10th London Korean Film Festival

'Miss Granny' is a comedy in which an opinionated elderly woman living with her son overhears

him and his wife talking of putting her in a home.   She decides to have a photo taken for her burial

but this changes her into a young woman in her twenties while keeping the knowledge and experience she has.   She goes to the seniors' day centre where she had been working and sings.

this is overheard by a TV producer on whose talent show she appears to become a success.   She does eventually revert to her proper self.   Well-performed with a number of very amusing incidents, I can understand why this was a big hit in Korea.

'Masquerade' is a historical drama.   The king who wants to bring in a land tax against the wishes of

his advisers and nobles is afraid he will be assassinated.   He has his personal advisers find a look-alike to take his place when he wants to leave the place for sex with one of his mistresses.   A double is found who needs a lot of tutoring in the way to behave with the added complication that the king

falls ill - he is being drugged by his mistress - so the double becomes a full-time substitute.   The

early scenes where the double is learning what he should and should not do lead to several very funny

moments (one girl in the cinema audience was laughing almost non-stop).  It turns out that the king
has to excrete in front of servants who are there to wipe him and to collect his stools for analysis
which seems to include not only examining and weighing but also ...tasting.   The double's reaction
to this is hilarious.    His first meal is tempting enough for him to eat it all without knowing that the kitchen staff are allowed only to cook for him and rely on the left-overs to feed themselves; so the next night he eats only one dish to their delight.   The official taster is a young girl (actually the lead from 'Miss Granny') with whom he develops an unspoken and unconsummated affection.   When the captain of his personal guard suspects he is not the real king he confronts him while with the queen but he is able to convince the captain that he is the real king.   The film does turn serious when the taster is bullied into poisoning his food though she deliberately eats it herself and dies.   With the senior ministers against him, they learn that he is an imposter and march on the palace to kill him.   The adviser who has been tutoring him is, however, able to get the real king, now recovered, back in time which leads to the arrest of the conspirators.   However, the king wants his double killed but the guard captain does not do this but tells him to flee.   With other troops also sent to kill him, the captain stops them and kills them but is himself killed.   The scene is, together with the death of the
food taster a strong contrast to the rest of the film.   The final scene is one where the imposter is on a ship setting out with his tutor watching.   Even with the change of tone towards the end which is unusual as most of this sort of film end 'happily ever after' so to speak, the film is well-paced, lavishly costumed and well-acted.
'A Swordsman in the Twilight'   was one of the historic films, being over 50 years old and, according
to the programme, a classic.   Telling the story of a traveller who kills one guard of a pair who harass
him before taking shelter in a nearby village where he takes a senior government official hostage, the
story is in interrupted flashback.   The swordsman has objected to the treatment of the queen following the king's replacement so is considered a traitor and becomes an outcast.   His elder brother
will not help him but a friend takes in his wife and child.   After some fights in which he kills most of
those sent to capture him, he surrenders because his family have been seized.   Offered his freedom if
he will shoot five arrows into a portrait of the queen (there is some shamanic reason for this), he does
so but is then shown that he has killed his wife and child who were behind the portrait.   Yet again he
escapes despite the numbers against him.   The climax comes when he has finished telling the hostage
all this to find himself surrounded, this time by troops with guns (though I thought the story was set
in the pre-Christian era though this might be a subtitle error).  He is wounded but the government
official stops what is happening and orders the final sword fight between the swordsman and the
leader of those chasing him.   He wins and is seen leaving the village alone.   Although there was an
apology for the print, there seemed to be no depth of focus used - characters were either in focus at
the front of the action or increasingly blurred behind.   Catalogued as a 10 minute film, it actually
ran around 75 minutes or so which was a blessing in disguise as the action sequences looked very
amateurish and the acting overall rather poor.

Harrison, M. John: Light

The book has three stories which do connect to each other - one in the present tells of a brilliant
scientist who is a serial killer having disputes with his partner and sex with his ex wife who appears
to be the only person with whom he is at all comfortable.   The discoveries he and his partner make
lead to inter-stellar travel in the future which is where the other two stories are situated.   One tells
of a genetically modified female who flies a starship, this being what she has chosen to do.   The
other tells of a male pilot, very much down on his luck, who gets employment in a circus of sorts.
Each part is imaginatively told and complete in itself.   The link from the present to the other two
which are set in 2400AD is straightforward and not emphasised.   The link between the two future
stories is also not emphasised as the link is not necessary to the plot of either.   It does, however,
become revealed in a few sentences which indicate that the down and out is the younger brother of
the modified pilot.   Very imaginative and well-written.

