'THE WIDOW'.....A LOW RENT LEGAL EAGLE LANDS A MURDER TRIAL....HIS OWN....

 The Widow by John Grisham (2025)

     Once again John Grisham proves that nobody knows lawyers, the legal system and the ins and outs of lawyering like he does. And he also knows how to take readers into the deepest weeds of jurisprudence and still somehow hold their attention without leaving them cross-eyed with confusion.

     But in "The Widow" the author's first attempt at a conventional whodunit, I myself would have preferred a little less time plodding through those weeds. The book maintains a measured pace throughout and that's even after the halfway point, when Grisham plunges his lead character into the most serious trouble a lawyer can fall into - a first degree murder charge for killing his client. At that point, I struggled to resist skimming through the pages and pages of unnecessary information to pick up the pace the book should've maintained al along.

     Small town Virginia lawyer Simon Latch isn't much of protagonist to root for, but I suppose it's a tribute to Grisham's storytelling skill that he throws enough woes in Simon's path that you end up in his corner anyway. Simon is barely eking out a living by writing wills and his soured marriage has flatlined. But into his office and life walks lonely 80-ish widow Eleanor Barnett who wants a new will to supersede the one written for her by unscrupulous lawyer Willy Thackerman. And Simon, with his dwindling bank account and massive gambling debts. can scarcely believe his luck......the widow's late unlamented husband left her a stock portfolio worth millions.

     Simon's eyes light up with greed, as he sees himself, swimming in cash as the eventual executor of Eleanor's estate, especially since she's bitterly estranged from her creepy, potentially violent stepsons. But is the widow's backstory about her vast hidden fortune for real or just a symptom of dementia? Just when Simon thinks he's verified the cash is in fact the genuine article, things go seriously south for him......a murder indictment with potentially the rest of his life spent in prison.

     And even with a top notch criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor's case built on flimsy circumstantial evidence, Simon faces a jury and a public fed up and disgusted with lawyers in general. So he'd better find the actual killer in a hurry before the cell doors clang shut on him permanently.

     All the byzantine legal eagle maneuvering, Grisham's forte, is fascinating up to a point until you realize it's slowing down the pace of the story, sometimes to a crawl. And to be blunt, the eventual whodunit reveal doesn't make for much of a stunner either. That didn't bother me all that much though, since Grisham' s great talent comes from his characters working their way out of the messes they've landed in, rather than any "Aha!" surprises.

     What did irk me and left me with a "What? That's it??" Where's the rest of it?!" dissatisfied expression was the book's abrupt final page....which I'm thinking will leave readers to wonder if they got a defective copy of the book that's missing a chapter. For a seasoned, veteran crowd pleasing best selling author, it struck me as a severe misstep and helped knock a star off this review's rating.

     3 stars (***).

'THE MIDNIGHT KNOCK'....WAY OUT WEST....AND THEN, WAY, WAY OUT....

 The Midnight Knock by John Fram (2025)

     I'm torn in multiple directions trying to coherently assess this book. Much of it left me in jaw dropping awe of its intricate structure supernatural myth building and its dazzling high wire juggling of every genre imaginable - murder mystery, violent crime thriller, blood dripping horror and even spectacular fantasy-science fiction.

     And much of it left me exhausted, confused, bored and impatient enough to bring me to the point of giving up on it altogether. Yes, this book came as close to bail out time as I've ever been in years.

     But then came its literally transcendent grand opera finale, filled with carnage, heartbreak, love, sacrifice, a good vs. evil showdown for the ages and even celestial, metaphysical spectacle. All of a sudden that book's incredible finish kept me nailed to the pages the same way it did when it started out........ as a mere pulpy road trip for disparate desperate characters through the lonely wilds of West Texas. .

     So how do I explain a story that's both brilliant and maddening in equal measures?

     I wouldn't know where to begin, except with a bare bones description of its initial set-up. Way out in that arid, forbidding and according to local legend, cursed desert highway, come a bunch of people either on the run or on the hunt. In one way or another, they're all connected to a ruthless criminal kingpin with a long arm when it comes to vengeance and bullet-riddled payback.

     And the forbidden road they're on leads them all to a strange motel sitting in the middle of nowhere,. Nothing about this place seems right starting with the peculiar twin brother and sister who own and manage it. Overlooking the property is an equally bizarre Victorian mansion exuding an aura of overwhelming dread and a looming dark mountain that seems to change shape and size every time you gaze at it.

