Book Review - Kill Me Twice by Jerry Bayne

Kill Me Twice by Jerry Bayne is a fast-paced tale of political intrigue. Bayne weaves a tale about Brad Cardiff, a top CIA field operative faced with a life altering event and and what he will do to make things right. What would you do if every thing you loved, lived for, were suddenly taken from you? How would you handle it, if the boss you took orders from and the government you served betrayed you? What if the revenge you sought was against highly public and powerful adversaries? These are the questions Cardiff must ask himself.

What do you do when the killer you are sworn to catch, turns out to be someone you don't think is the real bad guy? That is the question Boston Police Sergeant, Mike Sams, will find himself asking.

Bayne has written a cloak and dagger full of well developed characters, intense action, political intrigue and raw emotions. He's thrown the Chicago Mafia and Colombian drug lords into the mix. Often when an author throws in too many over the top characters and scenarios, he loses the reader. That is not the case with this thriller. Bayne has blended these different characters and their backgrounds seamlessly.  He keeps you moving and never lets up on the tension and yet never loses you  with too many twist and turns. This is one book I would love to tell you so much more about, but that would give away the story and the outcomes.  I give this 4 out of 5 mafia hit men.

Since it is on the back cover of his book, I will include this exert for you:

"He hovered over the Senator for just a second; then'with surgical precision, placed an ice pick at the base of Franklin's head, then pushed it through his cerebellum. The body twitched once; death was instantaneous. Showing no emotion, Cardiff sat in a winged back chair and looked at his handy work. He had three or so hours to relax before snaking his way back into his coiled acge. He closed his eyes, not to sleep, but to breathe in the smell of death oozing from Franklin's inebriated corpse. The sensation fired up the smoldering embers of his memories of why he was there."

*This book was provided by the author.

Book Review - A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava

A Perfect Evil by Alex Kava takes us to the small town of Platte City, Nebraska. Let's join FBI profiler, Maggie O'Dell as she hunts a killer terrorizing this close-knit community. Little boys are being kidnapped and murdered even after the serial killer who was convicted for the crimes is put to death. The secret he took to his grave was that he was only a copycat and the real serial killer is still out there. Small town Sheriff, Nick Morrelli, is in over his head and calls the FBI for help. That's where Maggie joins the story and the nail biting ensues. As Maggie puts her profile together with few leads to go on, Nick discovers his sister,a reporter, is leaking details of the case and trying to make a name for herself. Actions she will regret when her son becomes the next boy kidnapped. With time running our, Maggie will begin to zero in on an unlikely suspect with ties to a local church. Is she targeting the right person or is the killer someone no one would suspect? Will they find the boy in time to save him or will they be attending yet another funeral?

Kava weaves an excellent tale of intrigue that will leave your nails chewed down to the quick. Her details can be a bit gory and unsettling but add a sense of realism to the story. She gives the reader a feeling of following real events and not just a fictitious tale. Kava does a masterful job of balancing the family issues of the characters, as well as building tension in the small town. Maggie O'Dell is a character in many of her novels and having purchased them all, I can't wait to see where her next case takes her. Given I have already purchased her other works, it should be no surprise, A Perfect Evil gets five out of five crosses.

Many authors have great websites and Kava is no exception. One of the things I love about hers is the fact that she takes you behind the story. A Perfect Evil was inspired by real life events in 1983. It is always refreshing when an author shares the story behind a particular book,in this case, A Perfect Evil. She also gives us insight on who is Maggie O'Dell? You can even read the prologue.

For those of you who are already fans or soon to be fans,you can request a signed bookplate by sending an email to fans@alexkava.com

DVD- While She Was Out

*Spoiler Alert*
This is more of public service announcement than a review. This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen. Literally, and that's saying something since I've seen thousands of films and worked on numerous very low-budget, so bad it went straight to Europe and never came back films. Even those were better than this film. Admittedly, I have a low tolerance for characters that behave beyond stupidly. Prior to watching this, my pick for the worst movie would have been, The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler. That movie was based on a true story, and being a former film maker I know that "creative license", as we call it in the industry, often distorts the story. However, the characters in The Strangers are just stupid. If they had even a fraction of an ounce of common sense then they would never have been killed. Seriously! I could have survived in that movie, because I have common sense, at least most of the time.