59th London Film Festival 7 to 18 October 2015

'Blood of My Blood' directed by Marco Bellocchio was our first excursion.   This is a film of two parts, the first being the interrogation and torture of a nun accused of seducing a priest who then
committed suicide.   His brother watches the interrogations which end with the nun being walled up
in a small cell; years pass and she finally seeks forgiveness which ensures her release.   However, she
is still young and her appearance causes the death of those watching.   The second part is present-day
in the same town with most of the same actors.   Involving some underhand development plans which
the locals oppose, the Count, supposedly the brother in the earlier sequence, does enough to stop it
before dying (though he is meant to be a vampire!).   Both halves are well filmed but the connection
between them far from obvious.
'Ryuzo and His Seven Henchmen' directed by Takeshi Kitano represents a welcome return to form for
the director whose recent films have disappointed.   A number of retired Yakuza chiefs get together
to take revenge on a young gang after one of them is duped by a phone scam.   A number of scenes
show them trying to cope with their age and infirmities before a riotous finale with them chasing the
young crooks in a commandeered bus.   Delightfully hilarious.
'Ghost Theater' directed by Hideo Nakata is the story of a talented but reserved young actress who
manages to get a role in a production about the infamous Countess Bathory.   She plays a maid but,
because of her habit of memorising the complete script, lands the lead role when the actress playing
it is killed in a freak accident.   The play involves the Countess talking to a dummy as her alter ego
or conscience and the new lead becomes convinced that the dummy is alive which gets her fired.
However, she is correct and her attempts to prove this lead to a general bloodbath among the cast and
stage crew before the dummy is stopped.   The coda has her being called on to a film set where she
is obviously the star but, lurking in the long grass is the head of the dummy....   Clearly lit and filmed,
the scares were, by and large, not overly scary as there was a light-hearted approach apparent but strong central performances produced an enjoyable film.
'21 Nights With Pattie' directed by Arnaud Larrieu.   The lead role is played by Isabelle Carre which
was the real reason for seeing the film.   She has come to a remote village in Languedoc to bury her
mother whose houses undergoing restoration by some workmen with the sister of one of them, the
Pattie of the title.   The mother led a bohemian life involving lots of travel and memories of this fill
the film.   Pattie is uninhibited and regales Caroline (Carre) with tales of her sex life.   Life is interrupted with the apparent theft of the mother's corpse which leads to the local Gendarmerie chief
flirting with Caroline and the appearance of a former lover of her mother who may be the celebrated
Nobel winner, J G Le Clezio, though this is only hinted at.   Needless to say, Pattie takes up with him
and Caroline goes to a local dance where she is taken with the thought that one of the workmen wants
her, only to see him dashing off in the nude with an equally naked girl.   She continues her night walk
and comes across a car with her husband and two young daughters in it.   They return to the mother's
old house, put the girls to bed and make love.   This is a delightful comedy mixing sex and sex appeal
with the memories of the mother whose ghost appears more than once.   Fine performances by the
main male actors and another brilliant one from Isabelle Carre.
'The Assassin' directed by Hou Hsaio-Hsein is a gloriously photographed but ultimately flawed film
of a female assassin  who baulks on a mission and is then sent by the nun who trained her to kill the
man to whom she was once betrothed which is something she again does not do.   Though there are
a few flurries of typical fast-moving action, the film moves at a very leisurely pace - one scene has
its focus for some minutes on a small herd of goats for no reason other than, I suppose, to emphasise
the rural setting (or maybe goats have symbolic meaning in Chinese myth?)   The brilliant cinematography does not make up for the overall emptiness of the film though it will doubtlessly garner praise for this greatly feted director though why this should be escapes me.
'Evolution' directed by Lucile Hadzihalalilovoc is a real oddity.   An isolated community by the sea
has only women and young male children and the first half of the film depicts this slowly but surely
concentrating on one boy and his mother.   It then turns into a weird science fiction situation where
the boys are operated on for no apparent reason.   As slow-moving as the previously reviewed film,
it ends with the young boy being set adrift in a boat by his mother to drift into the water around a
