Category: Crime

“Violent Love” is Coming

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I could not pre-order this one fast enough!  Looks like a real fun ride, Daddy-O.

VIOLENT LOVE #1
Story By: Frank J. Barbiere
Art By: Victor Santos
Cover By: Victor Santos
Variant Cover By: Victor Santos
Published: November 9, 2016

SERIES PREMIERE Daisy Jane and Rock Bradley were two of the most notorious bank robbers in the American Southwest. And then they fell in love. Join FRANK J. BARBIERE (FIVE GHOSTS, The Revisionist) and VICTOR SANTOS (THE MICE TEMPLAR, Polar) for a pulp-infused criminal romance oozing with style and action! Double-sized debut issue!

Source: Image Comics & Comicosity & Bleeding Cool.

King of the Underworld (1939) / Z-View

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King of the Underworld (1939)

Director: Lewis Seiler

Screenplay: George Bricker and Vincent Sherman from a story by W.R. Burnett

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis and James Stephenson.

The Pitch: “We could put Bogart in that crime story by WR Burnett…”

Tagline: “Ruthless Killer vs. Lady Doctor ! It’s red-blooded action all the way!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Carol Nelson (Francis) is a doctor as is her husband.  Things are going well until her husband accidentally gets involved with gangsters led by the notorious Joe Gurney (Bogart).  When her husband is killed in a police shootout, they believe that Carol is also involved with the gangsters.

In order to clear her name Carol comes up with a dangerous plan to take down the entire gang.

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10 Cool Things About “Body Heat”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 10 Cool Things About Body Heat.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. CHRISTOPHER REEVE TURNED DOWN THE ROLE OF NED.
“I put myself down too much,” Reeve told The Washington Post of the missed opportunity. “I didn’t think I’d be convincing as a seedy lawyer.” Reeve later regretted the decision, but was happy that his friend, William Hurt, was cast in the role instead.

5. IT WAS SHOT IN FLORIDA—AND IT WAS VERY, VERY COLD.
The film was shot during a cold Florida winter. Turner and Hurt had to put ice cubes in their mouths before each take so their breath wouldn’t show. Their sweat was sprayed on. When the two shot their sex scene, the crew was dressed in duffel coats and scarves.

8. IT WAS MICKEY ROURKE’S BIG BREAK.
Mickey Rourke had already appeared in 1941 (1979) and Heaven’s Gate (1980), but told Larry King that his breakthrough came from playing Teddy Lewis in Body Heat. When Rourke got the one-day gig, he was able to quit his job as a bouncer at a transvestite nightclub.

Mean Business on North Ganson Street by S. Craig Zahler / Z-View

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Mean Business on North Ganson Street by S. Craig Zahler (2014)

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

First sentence…

The dead pigeon flew through the night, slapped Doggie in the face, and bounced to the ground, where its cold talons clicked across the pavement as it rolled east.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Detective Jules Bettinger, after mishandling a case is given the choice: resign, be fired or accept a transfer to one of the most understaffed and highest crime ridden cities in the country.  Reluctantly Bettinger accepts that transfer and moves his wife and child to his new job.

Once there Bettinger finds things worse than he could imagine.  There’s no trust between Bettinger and his new partner who may be involved in illegal activities with other cops.  When Bettinger uncovers a conspiracy to kill police officers, he and his family become targets leading to a bloody ending.

Mean Business on North Ganson Street isn’t for the faint hearted.  The violence is brutal, and often hard to stomach.  Sometimes Zahler seemed to be showing how smart he was with his word choices, but getting into the book I began to think that instead it was to highlight what a fish out of water Bettinger was.   Mean Business on North Ganson Street wont’ be everyone’s cup o’ joe, but I liked it a lot.

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Omerta: A Novel (The Godfather Book 3) by Mario Puzo / Z-View

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Omerta: A Novel (The Godfather Book 3) by Mario Puzo (2000)

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Random House

First sentence…

In the stone-filled village of Castellammare del Golfo, facing the dark Sicilian Mediterranean, a great Mafia Don lay dying.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Don Raymonde Aprile is the last of the mafia Dons.  A widower with three successful children and an adopted nephew, all in legitimate businesses and doing well, Aprile is ready to retire to a simpler life.  Yet he knows that once he steps down as Don, he puts his life and his children’s in danger.

Retiring will be seen as a sign of weakness and opportunity for those wishing to assume his position.  Aprile’s impending retirement is also forcing an FBI agent who has worked for years to bring down April to cut some corners.

An unexpected murder will set in motion the Aprile family, forces of the mafia and the FBI into one last battle.

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48 Things We Learned from David Fincher’s Zodiac Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 48 Things We Learned from David Fincher’s Zodiac Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

13. Fincher thinks the reason why the Zodiac still haunts people is due as much to his letters as to anything else. The idea of an ongoing correspondence with someone who was in the process of killing fascinates him.

15. All of the blood in the film is digital because it saved the production enormous amounts of time by not having to wait for wardrobe changes and cleaning.

18. Dermot Mulroney is in great shape, but Fincher was having none of it. “I wanted him to have a waistline like mine so we made up a little fat suit for him.”

Angel in Black: A Nathan Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins / Z-View

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Angel in Black: A Nathan Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins  (2001)

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL

First sentence…

The two pieces of her lay porcelain-white in the ankle-high grass and weeds of a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue, like the upper and lower sections of a discarded marionette.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

I’m a sucker for the Nate Heller series by Max Allan Collins.  Heller is a detective who finds himself involved in famous murder cases.  Collins is a stickler for historical accuracy and has created a timeline and plausible setting that allows Heller to find himself (over the course of the series) mixed up in everything from the Lindbergh baby murder to the assassination of JFK!

