September-December 1974; Thursday at 10-11pm. ABC / Warner Brothers. Cast: David Janssen as Harry Orwell, Henry Darrow as Lieutenant Manuel “Manny” Quinlan. Recurring Cast: Tom Atkins as Sgt Frank Cole, Mel Stewart as Roy Bardello. Created by Howard Rodman. Executive Producer: Jerry Thorpe. Producer: Richard E. Thompson. Associate Producer: Rita Dillon. Executive Story Consultant: Robert Dozier. Theme by Billy Goldenberg.

   While the two pilots Such Dust Dreams Are Made On and Smile Jenny, You’re Dead were set in Los Angeles, the first thirteen episodes of Harry O were set and filmed in San Diego. ABC was last in the ratings and decided to try a “non-L.A. look” with some of their new shows. Seattle and Hawaii were considered, but San Diego was finally chosen (Television Chronicles #10. Thanks to Randy Cox for sending me Ed Robertson’s wonderful article.)

   When we last left Harry O, we had seen the series first episode, “Gertrude” and had visions of Rockford Files dancing in our head. Those visions disappeared with the next episode “Admiral’s Lady” as Harry O quickly returned to the dark depressing dramas found in the pilots.

   Where “Gertrude” was a mystery with eccentric characters and humor, what followed in the next several episodes were stories focused on damaged people with troubled souls.

   The mystery mattered less than its effects on the characters. Harry’s narration was used for his introspective thoughts rather than exposition of the plot. Humor was as rare as hope in these early episodes, while it would slowly resurface over time it did not returned to the levels of the episode “Gertrude.”

   The drama was strong and thought provoking, and there were no happy endings, only people left trying to recover and make it through the day.

   In the series second episode “Admiral’s Lady,” a much-honored Admiral, (Leif Erikson) refuses to believe his missing young wife (Sharon Acker) is dead and hires Harry to find her. Harry discovers a killer may be looking for her as well. This is more than just another episode about a serial killer on the loose. It is a story about the pain caused by love and betrayal.

   Next, “Guardian At The Gates” features brilliant architect Paul Sawyer (Barry Sullivan) who is a monster as a human being. Harry is hired to find out who wants him dead. During the case Harry falls for Sawyer’s emotionally abused daughter, Marian (Linda Evans). The story is less a mystery than an examination of a genius without humanity, the price of such genius and the suffering it causes others around him.

   â€œMortal Sin” is about two men’s loss of faith, one a priest and the other a killer. Father Paul Vecchio (Laurence Luckinbill) and Harry are friends and have discussed the priest’s growing doubts. So when a man confesses that he has killed and will kill again, Father Paul turns to Harry, but then refuses to break the rules of the confessional. It is up to Harry to find the killer, and the priest to find his place in the church.

   â€œCoinage of the Realm” offers a rare appearance by Harry’s car. The car repeatedly breaks down and is used as comic relief from the darkness of the story of a dying child (Dawn Lyn) who needs her father, Don (Kenneth Mars) to donate his kidney to save her life. The problem is he is on the run from the mob and has disappeared. Two gay hitmen (David Dukes and Granville Van Dusen) are hoping Harry will lead them to Don.

   In “Eyewitness,” the nurse (Rosalind Cash), who had helped Harry recover from the shooting that left a bullet in his back, needs his help. Her son has been arrested for murder. Harry returns to a primarily African-American neighborhood where he had once worked as a cop. Not much had changed with old friends still just trying to survive the day. One of those friends is now drug free hooker (Margaret Avery) trying to raise her blind teenaged brother who may be the only witness to the killing. This has a typical Harry O ending, the bad guy is stopped but the victims are left with little hope of life getting better.

   In “Shadows At Noon,” Harry comes home to find a woman named Marilyn (Diana Ewing) hiding in his small beach house. She has escaped from a mental hospital but claims to be as sane as he is. Mystery plays a minor role in this psychological drama about what is sanity. Harry poses as a patient in the mental hospital to find out if the girl is telling the truth. When he is betrayed and trapped there, Harry fights to keep his own sanity. The bad guys are caught in almost a dramatic afterthought as the story focused on the terrible cost to the girl and to Harry.

