Tilt a Whirl...

I finished reading Tilt a Whirl by Chris Grabenstein today. It has a quick, breezy style, with not much intensity to it. It was another mystery somewhat spoiled because I guessed the motive and the killer shortly after the murder was committed; from that point it all looked so obvious that the protagonists must be blind to be looking in all the wrong places. Does no one think cui bono any more? Or is it just that the mystery writers are hoping we'll go off on their various tangents with them, distracted from the main theme till they're ready to reveal it?

In any case, the book had two stylistic problems for me. One was that it was all written in the present tense. I can stand this in short doses - the occasional fanfic, the first chapter of Warchild - but it becomes quickly irritating in a full length novel, especially since I could see no reason for it.

The second problem was of narrative voice. I love first person narrative in mystery novels - Spenser, Marlowe, Carlotta Carlyle, Kinsey Milhone, Falco - but only when it's the detective protagonist whose viewpoint we are getting. If it's a sidekick - as with Sherlock Holmes' Watson or Nero Wolfe's Archie Goodwin - I quickly lose sympathy. The sidekick usually comes across as a guileless schmo.

In this case, the detective is John Ceepak, a homicide detective in the resort town of Sea Haven, New Jersey. His sidekick is Danny Boyle, a young part time cop. I didn't know they had part time cops in the States. Maybe they have them in Canada, too - what do I know? Ceepak is large, tough, an ex-marine with the habits and morals of a boy scout. I kept thinking "Batman" but not the way I like Batman best: not the sexy Dark Knight side of him, just the boy scout side of him.

So: pleasantly readable, but I wouldn't go looking for another book by this author.

Moonlight and Blood Ties ...

Thanksgiving: my first of two turkey dinners. The food was fairly traditional and fully delicious - turkey with dressing and cranberry sauce and gravy, cole slaw, peas, rice, creamed corn, and dessert was pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Delicious pie, bought at a bakery on Bank St. I'd never been to before. I don't recall its name, but it's worth going back to. I liked it as much as the pumpkin pies I make from scratch.

For entertainment, we watched a TV-series vampire double bill: the pilot episode of Moonlight and the episode of Blood Ties that aired tonight, "Heart of Ice".

Just griping yesterday I was griping about how I don't like vampires much and I seem to find them in the popular media everywhere I look. Comics currently are concentrating more on zombies - another supernatural creature I don't much like - but vampires are everywhere else.¹

I liked both shows, though both seemed like typical low-key TV entertainment, with predictable plots and characters with a certain charm. What I loved most about Moonlight was Alex O'Laughlin, who is excellent, and Jason Dohring, whom I adored as Logan in Veronica Mars and (so far) love no less here. It seems a rather similar role: the wild rich brat of the vampire crowd, as contrasted to being the wild rich brat of the Neptune, California high school crowd. What I didn't like was the role of Sophia Myles as Beth Turner, mostly because I don't much like Sophia Myles. But maaseru remarked that she resembled Hayden Panettiere (Claire on Heroes) and since I've come to love Claire, I might come to love, like or tolerate Beth. If I watch again.

I particularly liked the narrative sequences where Mick St. John is giving an interview.

The best thing about Blood Ties was Christina Cox as Vicki Nelson. She is terrific. Kyle Schmid as Henry Fitzroy was fine too, in a fairly standard good-vampire sort of way, and I loved the connection with Henry VIII. All the other characters were reasonably uninteresting. Dylan Neal as Mike Celluci was simply annoying.

After that we sort of half-watched Desperate Housewives, a show I can't stand, but we all wanted to see Nathan Fillion. He was only on for a minute at the end (no, it wasn't worth it) but it was at least fun to see him for that brief and shining moment.

~ ~ ~

¹ I used to love vampire stories, back with Interview With a Vampire and Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula, but the charm wore off long ago, especially in the romance genre. I do love stories about non-vampiric Immortals, especially the great Immortals like Methos and Captain Jack Harkness. But you've probably noticed that already.