Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "crime"
China 2012
Suzhou city buses are plentiful, and plenty full. The passengers seem happy enough.
The buses have “next stop” announcements, first in Mandarin, then in Suzhounese.
Q loses 100 euros to a pickpocket, probably at a bus stop.
The buses have “next stop” announcements, first in Mandarin, then in Suzhounese.
Q loses 100 euros to a pickpocket, probably at a bus stop.
Murder By Suicide
My new e-book, Murder By Suicide, is now available in all electronic formats and for on-screen reading. It is very short and completely free. You can find it here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Please share this news.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Please share this news.
Killing Highsmith with Hollywood
A steamy lesbian romance taken from The Price of Salt, a story by the acid queen of crime, Patricia Highsmith. What could possibly go wrong? I guess the answer is: Hollywood. First, it cannot resist the temptation to try to suffuse with glamour one of the least glamorous periods of USAmerican history, the 1950s. The result, “Carol”, is as artificial as one of those 1950s postcards using touched-up colour. Then there is the waste of two major acting talents: Cate Blanchett, who seems to be playing an actress forced to play the stereotypical rich-bitch with a heart, and Rooney Mara, who seems to be playing an actress forced to play the stereotypical ingénue. Their characters are extended instead of developed, whereas the minor characters are more interesting but not pursued. Its only saving grace, for me, is its soporific effect.
The city and the city
Dead Simple
In Franc Roddam's 1979 film “Quadrophenia”, the gang of Mods coming down to Brighton for a weekend of violence stop their scooters on the South Downs when the coast and a shimmering town come into view and say, reverentially, “That's Brighton!”.
In reality, it was not louche, dirty, pulsating Brighton but the sedate retirement town of Eastbourne. Nevertheless, watching the film in Portugal, the scene was enough set off pangs of nostalgia and longing. Forty years later, back in Portugal, I'm still drawn to anything set in Brighton, which is what led me to Peter James's novel "Dead Simple". It is replete with evocative place-names, though it is a fantasy Brighton, in which a hard rain falls as it might in a post-apocalyptic Seattle, and all the police are jolly good lads and lasses, whereas we used to say that the city had “the best police force money could buy”, and woo works. This last is used by the author to set the story straight. Convenient car crashes also play a role. The characters are static and lacking in subtlety, unlike the real city's denizens, who give the place its true flavour.
In Franc Roddam's 1979 film “Quadrophenia”, the gang of Mods coming down to Brighton for a weekend of violence stop their scooters on the South Downs when the coast and a shimmering town come into view and say, reverentially, “That's Brighton!”.
In reality, it was not louche, dirty, pulsating Brighton but the sedate retirement town of Eastbourne. Nevertheless, watching the film in Portugal, the scene was enough set off pangs of nostalgia and longing. Forty years later, back in Portugal, I'm still drawn to anything set in Brighton, which is what led me to Peter James's novel "Dead Simple". It is replete with evocative place-names, though it is a fantasy Brighton, in which a hard rain falls as it might in a post-apocalyptic Seattle, and all the police are jolly good lads and lasses, whereas we used to say that the city had “the best police force money could buy”, and woo works. This last is used by the author to set the story straight. Convenient car crashes also play a role. The characters are static and lacking in subtlety, unlike the real city's denizens, who give the place its true flavour.
