The Professionals #10: Cry Wolf
by Ken Blake (Sphere, 1981)
Robert Holdstock’s first shot at writing under the Ken Blake pseudonym. Holdstock’s prose is a step down from Kenneth Bulmer’s, and his episode balance is lopsided, over-novelising the first story while letting the second crash and burn in a wretchedly perfunctory ending.
Henrietta Who?
by Catherine Aird (Doubleday, 1968)
audiobook read by Robin Bailey (Bolinda, 2014)
A streamlined narrative whose drollness of dialogue Aird elucidates on the fly. Though the mystery doesn’t outstay its welcome, Henrietta’s lament rather does (“She’s not my mother!”). The focus on legitimacy, though period appropriate, seems oddly old-fashioned given the book’s publication date.
Jesus Christ Superstar
dir. Norman Jewison (1973)
A feature-film, multiracial, hippie-toked, death-hallucinatory reenvisaging of the musical, set in the deserts of 1970s Israel and Palestine. Carl Anderson emerges unscathed as Judas. Most bizarre scene: Josh Mostel (King Herod) busting out moves that Mike Myers would channel for Austin Powers.
Much Obliged, Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse (Barrie & Jenkins, 1971)
audiobook read by Dinsdale Landen (Bolinda, 2014)
Standard fare with many a trope revisited and little to distinguish it from preceding volumes. (A pleasantly diverting rehash!) Landen, though generally sound as a narrator, grows carried away when dishing out dialogue, often running it together, blending characters into one another.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
dir. Steven Spielberg (1989)
An action-upon-action film that flits between set pieces while info-dropping the archaeological points as perfunctorily as possible. The plots and puzzles don’t stack up, of course, and the Nazis are pantomime villains. Still, Sean Connery and Harrison Ford strike a diverting dynamic.
Footrat Flats, Gallery 2
by Murray Ball (Hachette, 2016)
A spaciously presented, 136-page hardcover that includes daily strips (four per page) plus whole-page standalones. While Wal and Cooch have their moments—for all his caricatured, lugubrious appearance, Wal emerges as a complex character—the dog-only strips tend to be rather cluttered.
The Body in the Library
by Agatha Christie (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1942)
audiobook read by Stephanie Cole (Lamplight, 2015)
Significantly more engaging than the first Miss Marple novel (albeit still padded out and weighed down by tedious faux-comedic depictions of minor characters). Though Miss Marple herself proves a force to be reckoned with, Christie’s artful misdirection comes very close to cheating.
Blade
dir. Stephen Norrington (1998)
A dark, oddly persuasive vampire/superhero film. Wesley Snipes could so easily have come off as faintly silly, yet doesn’t. Stephen Dorff and his crew walk a similar line, leaving Kris Kristofferson and N’Bushe Wright to add just the right touch of authenticity.
The Secret Mountain
by Enid Blyton (Basil Blackwell, 1941); ill. Dylan Roberts (Armada, 1965)
Writing during the Second World War, Blyton sends her young protagonists on an escapist and rather improbable African adventure. A book notable for its more-or-less non-condescending attitude towards the native boy Mafumu and a rare positive depiction of foreigners (Ranni and Pilescu).
Witness for the Prosecution
dir. Billy Wilder (1957)
Film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s play. The ending still works but Wilder fritters away much of the buildup by stitching in a comedy subplot involving Sir Wilfrid and his private nurse (notwithstanding that Elsa Lanchester won a Golden Globe for this performance).