2016: graphic novel, collecting issues 1-4 of the Dark Horse miniseries. Volume 4 of six-volume Resident Alien graphic novel series, published by Dark Horse Comics.)

From the back cover

“Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle. A smart, gifted, and stranded alien explorer hiding in plain sight, has been posing as a doctor and solving crimes in the small town of Patience, Washington. After Harry accidentally reveals himself to investigators who are on his trail, a stubborn federal agent arrives in town to heat things up! With a little help from the local shaman, Harry and nurse Asta finally realize the danger they’re both in, but some of their allies could help them avoid detection as another murder mystery rocks their town.”

 

Review

The fourth Resident Alien graphic novel focuses on Vanderspiegle’s further immersion into Patience, Washington, when Asta and her father have friendly sit-down with the stranded extraterrestrial, and a mystery stemming from a middle-of-town fire that claims the life of a mysterious hobo who has hidden ties to the community around them.

Like previous entries in this collection of miniseries, Name’s tone is humane, gentle, and sometimes quietly funny, with occasional, brief violence that isn’t so violent that it upsets the organic, delicate overall tone of Resident. Worth owning, this. Followed by Resident Alien: An Alien in New York.

The Big Needle by Ken Follett writing as Symon Myles

 

(pb; 1974)

From the back cover

“From the West End of London to the playgrounds of Paris to the desolate beaches of Wales, a dangerous and deadly intrigue as snowballing. Innocent people were being terrorized, homes were being destroyed, and dead bodies were becoming unnervingly common─all because the most powerful organization in the world was thirsting for one man’s blood. His name was Chadwell Carstairs. And he was a threat for as long as he fought The Big Needle.”

 

Review

Needle is a word-spare, swiftly plotted, hippie friendly, hardboiled, and hard-to-set-down short novel (175 pages) from an author more widely known for his political thrillers (e.g., Triple and The Man from St. Petersburg). Its deft, first-person-POV has brief scenes of explicit sex and its underlying humor is briefly undercut by mentions of two incidents of rape and torture, which take place between the lines, and whose victim shakes off them a little too easily (although Needle acknowledges that her experiences redirect the lives of key characters). The identity of Needle’s mysterious main villain (Mr. H) is not difficult to spot, but it makes sense and easily could’ve been, with a few altered lines, one of several other characters.

I’d recommend this for those who like their pulp unapologetic about its well-written, entertaining low-end thrills─think a stripped-to-the-bone Will Viharo novel, or Mickey Spillane, with more humor and minus his Right-Wing bigotry and nihilism.

Note: Music-loving fans of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange or its resulting film versions and plays may appreciate one of Needle‘s scenes that tips its hat to Burgess’s work.

A Conspiracy of Faith by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2013: third book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitkin.)

From the inside flap

“Detective Carl Mørck holds in his hands a bottle that contains an old and decaying message, written in blood. It is a cry for help from two young brothers, tied and bound in a boathouse by the sea. Could it be real? Who are these boys, and why aren’t they reported missing? Could they possibly still be alive?

“Carl’s investigation will force him to cross paths with a woman stuck in a desperate marriage─her husband refuses to tell her where he goes, what he does, how long he will be away. For days on end she waits, and when he returns she must endure his wants, his needs, his moods, his threats. But enough is enough. She will find out the truth, no matter the cost to her husband─or to herself.

“Carl and his colleagues Assad and Rose must use all of their resources to uncover the horrifying truth. . .”

 

Review

Conspiracy is another slick, entertaining and thrill ride of a police procedural in the Department Q series, suspenseful and twist-filled, with supporting characters (e.g.  Assad and Rose)─with their secrets, some of them easy to suss out─who evolve in tone-consistent and surprising ways. Adler-Olsen again balances dark horrors with humor and warmth, and it’s a winning combination of tone and overall talent; top-notch mainstream work, this. Followed by The Purity of Vengeance.

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The resulting Danish film, Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith, was released on March 6, 2016. Hans Petter Moland directed it, from Nicolaj Arcel and Mikkel Nørgaard’s concept.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas reprised his role of Carl Mørck (from Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes and Department Q: The Absent One). Fares Fares reprised his role of Assad (from the aforementioned prequels). Johanne Louise Schmidt reprised her role of Rose Knudsen (from The Absent One).

Amanda Collin played Rakel. Søren Pilmark reprised his role of Marcus Jacobsen. Morton Kirkskov reprised his role of Lars Bjørn (from the first two films). Michael Brostup reprised his role of Børge Bak (from the first two films). Jakob Oftebro played Pasgård.

Louis Sylvester Larsen play Trygve. Pål Sverre Hagen played Johannes. Lotte Andersen played Mia.

Darkman: In the Face of Death by Randall Boyll

 

(pb; 1994; final entry in the book-only Darkman quadrilogy.)

From the back cover

“Darkman: Once Peyton Westlake was a brilliant scientist conducing ground-breaking work with artificial skin─but his life was changed forever when vicious gangsters destroyed his lab and left him horribly burned beyond recognition. At that moment, Peyton Westlake died and re-emerged from the hellish fire as DARKMAN, a creature of the night driven by superhuman rage. Using his artificial skin process and his ability to become anyone for ninety-nine minutes, DARKMAN extracted a deadly revenge on the men who destroyed his life.

 

“Now, Darkman must take to the night once again to stop a vicious, rogue CIA agent known only as Rondo  who wants the secret of Darkman’s skin for his own evil plans. Once he possesses Darkman’s technology, he will use it to impersonate the president and forge an empire with himself as leader. With time running out, Darkman must somehow stop Rondo or else the entire world will fall under a madman’s will.” 