huge chemical plant.   I confess I missed a part of this but think the whole film was something of a
waste of time.
'Youth' directed by Paolo Sorrentino tells of the friendship between a composer played by Michael
Caine on top form and a film director played by Harvey Keitel who was almost acceptable here.
The former is offered a knighthood which seems to hinge on his agreeing to conduct his most famous
piece at a Royal Command concert.   He refuses without giving a reason.   Keitel is trying to make a
new film with his favoured actress, played by Jane Fonda.   The pair of them are at a Swiss spa where
another occupant is an actor researching his latest role, Caine's daughter who is also his secretary, and, later, Miss Universe.   Whether the latter is a real one or not, she has a spectacular body.   Paloma Faith, the pop singer, has a brief appearance as well.   Rachel Weiss who plays the daughter
does at one point say it has been ten years since Caine has visited his wife which he does; after a
visit to Stravinsky's grave, he goes to a nursing home where his wife sits silently pressed against
the window.   The film is very bitter-sweet but the excellent performances keep one enthralled until
the denouement when Keitel kills himself because the financing has fallen through and a harpy-like
Fonda has refused him while Caine has given in to conduct his 'Simple Songs'.   The film does not
really need any explanation other than the varying reaction to passing years.
'The Brand New Testament' directed by Jaco Van Dormael posits that God is a Belgian who lives in
a run-down apartment in Brussels, browbeating his wife and daughter and taking delight in the many
misfortunes he creates.   Benoit Poelvoorde plays this excellently and he is matched by his silent
wife, Yolande Moreau, and Ea, his daughter, played by Pili Groyne.   The daughter rebels and is able to disrupt his computer while she finds six more apostles with the film telling the story of their conversion.   Poelvoorde loses his powers which is delightfully shown when he chases the daughter
who walks across a canal basin while he just falls under the water.   One of the more amusing conversions has Catherine Deneuve finding true love with a gorilla.   The daughter has created havoc
by telling everyone in the world exactly how long they have left to live but, once the number of Apostles reaches 18, power is given to Moreau, Madame God, who settles down behind a freshly
restored computer to fill the sky with flowers and put everything right.   In the meantime, Poelvoorde
is working in a Belorussian factory!!!   Very amusing and a real delight.
'Old Czech Legends' directed by Jiri Trnka was the final film seen.   He was one of the originators of
puppet animation and this film was made under difficult circumstances after the Communist takeover
in Czechoslovakia.   Having delighted in the films of Svankmaier, I had high hopes for this film even
though it is over 60 years old.   Starting with Cech, the father of the Czech people, six tales tell the
early history of the nation.   While very expressive and, for its time, technically impressive and having a fine score by Vavlav Trojan, I did find it rather tedious as, narrative apart, there was much
sameness to each episode.
CODA: 'The Lobster' directed by Yorgos Lanthimos was one of the Festival Gala showings but we
saw it after the Festival.   In the near future it is a crime to be single.   Colin Farrell plays a divorcee
who reports, as he must, to The Hotel, together with his dog where he has 45 days to find a mate or
be turned into an animal they choose.   Outside The Hotel live Loners, fugitives from the system who
are hunted daily to be shot with tranquilliser guns and brought to the hotel, each capture adding a day
to the time left.   Farrell has no success in finding anyone until he pretends to be heartless and takes
up with the Heartless Woman (never named) and is paid with her; unfortunately she brutally kills
the dog who was actually Farrell's  converted brother.   With the help of a hotel maid, he shoots her
and drags her into the Transformation Chamber and then leaves to join the Loners.   Here, he and
Rachel Weiss become lovers which is not appreciated by the Loner leader, Lea Seydoux.   Weiss
is blinded by choice and Farrell seems to accept this but the film ends with her sitting alone waiting
for him to come back - this may be because he has killed himself in trying to blind himself.   This is
unclear.   Apparently, others have seen this film as hilarious which is far from the reaction I had.   The
main performances were good, the basic plot acceptable as an absurd comment on social conditioning
to produce uniformity but there was a very nasty undertone - dog killing and blinding are hardly the
stuff of comedy.   Quite frankly, apart from introducing me to a new, comfortable, West End cinema,
it was a great disappointment.

