'THE HALF LIFE'.....IN 7O'S SUNNY ITALY, A NAVY WIFE COPES WITH ADULTEROUS ROMANCE.....AND RADIOACTIVITY.....

 The Half Life by Rachel Beanland (2026)

     This is one of those richly imagined books that sweeps you into a different (but still very contemporary) time and place.......with vividly drawn characters and some real history as a backdrop for the lead heroine's life altering journey. I don't often immerse myself in lengthy literary fiction but this one really had me in its grip.

     We're back in the early to mid 1970's, where 23 year old South Carolina girl Eileen marries naval officer Paul Archer, who's in the long training programs to eventually attain his own nuclear submarine command. Paul's assignments take him and his bride to the picturesque Mediterranean island of Maddalena, where the U.S. Navy has established a submarine station for monitoring the safety and maintenance of the subs' nuclear reactors.

     It's an idyllic and but turbulent setting that Eileen finds herself hurled into........a foreign country, whose customs and language she tries to absorb as she navigates her way through the duties and etiquette expected of navy wives. The Italian islanders fear and distrust the navy's ability to keep radiation from the subs out of their ocean environment and the rise of the country's agitating anti-American Communist party only fans the flames.

     Eileen's independent spirit and sharp intelligence can't help but emerge, often putting her at odds with Paul and the whole U.S. Navy culture, where she's supposed to only play the role of supportive wife. But her embrace of new found Maddalena friends includes a growing romantic relationship with a young Italian investigative journalist (who's got the navy in his crosshairs). And amidst all these complications, the erupting anti-Navy protests combined with catastrophic nuclear sub mishaps put Eileen's life and marriage at a pivotal crossroads.

     Author Rachel Beanland brings all of this to page-turning life- the stunning Mediterranean islands, the push and pull of actual events (such as the fall of both Richard Nixon and the Vietnam war, the chaos of 70's Italian politics, and the alarming science of the dangers ushered in by the Atomic age. And then throw in that passionate adulterous affair to all that and you've got yourself one doozy of a read.

     My highest recommendation goes to this one. And I for one can't wait for some streaming service to turn this into an all night binge-worthy mini-series.

      5 stars (*****).

     

'CROSS MY HEART I HOPE YOU DIE'......REVENGE SERVED COLD......LIKE REALLY COLD, ON TOP OF A SNOWY MOUNTAIN....

  Cross My Heart I Hope You Die by Mallory Arnold (2026)

     First let's take a moment to roundly boo and hiss Jason, who's carrying on heartfelt romantic relationships with three women simultaneously, each one unaware of each other and also unaware they're each being played for suckers by a serial con artist. This slimy snake has convinced two of them, Nora, a school athletic coach, and Ruby, an elfin, sweetly vulnerable kindergarten teacher to lend him huge amounts of money. From expert car mechanic Cham, he asks for the loan of her precious set of repair tools which she depends on to make a living.

     A worthy setup, especially after Jason ghosts his three victims and disappears in the wind. But here's the point where you'll have to prepare yourselves for this book to take some wild left turns into twist-every-other-minute weirdville. Nora, Ruby and Cham, discovering they've been fleeced and abandoned by Jason, plot to smoke him out, trap him and recover what he stole from them And what better place to do it than a remote cabin that orphaned Ruby inherited from her biological parents.. The place sits atop a snowy mountain, only accessed by a creaky gondola and there's rumors of a terrifying cult up there that may or may not still lurk about. Uh oh........

     Yes, the determined ladies lure Jason up to the cabin for an overdue reckoning but from there, every possible thing goes horribly awry in ways I would never speak of out loud. I'd much rather let readers fully savor the twist-filled, blood-soaked surprises that erupt on that creepy, scary mountain top.

     I also would not advise anyone to stop and ponder if any of what transpires here is even remotely believable. Just take a deep breath and keep zipping through those pages, enjoying each new nutty revelation as they come flying out at you. .It's a loopy thrill ride that you won't want to get off of until you're satisfied to see who's left standing......and still breathing.