   In “Ballinger’s Choice,” Margaret (Juliet Mills) hires Harry to find Paul, her cheating husband (Paul Burke). Harry shifts through all the lies from everyone and uncovers a disturbing twist and then murder. The mystery plays a more typical role in the plot of this morality play.

   â€œSecond Sight” has another damaged broken person enter Harry’s life. After an automobile accident turned Fay Conners (Stefanie Powers) into a blind psychic, she wrote three mysteries where the details of the crimes would later come true. She had warned a Doctor he was going to be killed. The doctor turned to Harry to be his bodyguard and Harry said no. When the doctor is killed, Harry feels guilty and tries to find who killed the Doctor and why. This is Harry O, so “why” is more important than “who.” Harry’s humor is beginning to surface again.

   â€œMaterial Witness” begins when Dr. Noelle Kira (Barbara Anderson) sees mobster Joe Kiley kill a man. But witnesses against Kiley have a habit of dying or refusing to testify. Captain Jaklin (James Olson) is convinced someone in the department is tipping off Kiley about where the witnesses are being kept. He asks Harry to be the Doctor’s bodyguard for 24 hours until he can get men he trusts in place. The series is beginning to shift to more typical TV crime stories. This episode has some interesting twists and a more typical TV PI show ending.

   â€œForty Reasons To Kill – Part One” begins with a friend of Harry and a Harvard graduate lawyer turn Hippie, George found dead with cocaine on his body. The cops think it is a drug deal gone wrong. Harry’s search for the truth takes him to small Vardero County where he meets rich spoiled Glenna (Joanna Pettet) who becomes his lover. She had sold George 40,000 acres of land. It was a tiny piece of what she owns but it upset her over protective “uncles” (Broderick Crawford and Craig Stevens) who control the land trust and source of Glenna’s wealth. Harry is beaten up, bribed, and then framed for the murder.

   â€œForty Reasons To Kill – Part Two” has Manny arriving to help Harry. The audience knows something Harry doesn’t, who is behind it all. Glenna pays his bail and Harry is out and quickly learns what is behind the plot and murder. Now Harry has to stay alive long enough to prove it. The episode suffers from too much padding for a story that would have worked better as a single episode.

   â€œAccount Balanced” was the last episode shot in San Diego. An ex-girl friend (Linda Marsh) comes to Harry to find out if her husband (Robert Reed) is cheating. Harry is unhappy when he discovers the husband with another woman. But when that woman is found dead the next day of an apparent suicide, Harry realizes the husband’s secrets may be even more serious. It also featured some funny character byplay between Harry, Manny, and Manny’s less than bright assistant Sgt Cole (likably played by Tom Atkins).

   Harry Orwell is a romantic seeking true justice with all wrongs corrected and the guilty punished. The resulting disappointments caused by reality has left Harry a weary grumpy man with a sardonic sense of humor.

   He is honest and blunt to the point of rudeness. Harry is introspective and private, content to be alone with his thoughts. Harry admits that he hates to talk about himself or his past. Once a client caught him alone singing and playing his banjo and he reacted shyly as if she had discover a hidden secret of his.

   He has little interest in material things or wealth. He may have wine but no wine glasses when paper cups will do. He dislikes mystery fiction and guns, and enjoys fishing and running on the beach alone. Little is known about his past beyond an ex-wife and that he was a Lieutenant on the San Diego Police force and has some experience in the homicide department.

   Harry’s primary motivation to get involved is not money but a sense of responsibility, duty, and/or guilt. In “Material Witness,” when the Captain asks him to protect the witness, Harry asked if this was a paying job or a favor to the department. The Captain wondered what was the difference. Harry replied he could turn down a job.