That being said, after watching While She Was Out, starring Kim Basinger, it is truly the worst film ever made. The write-up on the box tells you it's about a young woman, who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses a murder then fights for her life as the murderer comes after her. To save anyone the misfortune of ever subjecting themselves to this ghastly film, I will summarize for you. The movie starts out with an angry man, who is obviously having a bad day. He comes home to an unclean house filled with clutter, and after tripping over things yells at his wife (Kim Basinger) about the mess, since she is home all day doing nothing. We first see Kim's character as this mousy, frail woman who cringes and appears afraid of her aggressive husband. She whines responses to him and then takes trays up to their children before leaving to go shopping. As she is driving down the road, she decides to talk on her cell phone and look at the floor while driving. She freaks out when she almost hits another car stopped in front of her and then proceeds to do the same things again!!!! Luckily the phone dies. We discover it is Christmas time as she enters a mall parking lot. She is one of those who must have a close parking space and goes around in circles getting frustrated when she can't find one. IT'S A MALL AT CHRISTMAS! So what does our brilliant housewife do, she stops, rolls down the window and motions for the mall security to come over, at which time she asks him, "where can I park?" Rolling his eyes he tells her there are spaces at the end of the lot. She proceeds to go and park there. On her walk to the mall she writes a note,saying "shame on you" and leaves it on the windshield of a dilapidated car taking up two spaces. Once in the mall she wanders around aimlessly and then finally purchases (what seems like an afterthought) a few rolls of wrapping paper with all the money she has. She then walks back through the now almost deserted parking lot, noticing that the dilapidated car no longer has a note on it. She continues to her SUV which is parked at a median (grassy divider separating the parking lot from the road, approximately 6" higher than the parking lot- note any car could go over this) She gets in her vehicle and the dilapidated car pulls up to her rear bumper, in theory blocking her in (did I mention she is driving an SUV and the only thing in front of her is a 6" curb). Several teenage hoodlums get out of the car, yelling at her. Our brilliant lady gets out of her car and says "you have me blocked in" Really? Seriously? Who would do that? They know they have her blocked in, duh. Okay anyways, they surround her and start pushing her around and trying to scare her until the mall security guard walks up and ask if there is a problem. At this point one of the teenage hoodlums takes out a gun and shoots him in the head. After what seems like an eternity of her screaming, she gets in her SUV jumps the curb and takes off. Did I mention she was at a mall, in a city.... meaning lots of streets, buildings, etc? Does she try to elude them by turning up and down various streets? No, she gets on a straight, lonely deserted road (there aren't even curves on this road) and she is shocked when they catch up to her. She then pulls into a deserted construction site and impales her SUV on pipes sticking out of the back of a truck. She then gets out and hearing them right behind her, goes to the back of the SUV and pulls out a little red toolbox. She takes out a wrench and tries to wedge her hand under the hood (that won't raise more than a few inches because of the pipes) to restart the engine, as they are coming to get her. We then get 45 minutes of her being chased around first at the deserted site and then in the woods. She is so clever, that when they are arguing amongst themselves and not following her, she huddles close by and doesn't make a sound then as soon as they get quiet to look for her, she starts to runs around, bumping into things, making noise. Gee why do they keep finding her? Duh!!! There are four of them, they accidentally kill one and she manages to kill two more. Then when there is just the one guy left, she decides, in the woods, to go up to him and try to have sex with him!!! What? Exactly what I yelled at the TV. After making out with him she does get the gun and shoot him. Cut to her back at the pinned SUV which she manages to start and back away from the truck & poles (yeah, that's believable) and she drives to the entrance of her neighborhood and abandons the SUV to walk down the street to her house with her rolls of gift wrap. Once inside, her husband calls out over his shoulder, did she buy him anything. She walks up to him says no and shoots him. Then the credits roll. Yes it took them two hours to get to that point. I still can't believe I watched the whole thing, but I kept hoping it would get better or she would get killed by her stupidity. Alas it was just a waste. So if you like suspense movies and you see it at the video store and think "that might be interesting", just walk away.