     One thing I'm not sure of......that little semi-cliffhanger joke on the last sentence. You'll want to decide for yourselves whether it's very clever or very dumb. I'm leaning a little toward clever, since I'd already embraced the book's non-stop lunacy and carnage with open arms. Have fun with this one.

     4 stars (****).

'HOT GIRL MURDER CLUB'.....IN LA LA LAND, THESE GIRLS TURN '#ME TOO' INTO '#YOU DIE'.....

 Hot Girl Murder Club by Ashley Winstead (2026) 

     In no way could I reasonably defend this book's tumultuous collision of multiple tropes, its crazy character development and its loony turns of plot. Nor would I even try.

     But I had soooo much guilty pleasure fun reading it, I simply cannot deny it its four stars. Hot Girls forever....long may they reign and bring moguls the pain......
  
     It's an overheated combination of pop culture toxic waste, pop music and some bloody girl-boss revenge on the Patriarchy of sybaritic Hollywood......and then all of that put into into a blender with hot button divisive politics, domestic terrorism and the sadism of entitled entertainment industry power players..

     Or in simpler terms, it's a Party in the USA.

     All of the above swirls around pop sensation Scout Sage and her coterie of empowered drop dead gorgeous women. Do these stunners really comprise some kind of hit-babe squad dedicated to arranging suspicious deaths of the most notorious entertainment industry abusers of women?

     L.A. detective Gray Holloway comes to think so, investigating Sage and company and at the same time moonlighting as a 'bottle girl at a shady club, serving up drinks to big tipping VIPs. (and no, I swear I'm not making up that last part.) Gray and Sage share more in common than hunter and quarry - years ago, they both lost beloved sisters at the hands of......well that's another two stories slowly revealed in flashbacks.

     I could go on and on about all the other subplots tossed into the stew here including the ominous rise of a filthy rich bigwig turned populist political candidate, an investigative reporter digging into the mysteries of the Sage posse, and a progressive activist who's trying to hitch a ride on Sage's fan base.....but I'm exhausted just writing this paragraph. Think of this book as a three ring circus of Tik-Tok melodrama and Instagram insanity. And not everyone's coming out of it alive.

     One of those books you can have yourself a ball reading, without believing a minute of of it, Strife-styles of the Rich and Infamous. We hate 'em, we love 'em......especially when they're piled up a mile high in a book like this one.

     4 stars (****).

'KILLER VIBES'.....HE'S LAZY....HE'S STONED.....BUT MAYBE A COOL NEW COOL PRIVATE EYE

  Killer Vibes by Jack Friday (2026)

     I am happy to be among the first to welcome an all new quirky detective who promises to become the most unlikely crime solver ever. But give him a shot because he's brighter than he looks and the first case that falls into his lap involves severe home renovation, a stash of cash in the wallpaper, vicious thugs, a lost lost cousin, a sexy bank officer and lethal explosives.

     Peter Key's a shiftless, bisexual Texas slacker who holds no great ambitions beyond getting high and doing as little as possible. Suddenly, via a recently passed away long lost uncle, he's the inheritor of a crumbling Austin mansion. The place looks ready for 10 episodes of "Hoarders" and to Peter's dismay, also comes with massive debt from loans the uncle took out from the local bank. The neighborhood also comes equipped with a host of aggressive, intrusive people who want Peter to sell them his house immediately.

     But our budding, would-be ace detective smells something rotten besides the junk piled up in his dumpy abode. And it all leads to the tangled web his uncle left behind and whose traffic accident death appears more suspicious than ever. . Luckily for Peter, he manages to fall under the protection and mentorship of a seasoned Private Eye. That's a good thing indeed considering the sinister threatening people who've come out of the woodwork. none of them with Peter's best interests at heart.