     It doesn't take long for the motel's new guests to figure out their explosive, murderous confrontations will become the very least of their problems.

     That's about as much as I'd ever attempt to describe before "The Midnight Knock" launches its long tortuous, twisting path through multiple realities, revelations, monstrous visions, more than a few monsters, and that stunning climactic finale designed to leave readers stunned and satisfied.

     It's one crazy goulash of a book that really tested the very limits of my patience for it. If nothing else it shows that author John Fram is a creative force to be reckoned with and as much as I grew weary of whole chunks of this book, I wouldn't dare miss whatever Mr. Fram comes up with next.

     3 stars (***).

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP.....SPECIAL "YOUNG REPUBLICANS UBER ALLES!!" EDITION......

JD Vance dismisses the Young Republicans racist and Nazi posts as "just something stupid that young boys do....".....as millions upon millions of disgusted Americans dismiss anything coming out of JD Vance's mouth as..."just something vile, moronic and evil that a Trump toady does....

Dozens of journalists exit the Pentagon, refusing to sign Pete Hegseth's order to only report news that comes only officially from the Pentagon...news outlets also refused to sign an addendum to the order requiring reporters to wear T-shirts emblazoned with, "God Bless God, Guns 'n Trump"....

After glorifying himself as a peace maker, Trump promptly goes back home to wage his various wars against American cities......the Nobel committee reiterates that sending troops to invade Portland, Chicago and New York will most likely disqualify Trump from next year's peace prize as well......prompting Trump to immediately begin preparing a military invasion of Sweden and Oslo, Norway, where the Peace Prize is awarded....."we'll use the National Guardsmen from Minnesota and Wisconsin....they gotta lot of blond recruits, don't they? Guys who speak Swedish or Norway-ese or whatever the hell they babble in over there....I can promise you they'll grab that Peace Prize for me like it was Miss Universe's pussy...."

Masked (and morbidly obese) ICE goons continue to rampage through American cities, often detaining and brutalizing documented American citizens including roughly handling teens and children.....which prompts White House Dracula Stephen Miller to offer ICE agents a $500 dollar bonus for each slammed-to-the-ground suspect who's age 16 or younger.....and $1000 for each pregnant woman wrested to the pavement....

Trump jokingly admits he doesn't want to know what really goes on in Stephen Miller's mind....to which millions of sane, decent people in America and around the world reply,...."Neither do we...."

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declares the Democratic Party is entirely made up of Hamas supporters, illegal aliens and terrorists.....and warns that Attorney General Pam Bondi will shortly commence an all-out effort to have all Democratic voters rounded up and sent to re-education camps in El Salvador Guantanamo Bay.....("and we might as well throw in any Japanese left over from those wonderful World War 2  internment camps too.....who knows what they might still be up to?"

Trump's descriptions of "war torn" Portland seem disproved by constant photos of quiet streets and costume protests....though at least one anxious resident expressed fear that there may be shortages of  the whipped cream he prefers on his Starbucks latte....

To BQ visitors: Happy "No Kings Day" tomorrow!

To "But I didn't vote for this!" Trump voters: Please remember that your very last chance to reclaim, redeem and save your souls (as well as the United States of America) arrives on November election day of 2026. Don't blow it.

'AND SOON THE DARKNESS'.....OUR FAVORITE BRITISH INGENUE, ON A PERILOUS BIKE TOUR THROUGH FRANCE...

 And Soon The Darkness (1970)

     We probably wouldn't have bothered watching and reviewing this one, a slight little broad daylight suspense thriller assembled by the creative team behind that beloved, long running TV series "The Avengers". 

        Then we'd heard that in some quarters, this film's thought of as an underappreciated cult classic, a nail biter almost worthy of Hitchcock. Okay, you had us at 'Hitchcock'....

        What really caught our eye, (as she always did) was one the film's beautiful, talented young stars, Pamela Franklin, of whom we've been a dedicated fanboy for decades. 

        Franklin plays Jane, one of two young nurses spending their vacation bicycling through the fields and forests of the French countryside. 

         Stopping to rest during their long trek through  the endless wide open scenery, Jane squabbles with her companion Cathy (Michele Dotrice) who'd prefer to nap. So Jane leaves Cathy to sunbathe and doze on her own while she pedals off in search of any kind of small town.