 

Review

Boyll’s fifth Darkman book is as comic book-y and over-the-top action-exciting as the franchise’s previous novels. This time out, there’s an international element and one-note, cliché-spouting villain (Harold Ferguson, a.k.a. Rondo R. Rondo) who is more comic relief than serious bad guy, one who tries to steal Peyton Westlake’s groundbreaking false-face formula while Westlake/Darkman and Darla (Jennifer) Dalton (from The Gods of Hell) try to rescue her ransomed American diplomat brother (Adam) from his South American captors. 

Tone-wise, Face is lighter than its prequels. It still has plenty of cinema-worth wild action scenes and settings (e.g., when Rondo runs goes crazy in a shopping mall, and Davis City, a jungle town where the US Confederacy still thrives). It also sticks to character-true storylines and events, another trademark element of Boyll’s Darkman works, with an open-ended series wrap-up that doesn’t demand a sequel while leaving it open for one─worth reading and owning, Face.

Replay by Ken Grimwood

 

(hb; 1986)

From the inside flap

“We have all fantasies about it. Especially men like Jeff Winston. At 43, he’s trapped in a tepid marriage and a dead-end job. Until he has a sudden, fatal heart attack and awakens in his eighteen-year-old body in 1963.

“Staring at a Playboy centerfold on his college dorm room wall, Jeff Winston realizes that his memories of the next 25 years are intact. He knows the future of stocks like IBM and Xerox. He knows who will win the Kentucky Derby. He is going to replay his life─living once again through the assassinations of the 1960s, Vietnam, Watergate, the Reagan revolution.

“The odds against the Dodgers winning the 1963 World Series in four straight games are astronomical. But Jeff makes a bet and with the money that brings him, he builds a multibillion-dollar fortune, becomes one of the most powerful men in the world.

“And again. . .

“Until he turns 43 and dies again. When he awakens in 1963, he can make other choices. . . from uninhibited hedonism to a search for understanding. Or perhaps love─with a woman who, like Jeff, is a replayer. How many more times must they lose each other and all they hold dear? And why have they been chosen to replay their lives?”

 

Review

Replay is a mainstream, well-paced and character-centric science fiction/reliving-your-life novel, solid in its descriptions and story-freshening elements to keep it entertaining and interesting. Good read, this, worth checking out.

The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(1995-6, 2012 – graphic novel, collects issues 70-75 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Mikal Gilmore. Eleventh book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

 

Overall review

Wake is a solid wrap-up to the original run of The Sandman comic books (additional books within the series are later-published prequels or side stories). For the most part, it’s short and sharp (with the exception of issue 75, “The Tempest,” which runs long). Great series.

As in previous Sandman graphic novels, the artists, letterers and colorists who bring Gaiman’s transcend-the-genre writing to vivid, distinctive representation.

 

Review, issue by issue

“The Wake: Chapter One” (#70): “Dreamers, guests, celebrants and mourners” gather in the necropolis Litharge “at stony crossroads in the shadow of the Quinsy Mountains” to acknowledge Morpheus’s death. Meanwhile, his successor─the new Dream of the Endless, previously known as Daneil Hall─holds court with a select few (Cain, etc.).

 

“The Wake: Chapter Two” (#71): More conversations between the new incarnation of the Dream of the Endless and his immediate staff are shown as are other guests─a few of them cape-and-cowl types and supernatural magicians.

 

“The Wake: Chapter Three” (#72): The Wake begins in earnest. Matthew the raven decides what the next phase of his life will be. Dream of the Endless prepares to meet his siblings.

 

“The Wake: Chapter Four” (#73): In modern times, Rob Gadling─actually Morpheus’s undying drinking buddy Hob Gadling─attends a Renaissance Faire with his girlfriend (Gwen). Gadling has a conversation with one of Morpheus’s siblings, who has a pertinent question for him.

 

“Exile” (#74): An older Asian man has a dream about a desert, a kitten, and Morpheus.

 

“The Tempest” (#75): 1610 AD. Will Shakespeare writes, has conversations with his daughter (Judith) and his wife, and is visited by Morpheus.

The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2012: second book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by K.E. Semmel.)

From the inside flap

“[Detective Carl] Mørck is satisfied with the notion of picking up long-cold leads. So he’s naturally intrigued when a closed case lands on his desk. A brother and sister were brutally murdered two decades earlier, and one of the suspects─part of a group of privileged boarding-school students─confessed and was convicted.

“But when Mørck reopens the files, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Looking into the supposedly solved case leads him to Kimmie, a woman living on the streetsk, stealing to survive. Kimmie has mastered evading the police, but now they aren’t the only ones looking for her─because Kimmie has secrets that certain influential individuals would kill to keep buried. . . as well as one of her own that could turn everything on its head.”

 

Review

Like the previous Department Q novel The Keeper of Lost Causes, Absent is an entertaining, slick and hard-to-set-down thriller/police procedural, this entry with particularly well-to-do and sadistic villains and a fascinating antihero (Kimmie) who’s stalking them. There are few surprises in Absent, but it’s still a good genre read, worth owning. Followed by A Conspiracy of Faith.

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The resulting 2014 Danish film, Department Q: The Absent One, was released in Denmark on November 23, 2014.

Mikkel Nørgaard directed the film, from a screenplay by Rasmus Heisterberg, based on Nikolaj Arcel’s concept.

Nikolaj Lie Kaas played Carl Mørck. Fares Fares played Hafez el-Assad. Søren Pilmark played Marcus Jacobsen. Morton Kirkskov played Lars Bjørn. Johanne Louis Schmidt played Rose.

Danica Curcic played Kimmie Katherine Greis-Rosenthal played Tine.

Pilou Asbӕk played Ditlev Pram. David Dencik played Ulrik Dybbøl.