A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE'.....STARRING L.A. AS THE DARKEST HEART OF DARKNESS.....THE HORROR....THE HORROR....

A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper (2026)

     Welcome to America's real Heart of Darkness......Los Angeles, the city of Hollywood dreams and drug fueled, blood drenched nightmares, the city populated by the bitter, and desperately impoverished along side the fabulously wealthy titans of industry and media, whose sybaritic lifestyles place them above the law and above all known morality. Or to put it more bluntly, what some would call a snapshot of America today.

     That's the carnival ride of horrors that author Jordan Harper takes you on. It's a twisted, warped funhouse of drugs, perversions, random gore-dripping carnage, all of it overseen by a justice system favoring only the rich and powerful......the only ones who make it out alive while literally getting away with murder.

     Within this maelstrom we follow the fates of three L.A. denizens who run afoul of 'The Kids in the Candy Store' that collection of rotten-to-their-very-core bigwigs whose influence and power can cover up anything and everything.........including young women who disappear without a trace. The ones who don't disappear might resurface as victims of the 'L.A. Ripper', whose mutilations of their bodies defy all rational description.

     This book, as you can imagine, is not for the faint of heart or anyone who cannot stomach graphic violence of any kind. But for those willing to grab on to this Dante's Inferno tour of everything horrible in our modern society, it's a breathless, mesmerizing experience, a perpetual bad dream that nobody can wake up from.

      And I couldn't stop reading until the last drop of blood spills out. If you're up for it, then by all means take the ride. But don't say you weren't warned.....

      5 stars (*****). 

'DARK IS WHEN THE DEVIL COMES'.....TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS.....CHECK UNDER THE BED AND THE COUCH.....

  Dark If When the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce (2026)

     When it comes to authors who can chill you to the bone and fuel up your nightmares, Daisy Pearce is one of the most expert practitioners. And she's back at it with this one guaranteed to make you turn on a few more lights while you're reading it........and checking underneath the couch for.....well, no spoilers can I reveal.

     In a small English country town, Hazel's come back to occupy her parents' vacated home. Reeling from an emotionally bruising divorce, she's hoping to repair the estrangement from her sister Cathy, whose mean streak is well known to everyone who grew up with her. That included Hazel and Cathy's childhood friend Suzie, who now runs the town pharmacy with her husband.

      And here's the point where I think I should cease going into any more particular detail for fear of spoiling the nasty, scary trip this book proceeds to take you on. I'll only say that put in frightening harm's way, Hazel's facing genuine horror.........some of it obvious and some of it indescribable and bound to generate plenty of readers' bad dreams.

     When Hazel drops out of sight, Cathy and Suzie join forces to find her, which leads to a a truly harrowing finale confronting terrors both earthbound........and let's just say something else you'd rather not think about before bedtime.

     An excellent read here for anyone who loves a mixture of a thriller blended with horror and suspense........all in one convenient package. .Well done again, Daisy.

     4 stars (****).

'THE GIRL UPSTAIRS'.....THE CREEPIEST HOUSE IN A CRAZY-FOR-HALLOWEEN TOWN....LOADED WITH TWISTS....

 The Girl Upstairs by Jessica R. Patch (2026)

     Oh my, you can never have enough books set in small New England towns where Halloween is celebrated like a Federally mandated National Holiday.......not to mention having a creepy old house with a virtual traffic jam of ghosts. and murderous histories.

     So welcome to Cold Harbor, Maine where recently disgraced ex-homicide detective Gwen McDaniels, her baby girl Tara and her doctor husband Steven have taken up residence. And guess which prime piece of creepy old real estate they've moved into......heh, heh, heh.........

     In no time at all, Gwen's beset with paranormal sights and sounds and her detective instincts kick in. She's not only determined to delve into the house's haunted backstories but also the origin of a bone recently found on her property.......a bone the town's Chief of Police insists belongs to an animal, not a human, as some in town believe.........and boasts a medical examiner's report to back him up.

     But something's telling Gwen that all's not well in Cold Harbor and she teams with young coffee shop owner and fledgling true crime podcaster Cady to get to the bottom of things. And that includes the strange writing carved into Gwen's attic floor, ghostly lullabies heard at night and the mysteries surrounding a long missing child. Meanwhile, Steven's exasperation and disapproval of Gwen's relentless sleuthing has set their already shaky marriage to crumbling.