     I loved the undercurrent of dry, dark humor that runs throughout the book and I only wish there was more of it or at least a little more overt. I got a kick out of watching the initially unwilling Peter discover his perceptive talent for sniffing out who's up to no good and why. To everyone's surprise, including his own, Peter finds something he's actually good at. And his exciting climactic showdown with a truly creepy major villain is reminiscent of John Dl McDonald's 'Travis McGee' series.

     So I extend a warm welcome to Peter Key as he joins the hallowed halls of oddball detectives and look forward to his next case (as well as the little Scooby-Doo bunch of friends and allies he collected on this first outing.

     4 stars (****).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP BONUS EDITION......LINDSAY GRAHAM......REST IN PISS

 What a sad, pathetic figure......tossing away his humanity, morality, decency and his oath to the Constitution to serve as Trump's most simpering toady......a man who in full public view, diminished himself into nothing....worthy of burial only in a dumpster.

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP........SPECIAL "ANYBODY SEEN MITCH LATELY?" EDITION........

To BQ visitors: Have a great weekend.....see you all next week!

To Trumpanzees:  Continue to have fun at the gas pump and supermarket! You've earned it....

'METEOR'.....AIP COMES LATE TO DISASTERWORLD.....WITH MUD, SWEAT AND FEARS..........

 Meteor (1979)

        American International Pictures, that tireless purveyor of Drive-In/Grindhouse pulp throughout the 50's and 60's was winding down to the end its existence by the time it tried its own version of an all-star, special effects laden disaster movie. 

        The result?   Despite its interesting cast and worthy scientific premise, the film looked tired, cheap, repetitious and stuffed with the usual connect-the-dots tropes everyone had already seen in previous disasterpieces. 

        AIP no doubt opened up its checkbook to recruit Sean Connery, Karl Malden, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Trevor Howard, Brian Keith and Martin Landau and they duly perform their lines with just enough professionalism to justify their paychecks. 

         But the studio skimped on its outer space effects so the sequences that should have been the most eye popping were a visual bore and close to laughable. 

          But let's at least credit the film with being ahead of the curve in presenting a "Giant Meteor due to crash into and destroy Earth" scenario.  19 years after this film's release, two Hollywood studios would battle each other for box office supremacy with separate 'Meteor Hits Earth' movies, "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact".

        In 'Meteor', the U.S. and Russia joint forces to eliminate the threat by synching up their separate orbiting defense satellites, each of them laden with nukes. (The nukes, of course, would normally be pointed at U.S. and Russian targets for all out war, an idea that fired up incoming President Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars' idea.....)

         From an underground bunker adjacent to the New York subway system (don't ask) U.S. and Russian scientists (Connery, Keith) try to reposition their floating orbiting nukes at the oncoming meteor in the hopes of obliterating it.

          But meanwhile, smaller broken off pieces of the hurtling rock hit the planet, bringing on a quite effective avalanche sequence. 

          But what really sunk this film was the endless, interminable shots of the meteor and the array of space nukes, neither of which were at all visually interesting to watch.  These excruciatingly dull sequences forced composer Laurence Rosenthal into pumping them up with constant orchestral bombast that quickly becomes annoying and unintentionally funny.

         Speaking of funny, at last we come to the film's showstopper.......in which Connery and the supporting cast flee the bunker as the New York subway walls crack open, releasing a ocean of mud. The overall effect of this made us recall the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, where the audience and guests have enormous gallons of green slime dumped on them. Or what happens in the White House when Trump's diaper overloads.

     And it's a wonder Blake Edwards didn't think of this mud tsunami for Peter Sellers in the "Pink Panther" series. 

          So in no way could we ever accuse this film's cast of just taking their roles to pick up an easy paycheck. AIP really made them work for their money, which is more than they ever did for Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in their "Beach Party" movies......

          For those who've always dreamed of seeing Sean Connery, Natalie Wood and Karl Malden swimming in brown ooze, here's your dream come true. 

         Disaster movie completists might want to give it a viewing, but we doubt they'll ever want to sit through it again. 

          Neither would we. 1 star (*).