Tag Archives: crime

Fans of the hard-boiled detective genre and grittier comics will enjoy 'Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.' The casual sexism and senseless brutality may offend modern sensibilities. But taken as a product of the time in which it was originally created, this is a beautiful adaption, keeping alive one of pulp fiction’s most distinctive characters.

'Made to Kill' is a pitch-perfect tribute to Raymond Chandler, but its unique premise builds on rather than merely imitates the work of the master. The novel zings along with spitfire dialogue and madcap action. This is a solid kickoff to a fun new series, and I look forward to reading the next Ray Electromatic Mystery.

Overall, David Lagercrantz has done a marvelous job with the Millennium series continuation and whether Larsson’s unfinished efforts ever make it to press or not, more in this vein would be marvelous.

A Voice in the Dark is a mature psychological horror-thriller comic that’s heavy on the psychology and light on the gore and violence. Its creation is also a remarkable and inspiring success story on numerous levels.

'Dead Body Road' is a very derivative and familiar revenge tale. But it's a heck of a lot of fun and done with grittiness and panache. Besides, it contains the best car chase in a comic that I've seen yet.

It would be easy for the elements of 'Amiss' to slip into a derivative crime drama, but instead the film crafts a mystery where overlapping narratives deepen character and widen the scope of an intimate story. This is a very assured piece of filmmaking from a pair of first-time feature directors without the eagerness or mimicry common to other debut films.

'Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground' is deliciously entertaining and a damn good read. If you’re anything like Parker and you know what you want, then you want 'Richard Stark's Parker: Slayground.'

'The Dinner' commits the cardinal sin of not having any likeable characters. But if you go in forewarned and willing to absolve Koch of this transgression, the book is worth the steady, hard look it gives a number of unpleasant topics we’d rather not discuss.

'The Counselor' will inevitably be a very entertaining movie, but Cormac McCarthy is our greatest living writer, so it is very likely he intends to do more than just entertain us here. Like 'Blood Meridian,' this is about the inner frontiers within us and how we become most alive when we live close to these frontiers and demarcate them within ourselves, staking out the interior territory that we call our souls.

This post examines how the movie 'Prisoners' brushes upon topics of law and justice in the United States beyond its most obvious one. It’s a story, and stories seldom provide answers. Stories raise doubt and ask questions which generate discussions. That’s where answers begin.

If one is capable of suspending both disgust and disbelief, 'Prisoners' becomes an intense, masterfully acted suspense-thriller which mentions but never pontificates on numerous larger issues within modern American life.

In short, James Lovegrove's 'Sherlock Holmes: The Stuff of Nightmares' is everything a Sherlock Holmes fangirl like me could ask for.

'The Family's dark edge and strong cast make it enjoyable, and its play on the image of Americans abroad is interesting.

'The Cuckoo's Calling' is an intriguing story unfolded with Rowling’s expert timing and sense of natural pace. This is Rowling at her best.

Were Diana’s victims actually sex abusers or were they just bus drivers targeted at random? Is vigilantism okay in a city that can’t or won’t protect its own people? And the biggest question: Is Diana a psycho killer or a superhero?