     Everyone who loves a small town eve-of-Halloween atmosphere and a ton of twists will want seek this book out right away. (I'll admit that at least one of those all-of-a-sudden reveals coaxed a gasp out of me). And once the plot really starts coming to a boil, the twists start tumbling all over each other so fast, I slowed down my usual reading speed to make sure I was getting them all.

     Well paced and a whole lot of fun to dive into.......perfect for either a beach read or the spooky season, but you may not want to wait that long to enjoy chilling out with it....or getting chilled by it.

     4 stars (****).

'YESTERYEAR'.....SHE'S DOWN ON THE FARM.....CENTURIES APART....

  Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

     What a brilliant, funny and deeply unsettling book this is. And a what a powerhouse introduction to this new author.

     Corrosive wit dipped in acid flows throughout this epically sardonic and all too American saga. Author Caro Claire Burke performs a genuine high wire act here, crafting a lead female character that you don't know whether to cheer on,, ridicule, hate with a passion or choke back a tear for.. And sometimes I felt like doing all of those things......all at once.

     Natalie Heller Mills seemingly marries well.....to the youngest son of a wealthy family political dynasty. But Caleb's the dimmest of bulbs, the most unsharpened tool in the shed, lacking intelligence, skills and no detectable ambition whatsoever. But through trial and error (and her father-in-law's money) Natalie creates a social media sensation as a "tradwife', supposedly living the life of a pioneer wife and mother on a supposed early 19th century Idaho farm.........with Caleb overplaying his role of her cowboy-farmer husband. But of course, it's all showbiz smoke-and-mirrors behind the scenes, generating millions of adoring, merch-buying fans and plenty of active haters as well.

     It's a charmed life for Natalie until she wakes up one morning to find herself transported to an actual 19 century Idaho farm, complete with a different set of children, a different version of her husband and none of the 21st century amenities she's used to and depends on. A nightmare? God's punishment? A colossal prank at her expense that's gone viral?

     I'll say only this......I'm still not sure I entirely swallow the staggering final section of this story, but I'm in total awe of how it's pulled off with the same deeply satirical skill and incisive writing that tugs on your emotions in ten different directions.

     No doubt about this.....it's one of the 5 star must-reads of the the year. (*****)

'HOPE RISES'.....THE "NASH FALLS" REBORN HERO MEETS HIS NEMESIS.....

 Hope Rises by David Baldacci (2026)

     The first book in this series, "Nash Falls" had me fully glued to it and "Hope Rises", its sequel is even better. It takes the perilous story of Walter Nash a.k.a. Dillon Hope into some fascinating twists and turns I never imagined or anticipated, with deeper characterization, more action and surprises.

     I would first highly recommend, for full enjoyment of 'Hope Rises you need to read 'Nash Falls' That book details everything it implies in its title..........the utter destruction of the life of FBI informant Walter Nash and the terrible price he pays for functioning as an undercover agent in the company he works for.

     Nash found himself in the crosshairs of ruthless international criminal Victoria Steers, who ordered the killing of his daughter and framed Nash for her murder. as well as other unspeakable crimes. Hunted and on the run, a friend of Nash's father helps him to physically transform himself into an all new identity......that of heavily muscled and expert bodyguard Dillon Hope.. The kind of formidable man who might very well get closer to that cold blooded villainess Steers.

     Dillon Hope does in fact move closer to Steers than he could imagine......functioning as her new bodyguard. And it's no easy job, given that those in Steers' orbit (including her mother) are every bit as ruthless and lethal as she is. Steers has no shortage of enemies and doesn't yet realize that the one who hates her most in the world, Hope, is now within easy killing distance of her..

     I would not dare to reveal the host of stunning complications and revelations that befall both Hope and Steers, taking this action-packed story into directions that challenge these characters like never before and raise the stakes ever higher.

     After reading the first book ,I had my own ideas as to where this story was going (all wrong, as it turned out) but the only thing I did expect was that David Baldacci would hit this one out of the park. And in 'Hope Rises' he doesn't disappoint.

     5 stars (*****).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.....SPECIAL 'EXTRAORDINARILY BRILLIANT' EDITION.....

 Dear Trump voters: Your rotting orange pumpkin recently described himself as (and we quote exactly) "an extraordinarily brilliant person". 

      Please remember that the next time you stop to put gas in your car, read your supermarket receipts, and figure out how you'll ever pay for medical care.......

And never forget......

To BQ visitors: Great weekend to you all!

