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Quite Ugly One Evening - Chris Brookmyre

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Jack Parlabane, as anyone who has previously come across Chris Brookmyre’s most loved character (and something of an alter-ego, I suspect), has always been something of a cynic. Which is why we love him. First introduced in 1996 in Quite Ugly One Morning , Parlabane has aged along with the sporadic publication of the series and now, 30 years after being introduced to him, you'll find that happily he hasn't mellowed with age. Well, not that much anyway. He's just become an old embittered cynical journalist unable to fathom the latest trends of the modern age of social media influencers, to say nothing of his thoughts about how a certain US president has shown just how much further into the depths politics has sunk than he could ever have imagined even back in those heady post-Thatcherite years. That said, while the world is in a sad state now, Parlabane is not one to look back fondly on (relatively) more innocent times, but a combination of occurrences, including going it al...
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Red Threads - Rex Stout

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Originally published in 1939, Red Threads is a solo adventure (the only one, as far as I know) for Inspector Cramer, a police detective who features more in a supporting role in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. It's an unusual crime thriller that very much has a distinctive character and some originality - somewhat like Nero Wolfe's Montenegro-born outsider perspective on the country - in its exploration of various aspects of American history, character and society. The mystery Cramer investigates - like Wolfe not quite from the front seat - takes in American history, high society, business interests and indeed native American culture and customs, all held together with a red thread. First of all of course there is a murder. Val Carew, a wealthy socialite who made his money gambling and then took the same risks on the stock market, has been killed at the tomb of his late native American Indian wife. It's no ordinary tomb, but one specially constructed to bathe her preser...
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What? - Roman Polanski

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What? is a curious novelisation of by Roman Polanski's 1972 film What? , but then What? is a curious film. Preceding Chinatown , it was poorly received on its release and for years remained largely forgotten. Its reputation hasn't been enhanced over the years, not least because of the accusations and charges laid against the filmmaker arising from this period that is not helped by the dubious taste of some of this film's content and subject matter. That said, What? is not as bad as its reputation suggests, but I suppose that's a matter of taste and opinion. Some might think it hasn't aged well, but I think it falls in well enough with the free-form self-analytical style of European filmmaking exemplified in Fellini's films from this period ( Juliet of the Spirits , Roma ). If it's a self-reflection of the filmmaker's own personal obsessions - although there is no reason we are led to believe it is - it's hard not to see more than a whiff of misogy...
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Artificial Truth - J.M. Lee

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Where AI is going to take us in the future is unimaginable and there is probably not much we can do to restrain what is coming, but that's no reason for not exploring what we would like to see happen or indeed consider and fear the direction in which it already appears to be heading. Of course the greatest concern is that self-evolving smarter intelligences will make humanity redundant or even bring about the end of humanity, but there are many paths that lead in that direction. The interesting view that Korean author J.M.Lee's Artificial Truth takes towards AI is that human existence through AI after death isn't necessarily a bad thing, or doesn't it have to be. Unfortunately, an Artificial Intelligence might have different views about that. Although the novel starts by telling us that KC Kim is dead. One of the great minds investigating AI, known indeed as the father of AI, we can very quickly assume - not least since he is telling us part of the story - that KC is s...
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Chien 51 - Laurent Gaudé

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Chien 51 is a science-fiction novel set in what appears to be a near-future reality or an alternative reality. There are more than a few elements that have echoes with the present day, or extensions on them that don't feel too far away from where we are now. In an unspecified year, the world is run by global corporations, and at the start of the novel we learn that Greece has collapsed economically and been bought over by a corporation called GoldTex. (Interestingly, in an uncanny echo with the uncertainties currently in the real world we find that Venezuela has also been similarly 'purchased' with somewhat less disturbance than the protests and street riots that occurred with the collapse of Greece). The huge corporations are too powerful however and any insurrection is quickly put down. The fall of Greece was 20 years ago now, and the population of the country put to good use working for GoldTex, those with good qualifications sent to work in Magnapole as ' cilariés ...
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Brûlez tout - Christophe Molmy

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Most French policiers and indeed most English language crime fiction novels feature police or detectives pitted against criminals and killers, but we know that the police have to deal with far more than that in their line of work, and the nature of crime in the modern world is changing rapidly. In Paris alone there have been many serious real world challenges faced by the PJ ( Police Judiciaire ) and emergency services in recent years from terrorist attacks but all of that is just pointing to a larger scale issue that is approached in Christophe Molmy's Brûlez tout ("Burn Everything"), a novel which has been awarded the 2026 Prix du Quai des Orfèvres. The success and the significant mark that Brûlez tout makes is in how it turns its attention not just to rather more contemporary issues, but how it looks behind the front page headlines and considers some of the underlying issues that have the potential - the extreme likelihood rather - of occurring again in the future. ...
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Giobbe Tuama & C. - Augusto De Angelis

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Promising great variety and an exploration of all sides of crime and Italian society, Augusto De Angelis' third Commissario De Vincenzi thriller, written in 1936, has different challenges for the commissioner and as such takes on a different tone from Il banchiere assassinato and Sei donne e un libro . It's in a different social milieu and, as such, he has to adapt his usual investigatory approach. De Vincenzi still prefers the psychological examination of witnesses and suspects, but rather than coming to the scene and attempting to track back to find a killer, he is very much involved in an ongoing investigation. At first however it's a case of arriving at a crime scene and getting a sense of the environment he is working in. It's at a book fair which, as an avid reader, is not unknown to him, but the victim of strangulation found in one of the booths has an unusual background. Giobbe Tuama is of American Irish background (Giobbe is the Italian for 'Job' in th...
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