Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 30, 2018

Sixteen years ago, Mildred Morrow set out late at night to walk home across a lonely park from the house of the neighbor, Lucille, with whom she’d spent the evening. But she never got there. The next morning she was found dead in the park, her skull stoved in by...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 29, 2018

A couple of months ago I encountered Craig Johnson’s Longmire series in the form of Junkyard Dogs , and was much taken by what I read — enough, anyway, to resolve to read more in the series. The next that came to hand was this one. However, where I’d expected...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 29, 2018

vt Harmonium Japan / 120 minutes / color / Comme des Cinémas, Nagoya Broadcasting Network, MAM, Aeon, Elephant House, Asahi Shimbun, Cinémas du Monde, Mountaingate Dir & Scr: Kôji Fukada Pr: Hiroshi Niimura, Yoshito Ohyama, Masa Sawada, Tsuyoshi Toyama Cine: Ken’ichi Negishi Cast: Mariko Tsutsui   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 28, 2018

A strange little book, more like a longish novelette than even a novella. I’m still undecided as to whether I like it or not. Aged seven, Marina survives the car crash that kills her mom and dad, and, after extensive surgery, is shipped off to an orphanage: “My father died...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 27, 2018

Earlier this year I was blown away by Higashino’s novels Malice and especially Under the Midnight Sun, so I came to Newcomer with high expectations — perhaps unreasonably high expectations. I found the novel to be rather like Yuengling’s lager: very pleasant on the palate but so   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 26, 2018

US / 13 minutes / bw / Warner Bros., Vitaphone Dir: Arthur Hurley Scr: Paul Girard Smith, E.K. Nadel Cine: Ed DuPar Cast: Eric Dressler, Lenita Lane, Weldon Heyburn, Pat O’Brien. A short movie with some protonoirish overtones and, as the title suggests, a great deal of seasonal interest. Eric...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 26, 2018

Golly. Where to begin? I read this novel as #4 in the fairly recently published five-novel omnibus The First Detectives, the opening volume of a hugely ambitious project from Soho Press, reprinting the entirety of Millar’s work in a matching set of six omnibuses and a memoir. (The print&#821   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 25, 2018

Bill DeSmedt, whose near-future technothriller Singularity (2004) I gave a rave review at the infinityplus website when the book was first released — I still think the novel should have had at the least a Hugo nom — has been in touch: Full disclosure. After the review appeared, Bill an   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 24, 2018

UK, US, Sweden / 103 minutes / color / Scott Free, Ingenious, BFI, Altitude, Screen Yorkshire, Chimney, Lipsync, Film i Väst, Warner Bros. Dir & Scr: Christopher Smith Pr: Liza Marshall Cine: Christopher Ross Cast: Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Kit Connor, Ewen Bremner, Warwick Davis, Stephen Graha   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 23, 2018

US / 98 minutes / color / P2 Productions, Aja–Levasseur, Summit Dir: Franck Khalfoun Pr: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur, Patrick Wachsberger, Erik Feig Scr: Franck Khalfoun, Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur Story: Alexandre Aja, Gregory Levasseur Cine: Maxime Alexandre Cast: Wes Bentley, Rachel Ni   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 22, 2018

US / 98 minutes / color with some bw / Pad Thai, Sperry, The Orchard Dir & Pr: Mark Dennis, Ben Foster Scr: Mark Dennis Cine: Mike Simpson Cast: Billy Harvey, Chris Potter, Elle LaMont, Karl Anderson, Jack Lee, Olivia Draguicevich, Daniel Dasent, Phillip Yeager, Gary Chason, Larry Dodson, Jenny   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 22, 2018

The third and last of Millar’s three Paul Prye detective novels and the first of her three Inspector Sands novels, this has an opening chapter of which Ellery Queen in his/their pomp would have been mighty proud . . . of which any GAD novelist would have been proud. In...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 20, 2018

The second of Margaret Millar’s early trio of novels about consulting psychologist and amateur detective Paul Prye, and in my opinion a huge improvement over the first, The Invisible Worm. Gone are Prye’s most irritating characteristics, notably including his propensity for quoting scr   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 19, 2018

US / 89 minutes / color / Papazian-Hirsch, MTE Dir: Alan Metzger Pr: William Beaudine Jr Scr: N.D. Schreiner Cine: Geoff Schaaf Cast: Tom Skerritt, Michael Parks, Nancy Everhard, Lauren Tewes, Bill McKinney, Lonny Chapman, J.C. Quinn, David Crowley, Doug Mears, Gary McGurk, Mary Maldonado, Jack Kehl   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 18, 2018

Chet Gecko, the rumpled PI of Emerson Hicky Elementary, solves a case involving a lost Valentine card and a stolen lottery ticket — the prize in question being a weekly serving of the Malted Falcon, the gooiest, biggest, stickiest dessert ever. With his trusty sidekick Natalie Attired in tow,   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 18, 2018

Margaret Millar’s first published novel — and the opening salvo of her three-novel Paul Prye series — is a traditional mystery of the Agatha Christie/Ngaio Marsh variety, set in what’s to all intents and purposes a country house whose guests form a neatly constrained group o   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 16, 2018

I’ve been pretty lucky with my reading during 2018, taking things overall, so it’s a surprise that, halfway through December, I’ve encountered what may be my book of the year. I’m normally unhappy with genre pigeonholing except as a guiltily deployed shorthand, and all the w   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 15, 2018

US / 75 minutes / bw / Warner Bros. Dir: Peter Godfrey Pr & Scr: Ranald MacDougall Story: Christopher Blake (1946 play) by Moss Hart Cine: Karl Freund Cast: Alexis Smith, Robert Douglas, Cecil Kellaway, Ted Donaldson, John Hoyt, Harry Davenport, Mary Wickes, Art Baker, Lois Maxwell, Peter Godfre   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 12, 2018

Well, it was short. Five men go for a backpacking trek in General Grant National Park, California. A couple of days out, one of them has his head blown off by a double shotgun blast from the bushes. When the rest pluck up the courage to investigate, they find the...   read more

Noirish Posted by John Grant on December 12, 2018

US / 89 minutes / color / Screen Gems Dir: Babak Najafi Pr: Tai Duncan, Mark Anthony Little, Paul Schiff Scr: John Stuart Newman, Christian Swegal, Steven Antin Story: John Stuart Newman, Christian Swegal Cine: Dan Laustsen Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Billy Brown, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Danny Glover, Xan   read more