         Uh ohhhh.......

          To no surprise to anyone who's seen enough thrillers, Cathy encounters some unseen someone in the woods (and left to a fate unseen as well...) When Jane returns to the glade where she left her friend, Cathy's nowhere to be found. 

           Jane's search for Cathy puts her into contact with a variety of  potential suspects including a young Frenchman (Sandor Eles) who may or my not have been stalking the girls. Also in the mix -  vaguely hostile shopkeepers, a mysterious retired schoolmistress and the local gendarme who assures Jane he'll get to the bottom of things.

           Oh, and did we forget to mention that there's  been an unsolved rape and murder in the same general area? Hmmm.........the plot sickens....

           Our gal Pam is luminous and gorgeous as usual, and the film maintains a nicely rendered atmosphere of suspicion and dread. We enjoyed the skilled use of the scenic, but dangerously remote setting to turn up the anxiety a few notches. And writers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation and director Robert Fuest (the "Doctor Philbes" films) know exactly when to pop the twists and deliver a satisfying showdown with....(well, we dare not say.)

      Modest and quiet, "And Soon The Darkness" seemed intentionally designed to fly under everybody's radar and end up forgotten. But for anyone who seeks out a solid little mystery for a rainy afternoon, this one's worth checking out.

     3 stars (***)......and incredibly, 40 years later in 2010, the film was remade with Amber Heard and Odette Annabelle as the traveling girls. BQ promises to quickly view that one to post a comparison.....stay tuned!)

  

'MACABRE'....WILLIAM CASTLE KICKS OFF HIS CARNIVAL SIDESHOW OF HORRORS.......

 Macabre (1958)

       Throughout the 1940's and 50's, William Castle toiled on and on as a journeyman Grade C director.  He tirelessly cranked out dozens of rock-bottom, poverty budgeted little movies meant to serve as the bottom half of double features. 

       A carnival barker at heart, Castle took note of the overwhelming international (and American) success of the French suspense shocker 'Diabolique'. And he sensed that U.S. mainstream audiences had an appetite for jump scares and plot twists.....so why not give them their very own made-in-the-USA horrors?

       So began Castle's new career as a kind of low-rent, bargain basement Hitchcock, pumping out wildly lurid, painfully cheap overhyped thrillers......and always accompanied by some outrageous, cheesy showbiz gimmick to fill up the theater seats. 

        Compared to later, crazier Castle shlockers ("House on Haunted Hill", "The Tingler", "13 Ghosts", "Homicidal"), 'Macabre' is a mild, ticky-tacky little melodrama with scarcely a scare in sight.....but still oddly watchable.

        And how could anyone resist a movie that guarantees you a Lloyds of London 1 million dollar life insurance policy if you die of fright while  watching it?

        Breaking news: the only deaths involved were to the reputations of the actors who worked on the film.

        A small town doctor Rodney Barrett (William Prince) marries into a wealthy family with two heirs to the patriarch's fortune, the doc's wife Alice (Dorothy Morris) and her blind younger sister Nancy (Christine White).

       Both sisters somehow die tragically...Alice in childbirth and Nancy from a possible abortion).  Their deaths put Dr. Barrett in the cross hairs of his mortal enemy, town sheriff Tyloe (Jim Backus). The sheriff had unsuccessfully courted both sisters in the past and now holds Barrett responsible for their deaths. 

        And now Barrett's got even bigger problems.  Someone's kidnapped his toddler daughter Marge and buried the child alive somewhere in the small town.....but where? Barrett's desperate hunt, aided by the loyal nurse pining for him (Jacqueline Scott) leads to the town's fog-shrouded cemetery, a rickety studio set that appears left over from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

         The blatant overacting and cheeseball theatrics provide a small measure of guilty pleasure fun......but the film, overwrought and dumb-as-a-rock, begins to feel like a waste of time ten minutes after you've started watching it. And we can safely promise you that Lloyds of London will NOT have to cough up a million bucks to cove  your demise. 

          Yes, there's a twist, if you can stay awake for it. But by all means, don't miss the bizarre, cartoony credit crawl at the end,  which points out that the bulk of the supporting cast ends up dead at the climax, as if Castle was spoofing a Shakespearean tragedy. 

      Hmmm.....maybe Producer-director Castle should have chose 'Titus Andronicus' as his next film instated of "House on Haunted Hill". (He could still use the skeleton on a wire, flying across the theater....)