The Gray Man

This weekend I watched a DVD called The Gray Man. The Gray Man is the story of a real life "Hannible Lector" type character from the late 1920's. The story revolves around the kidnapping and murder of a little girl, Grace Budd, by Albert Fish in 1928. It is a gruesome subject but the film was so artfully made that it leaves you with chills, mainly because it is based on the true of these characters and the director lets you fill in many of the blanks for yourself. Albert Fish was a sick and narcisistic man who murdered and ate many children after his wife left him. He had five children of his own. They were all grown when he began his spree of terror and where in denial about his behavior, which did hint at what he was capable of. Although I am sure there are many who will not like the film because it is not graphic enough, and lets face it, modern society is jaded that way. I hestitate to classify this as a horror although the subject matter is definitely horrific. The film makers do a brilliant job of showing you what life was like then. As a former costume designer I can usually spot continuity flaws instantly, and I have to say this is one of the better made films I have seen recently. There are no big name actors, although you will recognize many of the faces. The gore and the acts of violence against the children you never see, instead the director has our vilian call the child upstairs and later you see him eating, so you know what has happened. As I pointed out in my last post, I think this style is so much more effective in horrifying us, the viewer, because we are left to imagine what has happened, what he has done. Towards the end of the movie, Albert writes a letter to the family giving terrible details of what he did with their daughter and it is this letter that allowed the police to finally catch him. Even in that, as the girls older brother reads the letter, we are not given everything it says, but just a taste. Of the other characters in the movie, we get a glimpse of how tough life was on some in the late 20's. And I found that glimpse interesting as we face our own economic depression today.

I also found interesting, that in his trial, Albert Fish, was one of the first to try to use the "insanity" defence, and while yes some could argue one must be insane to do what he did. I like the fact that the jury didn't let him have that "excuse" and saw him for what he was "pure evil". We are given hints throughout the film that it was way he was raised in an extremely religious orphanage that is the cause of his psychosis. I believe there is pure evil in the world. I also believe that more often than not people try to make excuses for their reprehensible behaviors instead of acknowledging them. While I applaud the way the film was made, the irony that our modern society is one based on excuses shows itself in how the film makers made the movie. In many scenes, we see the flash of the ghost of the boy he once was as he punishes himself for his wickedness. Had this film been made 40-50 yrs ago, would we have gotten those glimpses?

How often do we read and hear in the news today, how some killer, child molester, abuser, etc isn't resonsible for their actions because they had a rough upbringing, or their parents didn't love the enough, or their parents loved them to much? When do we stop making excuses for our actions and allowing others to make excuses for theirs?

Modern Horror vs Old School Horror Movies

I grew up watching cheesy horror movies. I still love them today, however I avoid most modern ones. Horror film-makers of today think that for a movie to be scary they must give us an abundance of sex and gore and very little plot. Although, most of the older movies aren't scary either they at least try to engage your brain or at least entertain you with their campiness. Maybe it's my age, but I really don't need to see a bunch of naked bimbos running around screaming and getting slashed or impaled, mostly by their own stupidity. I also don't need to see bucket loads of fake blood, mucus, bile, internal organs, etc. The human imagination is a wonderful thing. Sadly we live in a world where most of us can fill in the gory and sexual details without having to have it thrown in our face for ninety minutes straight on the screen. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude. I have no problem with nudity and if it enhances the story or has a purpose by all means have it in the movie, but the majority of nudity used in film today is extraneaous. At one time it was used as shock factor as was all the gore, but today's society sees so much of it on a regular basis that the majority is numb to it. There is nothing creepy about seeing yet another ax (fill in with your weapon of choice) wielding inbred psycho hacking a nubile coed to pieces while mumblng and drooling. Why? Because it has been done a thousand times, we've seen it in countless movies made by people who lack the imagination to come up with something more original. Of course all they care about is how many tickets and DVD's they can sell and sadly the youth of today loves it.

I think the original Friday The 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street started these trends. And they are classic horror movies. What the film makers of today fail to realize when they imitate these movies is that when those came out they were shocking, they did grab our attention and they did scare us. And yes there was some nudity and there was some gore but those movies centered around the plot not the other way around. Then you have your other great classics like Rosemary's Baby, Omen, The Excorcist. I can watch any of those today and not be fazed (which is sad), but when they came out they scared nations of people. Of course some of my favorite horror movies are the ones that never scared anyone even back then but they had great stories and the campy acting made them classics. Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Boris Karlof, Christoher Lee.... those names among others will live on forever, do any of us really remember the names of these modern actors in horror movies? We don't, because like the movies they star in they are forgettable.