   Janssen is a joy to watch act. Perhaps the best example of his talents is in the jail scene from Part Two of “Forty Reasons To Kill.” Harry, who has been framed for murder, is laying face down on the cell cot when Manny enters.

   Usually this is a scene that calls for anger and great emotions. Janssen plays it with an understated whimsy that was as entertaining as it was surprising. Henry Darrow followed Janssen’s lead and played his normally under control stern cop Manny with a lighter touch. Harry and Manny are friends and trust each other. This scene showed it without the need to say it.

   Lieutenant Manuel “Manny” Quinlan is a career cop, and little is known beyond that. Not unlike Harry, Manny never discusses his personal life or past. He is a tough no nonsense boss to all he commands, which made dealing with independent Harry difficult for Manny.

   The ratings were mediocre at best but good enough for ABC who had bigger problems with its schedule (it cancelled six shows and moved four more at midseason). Harry O was given the go ahead to shoot the rest of the first season’s episodes, but both ABC and Warners wanted changes.

   The series with its slow-paced inner conflict drama and its fatalistic view of social injustice was not the action PI with car chases ABC wanted.

   San Diego gave Harry O some wonderful background scenery especially the view of the ocean and city skyline from Harry’s small beach house, but the cost overruns from filming on location and the series’ ratings (not a hit like Streets of San Francisco) made Harry O’s move to Los Angeles necessary.

   The Harry O episodes in San Diego (minus “Gertrude”) surprised me by their darkness. The mysteries were less about who did it than the cause and effects of the crime on the characters. Every day was a struggle to survive not only from the outside forces of our lives but the inner demons those forces leave behind.

   I have over thirty hours of the series left to view, so while I will be reviewing other shows these coming weeks, I will return to Harry O as soon as possible. Next in this series of reviews on Harry O I will examine how the series changed after the move to Los Angeles.

GEOFFREY CAINE – Curse of the Vampire. Diamond, paperback original; 1st printing, May 1991

   If M*F is a magazine for detective mysteries only, this review certainly has no business being here. Luckily it isn’t, or at least since it’s my magazine, I can read and review what I like. (Can’t I?)

   The book does feature a retired Chicago cop, however, and maybe that’s enough connection to make it legal, but Abraham Stroud’s days of retirement are not likely to be easy ones. This is only the first of many adventures to come.

   This one takes place in Stroud’s home town, but according to page 183, there are “all manner of nasty creatures the world over.” The “family” of vampires in this book are only a taste of what lies ahead. (Next in the series: off to Russia and Wake of the Werewolf.)

   The gimmick is vampire today is apparently to find some sort of pseudo-scientific rationale for their existence, and to create some sort of well-suited setting for this enemy of man, one in which they can find new ways to survive in an otherwise alien world.

   This is all well and good, but it can backfire on them, as it does in this book. This perhaps may require a plot alert warning, but I’ll forgo it and tell you that what Stroud and friends come across is a chemical substance called succinylcholine (S-choline, for short) which is a deadly poison to the creatures.

   Stroud’s demented handyman — yes, there’s one of those, too — is the only one who knows about it, but it works. (Keep the name of the chemical in mind. Who knows? It may come in handy some time.)

   It wouldn’t have been difficult to have come up with a “scientific” explanation for the stuff as well — you know, essence of garlic or something — but unfortunately, the author didn’t take the chance to do so.

   But the book ends with the grandest sort of cemetery shootout, a true pulp style holocaust that inflicts tremendous damage on both sides. In fact, if you are a fan of the pulps, this is as close a descendant to those old magazine stories as I’ve read in a long time. Wild imaginative story-telling is a grand old tradition to be following in, and I’m glad to see it still around today.

Bibliographic Notes:   Geoffrey Caine was the pseudonym of Robert W. Walker, who has made a good career of writing novels in the horror/psychological suspense/thriller vein, mostly under his own name. There were only three books in this series. I don’t remember reading either of the other two, but it’s possible that I did. (Note that I no longer see the need for making excuses for posting material on this blog which is not purely detective fiction.)

