Showing 11 - 20 of 45
Far-fetched plot
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 02/12/2016
» Three decades ago a Baltimore, Maryland, insurance man Tom Clancy entered the literary world with The Hunt For Red October. Acclaimed critically and popularly, he never looked back. Never in the military, his interest and research in the weapons of war elevated him to the rank of military analyst.
Too complex by half
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/07/2016
» I find ever increasing complexity in the novels I review. In crime thrillers, in particular, mere twists and turns no longer suffice. Authors have taken to throwing in conspiracies, perpetrators in high places, deep-seated prejudice, psychopaths and national security.
The root of all evil
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 29/02/2016
» There are three kinds of people; (1) those who are told not to step on the third rail because it will electrocute them, and don't; (2) those who read the warning sign, and don't; (3) those who only believe what they experience themselves, and do.
Courtroom thrills
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/01/2016
» When I was a youngster, my father gave me a choice of careers: "Be a doctor or a lawyer. They help people and make good money, not necessarily in that order." He was stunned and disappointed when I replied that neither interested me. I wanted to teach history.
Way too much
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/01/2016
» Born and bred in the Big Apple, I was raised believing -- it was in my mother's milk -- that New York is the centre of the universe. It has Times Square and Central Park, Broadway and Wall Street, the United Nations and the Empire State Building, Coney Island and two rivers, Greenwich Village and Nathan's hot dogs.
Crime and culture
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/01/2016
» As a New Yorker, my friends and neighbours sent me off to Asia, via Japan, to do my duty in the Korean "Police action". The continent got into my blood and I resolved to head back after receiving my honourable discharge from the military, which I did as a backpacker six years later.
Serial Killer
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/12/2015
» If crime novelists are to be believed, the world is filled with serial killers -- five victims qualifying them for the role. Tyrants Hitler and Stalin, with tens of millions victims to their discredit, are overqualified. They were butchers. No accepted term in-between.
Incomplete walk
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/11/2015
» Being a freethinker, I allow that God created the cosmos and everything in it. If He (She, It) didn't do it, who did? On planet Earth, nature. Alas, people in cities equate the weather with nature. A few trees. A zoo if they are lucky to have one. Movies and books tell of it in distant places.
Guilty or innocent?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 28/09/2015
» Chicago's Gillian Flynn is the literary flavour of the decade. This reviewer didn't read Gone Girl, the novel that made her famous, but I saw the screen adaptation and was impressed by the story's twists and turns. A wife disappearing, but in fact having "kidnapped" herself. The plot required a sizeable suspension of disbelief, yet cleverly done.
Show me the motive
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 24/08/2015
» Motives for acts of violence range from crimes of passion to drive-by shootings -- that is from defending family honour to reducing the food chain indiscriminately. They aren't justifiable under law and are equally penalised. There are a myriad of motives, often the perpetrator unable to explain what made him or her do it ("maybe I drank too much").