Martin, Andrew: The Necropolis Railway

The first of a series featuring Jim Stringer, a Yorkshire lad who wants to be a train driver rather than
becoming a butcher like his father.   He is given an introduction to work on the London and Southern
Railway and starts work at the Nine Elms depot with lodgings right by Waterloo Station.   His early
days are difficult as he is looked on as an outsider planted by management.   There is a lot of detail
about the types of engine, the working practices of the time and the language used by railwayman
which Martin conveys without holding up the story.   The plot which develops is one of murders which have been thought of as a series of unconnected accidents.   The resourceful Stringer works
this out and is almost killed but survives.   The budding romance with his landlady seems somewhat
out of place, partly because there is no early indication that she is the same age not older.   With a
rather fortuitous accident catching the killer (though the reason for the accident has been well prepared) the story ends with the young lovers together though there is then an unexpected twist
which remains unresolved - possibly to be dealt with in later books.   Straightforward writing which
did not convey any great excitement or tension does create a rather flat feeling but possibly this was
intended.

Roslund, Anders and Hellstrom, Borge: Cell 8

The book starts in cell 8 in Marcusville prison in Ohio, one of the cells on Death Row.   It then moves
to the present time on a Swedish ferry boat on which one of the entertainers kicks a drunken, groping passenger in the face for which he is, after arrival in Stockholm, arrested.   The entertainer is an
illegal immigrant who has settled down in Sweden, has married and has a son but his passport details
do not agree with official records even though the passport is a legitimate one.   From these two
situations, the authors create a wholly believable story with the police treating the accused more than
fairly, bending the rules to allow him time with his wife, for instance.   He tells his story which provides the link between the scenes in Marcusville and the present day but at a cost.    He is a convicted murderer although the Swedish police involved believe he is innocent and he also declares
that he is not guilty despite the circumstantial evidence which led to his conviction.   The Ohio authorities are the bad guys here mainly because the murdered girl was the daughter of a senior
political aide to the State Governor, hence the conviction.   Even though Sweden will not extradite
anyone accused of crimes carrying the death penalty, a loophole is found which salves the government's conscience though it means he is returned to the USA.    There is a startling twist in
the final chapters which I did not see coming.   Again, well-paced though the varying time periods
did confuse a little.   Whether the authors wrote different parts of the book or collaborated in other
ways is unknown since, obviously, any stylistic evidence would have been erased by the excellent
translator.

Cain, James M: The Cocktail Waitress

One of the three great crime writers of the 1930s, Cain outlived Hammett and Chandler to die in
1977 with this novel unpublished.   He had been working on it for years, adding and deleting passages, sentences and phrases and, with his death, the novel disappeared.   References to it led
to Charles Ardai carrying out a lengthy search which eventually produced a typewritten copy with
corrections which he has edited for publication in 2012.   Cain was always looked on as the less
polished of the trio and was consigned by many to the trash can because he wrote about people on
the edge of society rather than the supposed moral middle- and upper-class ones in the novels of
Hammett and Chandler.   Works such as 'Double Indemnity','Mildred Pierce' and 'The Postman
Always Rings Twice' were made into highly considered films, the latter twice in the USA and once
in Italy but the nature of his characters coloured critical views of his work, tending to be censorious
and dismissive of his talents.   While the books might have appealed to the prurient, their impact
these days is anything but that.   This book is the story of a young mother whose abusive husband
kills himself by driving while drunk.   The marriage was a forced one with his parents never approving of her; after his death, she lets her sister-in-law take care of her son while she gets things
together.   With no skills, she gets a job as a cocktail waitress where she meets an elderly widower
who falls in love with her and also a young man who had driven her to the funeral and now lusts
after her.    Eventually she agrees to marry the widower who turns out to be wealthy: his heart
condition should preclude sexual activity but he finds a new doctor who tells him this is not a
problem.   However, having successfully had sex with an escort girl once he repeats the exercise
but dies.   The local police have already shown an interest in the heroine after her first husband's
death and now arrest her on a murder charge as there are suspicious circumstances.   Before the
arrest, she gives in to the attraction of the young chauffeur and spends the night with him but
leaves him before he wakes up.   In the end, justice is done.   The writing is possibly not as taut
as my memory recalls in his earlier works but this does not detract from the pace of the tale.   Some
of the episodes seem unnecessary but do help build a picture of both the heroine and those around
her.   The book is not as long as many current crime novels and all the better for it.

Frightfest: Monday 31 August 2015

Curve.   On her way to her wedding in Denver, Julianne hough decides to take the scenic route but

breaks down.   She is helped by a hitchhiker and she gives him a lift for him to turn creepy.   In an

attempt to escape him she deliberately crashes the car which leave her trapped in the car but he is

not.   He leaves her struggling but returns from time to time to taunt her.   Then a flash flood which,

apart from nearly drowning her, moves the car so that she can get free.   Once out of the river, she

goes to the nearest house for her travails to start all over.   Good idea, well made.

Night Fare.   Two friends, one English returning to Paris after some time, the other French, are in

love with the same girl and go to a party to join her.   They deliberately avoid paying the taxi fare

on their way there but the taxi driver follows them and chases them, killing those who interfere.

The denouement was a bit far-fetched but the film was well paced and well-acted.

Nina Forever.   Rob attempts suicide after his girl friend has been killed.   Holly who works at

the same supermarket takes up with him and they end up in bed together but find Nina, the dead

girl, also there.   An oddity but quite jolly.