To "But I didn't vote for THIS!" Trump voters: Yes...You....Did. Please continue suffering in the hell you helped unleash upon the world. 

'THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT'......FOX'S BIG SUMMER 1977 BOX OFFICE BLOCKBUSTER!......UH...SERIOUSLY?.....FOR REAL?....HONEST?.....

 The Other Side of Midnight (1977)

      No mistake. Yes, you read the sub-title of this post correctly.....

       The studio pinned all its summer 1977 hopes on this lavishly budgeted romantic melodrama based on yet another trashy best seller cranked out by Sidney Sheldon.

       Fox executives held little or no hope for their other summer release of that year.....that bizarre little outer space fantasy concocted by its equally oddball young movie brat writer-director.....George Lucas. Something with robots, furry creatures and laser swords called.....what was the name of it? Star something.....Star Wars?

        Who in hell's gonna watch that thing except little kids dropped off by their parents?

          Playing hardball with theater owners, Fox forced them into booking "Star Wars" if they wanted their chance to play a sure fire crowd pleaser like "The Other Side of Midnight". 

          Of those two films, anybody care to guess which one audiences mobbed theaters to see and which one sank like a cement stone faster than Donald Trump's approval ratings?  Anybody? Anybody? 

          Which is why BQ felt burning curiosity about 'Midnight' and decided, after all these years, to check it out......

          And now here we sit, mourning the precious 165 minutes of our life we wasted enduring this mind-numbing, unwatchable molasses-paced, dead-on-arrival, worthless-on-every-level turd of a movie. 

          A Guilty Displeasure to live in infamy.

         Keep in mind, we're far from snobs in regard to high-gloss Technicolored soapy wallows. We love luxuriating in grand, Golden Age weepers like Douglas Sirk's "Imitation of Life", "Written On The Wind", "All That Heaven Allows" and "Magnificent Obsession" and also Delmer Daves "A Summer Place", "Spenser's Mountain", "Youngblood Hawke" and "Rome Adventure".

         But 'The Other Side of Midnight' fell into the incompetent hands of Charles Jarrott, an unimaginative British journeyman director whose credits included the catastrophic, laughable musical re-make of 'Lost Horizon'. 

          'Midnight's lengthy storyline certainly doesn't lack for historical sweep, high emotions, passionate sex, wounding betrayals, lush backgrounds and a twisty ironic finale.  Sirk or Daves would've had a delicious romp with this material, pumping up an audience to swoon and gasp.

          But non-entity Jarrott directs the film as if he's half asleep.....or possibly even unconscious. With a complete lack of energy or urgency, his actors plod through their scenes like they're still doing the initial table read while sipping coffee and munching donuts.  From the way the film's cut together, we can only assume the editors were on the same heavy sedatives as Jarrott. 

         To put it mildly any oil painting moves infinitely faster than this film. We were barely an hour into it before we'd lost the will to live. 

         On the eve of the German occupation of France, sweet young Noelle (Marie-France Pisier) falls for charming hunka-hunka American pilot Larry (John Beck). Larry's actually a world-class dick who abandons girls after impregnating them. A heartbroken Noelle gives herself a coat hanger abortion then becomes first a movie star than a trophy wife on the arm of a ruthless Greek tycoon Constantine (Raf Vallone). Meanwhile across the pond, the odious Larry has hooked up with poor, quirky, deer-in-the-headlights Catherine. (Susan Sarandon, trying her level best as she delivers lame pseudo-witty gag lines.)

        Post war, Larry's mostly drunk and unemployable, but revenge-fueled Noelle has Constantine hire him as her personal pilot to further humiliate and destroy him. But with hormones raging, Larry and Noelle fall back into their hot 'n heavy love affair and then conspire to kill off Catherine.....who turns out difficult to bump off. 

        This all sounds like juicy fun, right? Lifestyles of the rich, rotten and infamous.....perfect for ooo-ing and ahh-ing the scenery and watch the leads do the horizontal mambo. 

         Forget it. Not a chance. Not when the movie's constructed like a slow motion funeral and two of the lead actors (France-Pisier and Beck) are about as exciting together as grass growing. 

         As the entire world flocked to 'Star Wars', 'The Other Side of Midnight' played to empty theaters and instantly forgotten.  (As screenwriter William Goldman once remarked about studio executives, "Nobody knows anything").

         And now it's our turn to forget it forever.....as should everyone else. Unfit for all. Zero Stars (0).