This time out Heller ends up at the scene of the Black Dahlia murder and discovers that he had dated her in Chicago just months before her murder.  She had told him she was pregnant and he was the father… then disappeared.  Since Heller had since married her murder could ruin his marriage, his career and makes him the number one suspect in her death.  Heller must stay a step ahead of the reporters and the law and find out who killed the Black Dahlia before he ends up taking the fall.

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Bad Boy Brawly Brown: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley / Z-View

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Bad Boy Brawly Brown: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley (2002)

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Little Brown

First sentence…

Mouse is dead.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Easy Rawlins used to be the man that could fix problems.  Now it is 1964 and those days are behind him.  Easy is raising a family and trying to stay clear of anything that would bring danger to his home.  When an old friend asks Easy to just check on young Brawly Brown the job seems easy enough.  Brawly is running with a Black militant group and his mother just needs to know he’s okay.

Soon enough Easy finds himself a suspect in a murder case that has the militants on one side and the cops on the other.

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The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson / Z-View

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The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson (2011)

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (March 15, 2011)

First sentence…

Repaiman Jack awoke with light in his eyes, white noise in his ears and an ache in his back.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The Tomb is the first in the Repairman Jack series and an excellent introduction to his world.  Jack lives off the grid and makes his living solving other people’s problems.  Often the solutions aren’t legal but Jack is no hitman. Still, once Jack’s girlfriend Gia discovered the nature of his work, she distanced herself and small daughter from Jack.

When Jack is offered a job to find a stolen necklace that is a matter of life and death, he takes on the task despite long odds.  Jack recovers and returns the necklace to learn, only too late, that it holds an ancient power over monster-like creatures that are now being guided to kill his ex-girlfriend, her daughter and Jack.

F. Paul Wilson has created a believable world by seamlessly meshing the detective and horror novel through the creation of Repairman Jack.  I loved The Tomb and look forward to reading all of the Repairman Jack novels.

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Diablerie by Walter Mosley (2007) / Z-View

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Diablerie by Walter Mosley (2008)

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

First sentence…

The apartment reeked from the acrid odor of roaches – a whole colony, tens of thousands of them, seething and unseen in the walls and under the dull, splintery floorboards of the vacant apartment.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ben Dibbuk is a middle aged computer programmer with a successful wife and a daughter headed to college.  Life should be great… but it’s not.  His wife has become distant and may have a lover which would only be fair since Ben has a young mistress.  Ben knows that he’s at a crossroads and needs to sort things out.

That becomes more complicated when a woman from his past approaches him with the knowledge that years ago he killed a man in a drunken stupor.  Ben is a recovering alcoholic and remembers much of what the woman tells him but not the murder.  Did he kill a man?  Why is the woman approaching him now?  And why is his wife having him investigated?

Craig says: While Mosley is probably incapable of writing a bad book, Diablerie isn’t in the same league as his Easy Rawlins novels.  I enjoyed the story but didn’t hate to see it end.  Be aware that this is one of Mosley’s “erotic” novels.

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Night Monster (1942) / Z-View

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Night Monster (1942)

Director: Ford Beebe

Screenplay: Clarence Upson Young

Stars: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Leif Erickson and Irene Hervey.

The Pitch: “How can we go wrong with people stranded in an old, creepy house with mysterious murders?”

Tagline: “NIGHT MONSTER with Mystery’s Greatest Thrill Team: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Dr. King [Atwill] gets three doctors out to his secluded, remote mansion under false pretenses.  King has been left paralyzed and blames the doctors he invited.  Dr. Lynn Harper  [Hervey] is also there but for another reason.  When one-by-one doctors begin turning up strangled, Harper and her new friend, Don, must figure out who is doing the killing and how they’re able to do it before they become the next victims.

Craig says: This one just didn’t work well for me.  Low on humor, suspense and when all is said and done, not that convincing of a killer aka Night Monster.  It was fun seeing Leif Erickson at such a young age.  It seemed to me that Bela was there just to throw suspicion his way.  I may be in the minority on this one…

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Heist (2015) / Z-View

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Heist (2015)

Director: Scott Mann

Screenplay: Stephen C. Sepher

Stars: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Robert De Niro, Gina Carano, Dave Bautista, Kate Bosworth, Morris Chestnut and D.B. Sweeney. 

The Pitch: “Oceans 11 meets Speed.”
Tagline: “Never make a bet you can’t afford to lose.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Vaughn [Morgan] is a dealer in his old crime partner’s casino.  They separated ways when Vaughn went straight.  Now his old buddy [Deniro] is an infamous gangster known as The Pope.

When The Pope refuses to loan Vaughn enough money for a life-saving treatment for Vaughn’s daughter, Vaughn risks it all by joining in on a robbery of The Pope’s casino.  Things go from bad to worse when Vaughn and crew find themselves trapped on a bus with The Pope’s crew and the cops hot on their trail.

Craig says:  Excellent cast in a throwback action movie with a couple of nice twists.

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Blood Ties (2013) / Z-View

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Blood Ties (2013)

Director: Guillaume Canet

Screenplay: Guillaume Canet & James Gray 

Stars: Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup,  Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, James Caan and Noah Emmerich.

The Pitch: “How about a gritty crime movie set in the 70’s — one brother’s a cop and the other is an ex-con?”

Tagline: “Crime runs in the family.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Chris (Owen) is a recently released ex-con who’d been in for murder.  Frank (Crudup), his brother is a New York City detective who places his job on the line to help Chris make a new start.

Chris gives it a go, but soon enough circumstances have him involved in crimes that will place him at odds with his brother (who has another man out to kill him).

An excellent cast in a gritty crime story set in the 1970’s.  What’s not to like?

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