Goddess of Love.   A stripper is dumped by her boy friend, the love of her life, and goes more than a

little crazy.   With the co-writer playing the stripper this was no better than most vanity pieces.

Tales of Halloween.   The final film of the Festival but, alas, one film too many for us.

Frightfest: Sunday 30 August 2015

Over Your Dead Body.   Takashi Miike set the action around a new play based on a classic ghost

story with the action on stage being reflected offstage.   I found the film rather confusing but the

staging and cinematography were beautiful with strong performances from the leading players.

Road Games.   An English hitchhiker saves a beautiful girl from the driver of the car she was in.

Learning of a serial killer in the area, they decide to travel together and accept a lift from a local

who insists hey go with him to his house for dinner.   His house is actually a small chateau and

they not only eat there but stay overnight though the lady of the house played by the Frightfest
guest of honour, Barbara Crampton, does tell the hitchhiker to lock his door.   They leave but are grabbed by the farmer on the chateau's land which leads to bloodshed and an unexpected twist.
The acting was on the hammy side and one wonders why the local landowner did not tell the
Engglishman that the girl was his daughter.

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key.   A restored giallo with the delectable
Edwige Fenech and Anita Strindberg as the main females.   Very typical of the classic period of
giallo with odd angles, a black cat and a male lead obsessed by the memory of his dead mother.
Unfortunately, the film broke down shortly before the end so the final moments remain a mystery.
As with many giallos, the style and imagery are more important than any cohesive plot with the
level of acting none too high.
Scherzo Diabolico.   A bored accountant denied a pay rise concocts a plan to kidnap his boss's
daughter but things go wrong.   With a soundtrack of classical piano sonatas, the film is well made
and one of the better offerings of the weekend.
A Christmas Horror Story.   William Shatner is the dj at a local radio station on Christmas Eve
with his performance framing a series of scary stories - a family going into the forest to cut down
a tree with the son becoming possessed, a family being stalked by the Christmas demon and Santa
Claus being attacked by his elves who have become zombies - with the final scene that of the
station's roving reporter going berserk.

Frightfest: Saturday 29 August 2015

Bait.    Two friends tire of working in the local market selling snacks and look forward to owning and
running their own cafe.   When the opportunity arrives, they are lent money by a man who seems
friendly but is actually the local loan shark.   Even though they actually do not take the money, he
insists that they owe him for his time and the debt escalates as does his treatment of both of them which ranges from rape to beatings until they turn on him and have their revenge.   A nasty little
film but well made.
Frankenstein.   Created by a married couple of scientists, Adam is the modern version of the
creation of Frankenstein who breaks out of the laboratory and, understandably, has no moral control.
However, something is wrong with his makeup and he breaks out in facial lesions with only a black
tramp befriending him (an unusual role for Tony Todd).   Interesting concept but flawed.
Some Kind of Hate.   A put-upon teenager finally reacts to the bullies but a little too violently so
he is sent to a reformatory in the desert.   He is harassed here as well but accidentally summons the
spirit of a girl who had committed suicide there.   She takes revenge on his tormentors for him.
So-so
Rabid Dogs.   Basically a noir rather than horror, it tells of a bank robbery gone wrong (as they
all seem to do in films) which leads to the crooks kidnapping a quiet man taking his daughter to
hospital for a kidney transplant.   Promised his freedom in time to get her to hospital, he has no
option but to go along with their plans.   They subsequently kill the husband of a newly-wed
couple taking the wife with them but then find themselves caught up in a local festival which they
have to endure.   Finally, they reach their intended destination on a river where the crooks have
arranged a get-away boat but.... the quiet man is not the milksop he has seemed to be and the
daughter is not his.   Stunning twist in the concluding minutes.  Brilliant performance by Lambert
Wilson, excellent one by Francois Arnaud as the lead crook and a what am I doing here one by
Virginie Ledoyen as the widowed bride (not her fault as the part was seriously underwritten.

Frightfest: Friday 28 August 2015

Hellions.    A pregnant teenager waiting for her boyfriend on Halloween finds herself besieged by

a group of pumpkin-headed callers who declare that they want her unborn child.   She is, however,

resourceful enough to keep them at bay until daybreak.    Overall the film is neither gory nor really
scary though there were some effective scenes.   

The Rotten Link.   Set in a remote Argentinian village, the community is full of degenerates and

whores.   One of them has been taken by all but one of the men because her mother believes that

something bad will happen if she does have sex with all of them.   She eventually is raped by the

last man.   This leads to her brother, who seems a few slices short of a full loaf, to proceed to kill

all of the village.   Very black humour which I did not care for though it was well made.