       As for 'Macabre', strictly for Castle completists only.....1 & 1/2 stars. (*1/2).

       

      

 

'THE GRACEVIEW PATIENT'.....A HOSPITAL STAY TURNS HORRIFIC.....(SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?)

 The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling (2025) 

     When this book finally unveils the ooey-gooey body horrors that it's been hinting at all along, it's a true nightmare inducing funhouse of blood, corrupted flesh and a variety of oozing fluids dripping in all directions.

     But getting there is not the half the fun. It's kind a tedious slog, and as we suffer through the lead character's endless, agonizing hospital stay, it's a toss up as to who's enduring the most pain.....her or us.

     Afflicted with a rare autoimmune deficiency, Margaret agrees to a fully covered experimental treatment that might cure her....or maybe do something not discussed in the pamphlets. . This involves a lengthy hospital stay with beyond agonizing doses of medication that will destroy her immune system and then hopefully rebuilt it to full strength.

     Well, that's the theory, anyway......feel to break into an evil smile and cackle.

     What follows for Meg, as we knew it would, is a Kafka-esque plunge into perpetual medical torture, with the added fear that something's not quite right about this hospital......something sinister and terrible that's just out of sight but most assuredly there.....or is it?

     The book whips up a palpable, suffocating atmosphere of dread, but then lets it drag on and on and on.......it goes from scaring us silly to just wearing us out, praying for either a sedative or a gory wind-up that finally lets us see what Meg's dealing with.

     Yes, 'The Graceview Patient' does, at long last, let fly with a doozy of a finish designed to leave a reader with enough bad dreams to last till the end of next year. But the time it takes to get there feels like waiting in an emergency room with 300 patients and only one intern who just graduated medical school yesterday.......

     I'm guessing horror fans won't be able to resist checking into Graceview Hospital in the hopes that it's like the Bates Motel with I.V. drips and bedpans. In its final pages, we must say, it does not disappoint. Author Caitlin Starling delivers the shivers well enough.........if you're willing to wait for them.

       3 stars (***).

'BOOM TOWN'.....3 WOMEN FROM A STRIP CLUB TAKE ON THEIR CREEPIEST CUSTOMER...

  Boom Town by Nic Stone (2025)

     I was fully prepared to immerse myself in this book, but felt disappointed that its structural confusions often diluted its strength to keep me glued to the pages the way it should have.

     For a twisty thriller, it does masterfully present a fascinating group of three female characters as well as an equally striking setting for them. The issues raised are powerful and universal.......the struggles for women of color to attain empowerment, independence and equality of treatment in a racially divisive society.

     Lyriq, Lucky and Charm earn their living at a thriving Atlanta night spot, Boom Town,.......a so called 'gentlemen's club' featuring an array of exotic pole dancers and private VIP rooms for patrons who can afford command performances from the girls.

     In simpler words, a classy strip joint. But among the men it attracts, there's an especially entitled and maybe deadly predator.

     As the manager-supervisor of her dancers, Lyric faces a sea of troubles.....coping with surviving breast cancer, the dropping out of sight of her former friend and lover Lucky, and the threat from her enraged boss to retrieve a vast amount of cash stolen from the club's office.....or else. On top of all that, fledgling dancer Charm has suddenly disappeared.

     In the midst of all the mystery, all three women have crossed paths with the vile, creepy Thomas McIntyre, a regular patron who particularly fixated and obsessed over Lucky and Charm. When Tom drops his mask of the affable, caring and well paying customer, it's clear he's capable of anything, including rape and just possibly murder.

     Lyriq's search for her missing dancers reveals an endless tangle of toxic relationships between the Boom Town girls, Tom and his beautiful wife LeBrettany. Twists abound and it's a question as to who among these major characters are coming out of this story alive.

     I ended up not liking this book anywhere near as much as I thought I would One major detriment - the author constantly alternating her character's names between their stage names, real names, or nicknames, depending on which chapter you're reading. And with the constant shifting of points of view, timelines and trying to remember which character is what name, , the book quickly turned into a chore to read.

     While I appreciated author NIc Stone's vivid, cut-to-the-bone prose and her remarkable cast of characters, the book's construction was so messy, it felt like the storytelling couldn't get out of its own way. But much to admire and savor for readers who can muster up the patience for it.....which is why I'll round up my 2 & 1/2 stars to a 3. (***).