![]() Laura Wilson's novel A Willing Victim is published by Quercus.Philip literally stomps his way into the film, sharply navigating around the people who walk too slowly in New York and threaten his perfect record of punctuality. When she discovers a second body, it becomes clear that someone is killing in imitation of earlier murders committed by the Bensons (think Fred and Rose West with hints of Hindley and Brady), and the anonymous letters Alice has been receiving suggest that the killer has his sights set on her … A pacy psychological thriller that makes good use of its London setting. Outwardly successful but inwardly troubled, with a constant reminder of her dysfunctional early life in the shape of her periodically psychotic junkie brother who lives in a van parked outside her smart flat, Alice doesn't find things easy, and they get a lot more difficult when she comes across a dead prostitute in Crossbones Yard. Set in contemporary Southwark, this promising debut features the tiny but tough – if improbably reckless – psychologist Alice Quentin. Tight plotting, sound characterisation and good period detail add up to an excellent police procedural that won't disappoint fans of the curmudgeonly detective.Ĭrossbones Yard by Kate Rhodes (Mulholland Books, £18.99) With a new colleague, DS Waters, a black officer relocated from east London to make up for staff shortages, Frost investigates not only the girl's murder, but the subsequent killing of a teenage boy who is found with his innards removed, and the disappearance of his sister. The Denton station is trying to cope with a spate of burglaries by local tearaways on BMX bikes when the body of 15-year-old Samantha Ellis is discovered in nearby woodland. ![]() It's 1982 and the height of the Falklands conflict. First seen here fiddling his expenses in an attempt to make up for a ban on overtime, Frost is as stroppy, sarcastic and unorthodox as ever. This is the second book in the continuation of RD Wingfield's series featuring DI "Jack" Frost. Dare Me is an uncomfortable, if addictive, read – definitely not for the faint-hearted.įatal Frost by James Henry (Bantam, £14.99) French, however, is just as needy for attention and validation as any 16-year-old, and the consequences are disastrous. Largely ignored by their parents, the girls in the squad are drawn to their Jean Brodie-like coach Ms French, who encourages them to perform ever more dangerous feats on the field and, off it, to starve or puke themselves into a desirably skinny outline. Her latest book takes us, via teenagers Addy and Beth, into the inner recesses of a high-school cheerleading team, a pink and sequinned hell of intense friendships, casual betrayals, narcissism and the sort of cliquey viciousness that's born of deep insecurity. The book is heavy on characters and rather light on plot, but the clerical milieu is well rendered as an affectionate eye is cast over post-war England – a perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon, a hammock and a glass of Pimm's.ĭare Me by Megan Abbott (Picador, £12.99)Īs US author Abbott has already shown in The End of Everything, she has an uncanny ability to portray the dark heart of adolescence. We are told that 32-year-old Chambers, vicar of Grantchester in Cambridge with a good war record, has "a faint air of Kenneth More about him", though he seems to have more in common with the sort of charming but bewildered professional types played by John Le Mesurier as he solves a series of short, unconnected mysteries including a suspected suicide, a jewellery theft and an art forgery. The crime fiction debut of novelist James Runcie, son of the former archbishop of Canterbury, is the first in a projected six-book series, which will take his protagonist, Canon Sidney Chambers, from 1953, when this book is set, to 1981. Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie (Bloomsbury, £14.99)
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![]() The only fault I found in the film was the rapidity with which it presented information. If you haven't seen "A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash," then it should be on your list as a "must see." Along with "An Inconvenient Truth," this film tells us what will happen if we stay the course. Soon, we will be faced with the inevitable - it's all gone. Through our heavy consumption and trash creation, we are rapidly stripping all of the resources from the Earth and polluting what we don't consume. How quickly we join them is up to us, but we will eventually go the way of the dinosaur. We will eventually join the 99.999% of the species that have lived on this planet and who are now extinct. It has been here for 4.5 billion years, while we have been here but 150,000. The earth with survive our rape and plunder. The best thing about this film was the fact that it did not focus on the Earth's destruction, but on man's eventual demise as a species. A shame but this is one for the choir and even then it needs a chunk of good will to ignore the film and concentrate solely on the message. However, while I can agree on the importance of the message and the aims of the makers, good intentions alone do not make for a good film and here the delivery is consistently weak in a couple of key areas to the detriment of the film. There is plenty of good stuff in here and those that are already won over may not even feel the flaws in delivery as they nod their heads in agreement. The end result is the feeling that the film is just trying to bully you into submission rather than carefully taking you down a path where even some sceptics will be conceding points. The visuals don't help partly because they are just frantic and unnecessary at times but also because they clash with the much more sedentary talking heads that fill the vast majority of the running time. Nothing wrong with that in concept but when it is done in a poorly structured and fast-paced way it does rather feel like you are being preached at by a hell-fire reverend rather than talked to or even lectured (in the academic sense of the word). ![]() Where The Inconvenient Truth builds its case and took the viewer along with it, 11th Hour just jumps right in and never stops hitting the viewer with information. The structure, content and style of the film is flawed across the board and it did put me off leading me to wonder how someone who was sceptical to begin with would cope with the flaws in it as a film. Reviewing the film is a different thing altogether though because while the aim may have been to get the message out there and push this agenda, the actual film itself does the opposite due to the way it is delivered. So let me just get that trap out the way by saying that the message, in my opinion, is worthy and important and I have no doubt that all those involved in this film felt this and were keen to get it made and out to as big an audience as possible. If anything I risk the other trap that many have fallen into which is to review the message and not the film. So for me it is not an issue to review the film without it turning into me taking issue with the overall message of the film. There are so many issues being touched on that I think most independent viewers would throw up their hands and give up long before the end.Īlthough I'm far from backing up my ideals with all my actions, I am pretty much in the choir when it comes to this eco-message-documentary fronted by film-star Leonardo DiCaprio because I am liberal, make an effort to recycle and have the good taste to worry about my resource use (I know how that sounds but at least I'm honest). I don't see this as anything new or convincing anybody not already convinced. This is a repeat of 'An Inconvenient Truth' and then piles on everything else. For those in between, it doesn't really convince but it summarizes. For opponents, this is a slick propaganda throwing everything into the stew presented by Hollywood. For environmentalists, this is preaching to the choir. The scope of the movie is so vast that it becomes a laundry list of everything. ![]() Some faces are recognizable but most of them are unknown environmental scientists or writers. It concentrates on global warming with a large scattering of every scary environmental fears. It looks at the entire history of human exploitation of the world's resources, its devastating effects and possible solutions. Leonardo DiCaprio narrates a documentary about the human destruction of the global environment. |
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