The Diabolical.   A problem with not reviewing films at the time is that some of them are then no

longer remembered.   This one made no impression on me at all.

Jeruzalem.   Three American tourists go to Israel, one of them with the latest Google device as

a going away gift from her father.   This results in a variation of found footage which is just not

to  my liking - so we left after about 20 minutes!
Final Girl.   Abigail Breslin plays a Nikita type killer with the film taking her from childhood through training to her first killing.   This was a big disappointment as neither the training section
nor the extended period of her killings had any pace or excitement about them.   She looked
anything but capable of killing in hand-to-hand combat.   Rubbish

Frightfest: Thursday 27 August 2015

Cherry Tree.    This year we reverted to the full Festival Pass which means we saw rather more films
of which this was the opening one.   A girl learns her father is dying but is consoled by the glamorous
field hockey coach.   The coach is head of a witches' coven and the girl agrees to join to save her father whose illness is mysteriously cured.   However, he then is burnt to death in a car crash when
the girl tries to get out of the bargain she made.   This leads her to try and destroy the coven which
she does succeed in doing.   Reasonable effort without being memorable.   For a British film this
was well above the average.
Turbo Kid.   In a post-apocalyptic world, a teenager survives by scavenging and trading while being
keen on comic books.   He meets a strange girl called Apple who is kidnaps by Zeus who controls
the water supply.   Plucking up courage he rescues her to discover that she is actually an android but
this does not stop him.   Full of typical comic book violence and mayhem, the film is a delight and
the more so for being unexpected with Laurence Leboeuf as Apple giving, for me, what turned out
to be the best performance of the weekend.   This was a brightly coloured film which somehow added
to the enjoyment.

Stross, Charles: Rule 34

A female DI whose current job is policing internet porn becomes involved in the murder of a
fetishist though she is immediately sent back to her regular duties until other European police
post details of similar crimes.   At the same time a petty criminal on probation becomes the
Edinburgh Consul of a new republic spun off from Kyrgyzstan.   Also on the scene is an enforcer
for a criminal conglomerate.   With a number of devices that puts the story sometime in the future -
all conversations inside police stations are automatically recorded, buses can be diverted from
their regular route for a fee on the spot and segways in regular use - the three main characters
interact.   The petty criminal was previously arrested by the DI, her friend Dorothy, a high-flying
executive, is more or less raped by the enforcer and they all are involved in both the first murder
and others in some way.   I did find some of the interaction a little forced and do not think this
novel is up to the standard of the others I have read by this author though it passed the time

Black, Saul: The Killing Lessons

A rather nasty serial killer novel written by Glen Duncan using a pseudonym.   The chapters move
between the tribulations of a young girl who escapes the first killing spree in which her mother and
brother are killed, the investigations of female detective with a definite drink problem which is
compounded by the FBI agent with whom she has to work doing her best to ruin her, and the ongoing
work of the two killers.   The main killer is a splendidly drawn illiterate who marks his victims by
leaving an object either in a wound or other orifice, all the victims being young(ish) females.   The
reason for this dates back to his attempts to learn the alphabet using a coloured picture board with A
for apple, B for balloon and so on.   The author maintains a high level of tension throughout whether
with the ongoing dilemma facing the little girl, the continuing police/FBI efforts or the killers'
search for new victims.   The latter coalesces on one victim whose disappearance is noted in time for
the lead detective to eventually find and save her.    Well written and worthy of the praise other authors of similar works have bestowed on it

Fowler, Christopher: Bryant and May off the Rails

Yet again the Peculiar Crimes Unit is on the brink of being closed down having been moved from
their previous offices to a dilapidated building on the Caledonian Road.   The highly ingenious
plot is a given with the hunt around the Underground for the killer who has escaped after being
caught in the previous book.   While trying to trace and recapture him, they become involved in
searching for a missing student whose flatmates - an odd collection - fall under suspicion when his
body is found in a disused tunnel at King's Cross.   While the Unit members are well delineated
and the development of the two searches more than adequately set out, I did find some of the
factual byways of esoteric Underground history a little too much at times   However, this did not
really detract from yet another excellent novel - with the added bonus of a possible explanation
for the tragic fire at King's Cross in November 1987 (though only as far as it fits the novel).

Christopher, Adam: Empire State

This is something of a hybrid - a sci-fi detective story set mainly in an alternative New York which
was created by the outcome of the fight between the two superheroes protecting the New York of
the prohibition era.   This caused a bubble in which a variant New York appears.   The action is set
in the nineteenth year of 'Empire State' which is 1950 in the real world.   The plot, such as it is, has
a private detective, Rad, employed to find the missing female partner of a rich girl.   Both  of the
New York have a number of doppelgängers whose appearance is not matched by their behavious
though their occupations seem to coincide - Rad's double is Rex, another private eye.   I do not
think the story hangs together completely but this might reflect the disjointed reading of it;   it is
certainly pact and enjoyable and almost believable.   it reminded me of the TV series 'Fringe' which
is referred to in the end-piece interview with the author.   I may try other books by the author but
am in no hurry to do so.

Coben, Harlan: Shelter

This is the first book I have read by this author who consistently hits the US best seller lists.   The
hero is a 15 year old living with his uncle in a small town near Newark as his father is dead and his
mother has brome a drug addict.   He is 6ft 4in tall and weighs 200lbs.   He has a girlfriend called Ashley who goes missing and it turns out that her supposed parents know nothing about her.   With the help of the school janitor's son, a cattish girl 'goth' and, later, the school beauty he tries to find out what happened to her.   This leads them to a sleazy strip joint where he almost overcomes the club
bouncer and to a mysterious women who was an Auschwitz escapee now running an organisation
which helps young women in need of help as long as they are considered likely to become useful
members of society.   The improbabilities along the way do not seem to matter as Coben keeps the
plot moving without superfluous explanations though he does provide some detours from the actual
mystery to flesh out the characters.  The book is the first of at least three featuring the same four
schoolchildren.   Most of the time, one all but forgets they are children in no small part due to the
maintained pace of the story.   Enjoyable and an easy read

Pryce, Malcom: The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still

I have just finished re-reading this excellent novel which continues the adventures of Louie Knight in an alternative reality where much is the same but somehow not quite.   The basic plot is the search for
Iestyn Probert who was purportedly hanged for murder following a celebrated robbery though it seems he was brought back to life somehow.   Intertwined with this is the election of a new mayor which involves contests between the candidates rather than voting, a romance between Louie and
a beautiful girl called Miaow, the marriage of a young visitor to Meici, 'one of life's misfits, and sundry other characters.   At times, the narrative is surreal, at others very down to earth with humour
never far from the surface.   Odd touches include a sect, the Denunciationists, which eschews the use
of machinery, a farmer who murdered his brother, an old doctor, a mysterious visitor called Raspiwtin and a secret branch of government.   Poetic passages, ' The soft peacock of the hills and sky; the deep
coagulated carmine of the rose; the custardy yellow of the daisy's face, fringed with those perfect
spears of white', together with direct action ' I picked up the shovel and brought the thin edge of the blade down the back of his skull' recall Raymond Chandler at his best.   So does the downbeat ending
which leaves Louie alone apart from his young assistant, Calamity.   All in all, a delightful and well-
written thriller.  

Child, Lincoln: Utopia

There is the theme park to end theme parks in the Nevada desert whose various attractions provide
amusement for thousands every day.   Recent technical glitches have led to one of the technical
designers being asked to return to the park not to correct the problem but to remove the robotics
he installed.   He arrives with his daughter on the same day that a criminal group intend stealing the
cash take which is collected by armoured truck, this being in the region of 100,000,000 dollars
though this remains unknown until late in the book.   The park is run by the designer's former girl
friend which provides some tension though it is not really required.   To cover the theft, a series of
minor sabotage acts have been planned, some of these taking place pre-book, hence the appearance
of the expert.    The technical details are presumably feasible and, by and large, do not hamper what
is a fairly leisurely build-up but the pace gradually increases as the incidents escalate.   The final
intention of the villains is hidden until near the end to provide a climactic scene in which, despite
the earlier damage and the apparently foolproof planning of the crime, the good guys win.   Apart
from the descriptions of the various attractions which make the theme park live up to the name,
Utopia, the character interplay is realistic and these two features add to the unity which is given by
the action taking place during the course of a single day apart from an unnecessary epilogue.  The
book is a good read and sits well with the author's better known collaborations with Douglas Preston.

Crackanthorpe, David: The Ravenglass Line

I sometimes wonder why I have certain books but must assume that this one, like numerous others,
was part of the Times/W H Smith half-price series.    One of two brothers is arrested in France but
is released on bail put up by his younger brother who wants him to find out how involved their
mother is with a dubious Hungarian entrepreneur.   The mother is well to do, having inherited the
family shipping and transport business which the younger son now runs, but she has given the
Hungarian considerable amounts of money and is one of those rich women who do not really give
any thought to the effects her actions may produce.   The older brother has an affair with his sister-
in-law in the course of uncovering the Hungarian's illegal transporting of Romanian women and
children who are taken to the empty, dilapidated family mansion in rural Lancashire where the
brother ends his career.   The final chapter tidies up in a rather unlikely manner the mother's problem
and the brothers' entanglement.    An easy read but no more

Carrisi, Donato: The Lost Girls of Rome

It took me some time to read this 'Italian Literary Thriller Phenomenon' to quote the cover.   The
basic story is the search for a missing girl in Rome.   Two men talk about this over a coffee with one of them then going to the apartment where she lived; they are members of a proscribed Vatican order, the Penitenzieri, trained to search out evil.   At the same time in Milan, Sandra, a police forensics
expert, is looking for answers to her husband's death and this takes her to Rome where her search and
that of the Penitenzieri become entwined.   She becomes involved with an Interpol investigator whom
she distrusts as his objective is not just to find out how her husband dies but to unmask the Penitenzieri.    The search for the girl is complicated and, as ever, a number of blind alleys before the
man who had already killed other girls was unmasked.   Interspersed with this story is one of another
search for a different serial killer which moves from Paris to Prague and Chernobyl though there is
a final coalescing of the three strands by the end of the novel.   I found the development of all three
strands was well done as was the linking of the two Roman lines.   While the exposing of the primary
villain came as no surprise, the build-up to his capture was effectively done.   The end of the book does come as a surprise which I leave you to discover for yourself.   A really good thriller well worth
seeking out.

Furst, Alan: Spies of the Balkans

Like the previously reviewed book, this has an unusual setting though not as exotic.   The lead is a
policeman based in Thessalonika where he deals with sensitive cases that bypass the standard system
of investigation.   He has an affair with an Englishwoman shortly before the 1941 invasion of Greece
and when she leaves with some haste, he finds himself involved in helping Jews get from Germany to
other countries by following routes through the Balkans to Thessalonika, then leaving usually by ship.   A short episode deals with his army work against the Italians but most of the book deals with
the help he and colleagues provide for those who can afford it - not that he benefits himself.   A major
incident is his being almost forced to help get a valuable English scientist out of Paris which he does
before himself leaving Greece as the Germans invade for a career in Izmir coordinating the work of
those behind what are now enemy lines.   The book is well written and the fictional events take place
in real situations without straining acceptance.   However, there was a certain air of unreality about
the main character's activities which did, for me, somewhat reduce my appreciation of the book.

Takagi, Akimitsu: The Tattoo Murder Case

Something different for me - a Japanese mystery.   Set shortly after the end of World War II though only published here in 1998, the book tells of a murder and the efforts of the medical student narrator
to help is police inspector brother solve the case.   The narrator is seduced by a beautiful young woman with a famous all body tattoo who is then murdered and dismembered with her head and limbs missing.   She is one of three children of a very celebrated tattoo artist whose sister is believed to have died at Hiroshima and whose brother has not returned to Japan after the war.   Various suspects include a senior professor who collects tattoos, i.e. the tattooed skins of the dead, a fellow
student who has taken up with the narrator after some years, the latter's brother whose mistress the
dead woman was and his manager who was infatuated with her.   Nothing seems resolved when the 'missing' brother turns up living as a tattooist even though this has been banned.   He tells the narrator
that he will produce a solution but asks for time to do so - before he can, he, too, is murdered.   At this point with the police baffled, time passes and all leads have gone nowhere.   A new character is
introduced who is best described as a young Japanese Sherlock Holmes who proceeds to work out
who the killer is by deduction.   The novel was a great success when published and this is easy to
accept.   What takes place is clearly set out and there is no need to suspend belief as the events that
are related fall into place - there are coincidences but none startlingly so.   The denouement, when it
comes, is surprising and strongly presented.   Well worth reading.

Fowler, Christopher: Bryant and May and the Invisible Code

Arthur Bryant is asked by Kasavian who is the civil servant trying to close down the Peculiar Crimes
Unit to do him a favour.   He is concerned about his much younger foreign wife and wants Bryant to
investigate.   Bryant and May meet her and find nothing untoward while officially looking at the murder in St Bride's churchyard of a scientist who had worked at Porton Down before apparently
committing suicide.   A paparazzi who had an interest in Kasavian's wife is also murdered and both
Bryant and May follow up their own ideas of what has happened with no immediate success.   Of
course, by the end all is revealed with, yet again, a rather unexpected climax.   The usual effective
use of London as a background, Bryant's pre-occupation with the occult and the lively interplay with
other unit members keep the story moving most enjoyably.