       The Abraham Stroud series —

Curse of the Vampire. Diamond, 1991.
Wake of the Werewolf. Diamond, 1991.

Legion of the Dead. Diamond, 1992.

   Vampires, werewolves and zombies. You can’t go into a bookstore today and avoid them. Caine was obviously a man ahead of his time.

JOHN MALCOLM – Mortal Ruin. Scribner’s, hardcover, 1988. First published in the UK: Collins Crime Club, hardcover, 1988.

   The sixth of John Malcolm’s tales about London art investment expert Tim Simpson is Mortal Ruin. Malcolm has a deft hand with art intrigues and engaging people, with a craftily concealed villain stuck among the cast, as this latest well illustrates.

   Simpson is asked to help with some old gold stocks, recently discovered and totally valueless. But while going to Chicago on his mission, someone steals his suitcase. In vengeful pursuit with briefcase in hand, Tim is confronted by two heavyweights, who say thank you very much we’ll have your briefcase too.

   Next comes murder in Chicago, followed by violence in England. What — surely not the foolish gold certificates, now stolen in any event — is worth all this mayhem? Ingeniously worked out, with surprise upon surprise at the end.

The Tim Simpson series —

1. A Back Room in Somers Town (1984)

2. The Godwin Sideboard (1984)
3. The Gwen John Sculpture (1985)
4. Whistler in the Dark (1986)
5. Gothic Pursuit (1987)

6. Mortal Ruin (1988)
7. The Wrong Impression (1990)
8. Sheep, Goats and Soap (1991)
9. A Deceptive Appearance (1992)

10. The Burning Ground (1993)
11. Hung over (1994)
12. Into the Vortex (1996)
13. Simpson’s Homer (2001)

14. Circles and Squares (2003)
15. Rogues’ Gallery (2005)

J. D. ROBB (aka NORA ROBERTS) – Indulgence in Death. Putnam, hardcover, November 2010. Berkley, paperback, March 2011.

Genre:   Police Procedural. Leading character:  Lt. Eve Dallas; 31st in series. Setting:   Ireland-New York City; Future-2060.

First Sentence:   The road was a killer, hardly wider than a decent stream of spit and snaking like a cobra between giant bushes loaded with strange flowers that resembled drops of blood.

   Even on her vacation in Ireland with husband Roarke, Lt. Eve Dallas of the New York Police and Security Department, which came into being after the urban wars, becomes involved in a murder case, but only as an adviser.

   The vacation is definitely over when an elite limousine service is killed with a crossbow. The next day a top paid escort is murdered by bayonet. The murders keep coming, the weapons always unusual and the link…?

   Sometimes you need a palete cleanser; a guilty pleasure read on which you can rely. J.D. Robb and her “…In Death” books is that for me.

   A good, evocative analogy is something I always appreciate, while snappy dialogue and wry humor which surprises me into laughing aloud is something at which Robb excels. However, she can also touch the emotions and bring tears to my eyes.

   But don’t ever mistake her books for being pure light fluff. The murders are brutal, the language course, and the sex graphic. It is the combination of these elements that brings keeps Robb at the top of the best-seller list and me back to reading the series.

   Eve, who grew up with violence and brutality, chose to work for the law and has a dedication to representing and finding justice to the dead. Her husband, Roark, had the same type of childhood, and broke many a law on his way to extreme wealth and meeting Eve.

   There are certainly fantasy aspects of the relationship, but the balance of her lack of facade and his access to contacts and technology works. It’s Eve’s partner, Det. Delia Peabody, who exemplifies all the traditionally feminine traits for which Eve has no skill, patience or interest; and so that relationship works as well.

   One thing on which you can always count is good action. But I also like the fact that just as I figured out the killer, so did Eve. Disappointment averted — well done! Even though I knew Dallas would get the villain at the end, there was tremendous satisfaction when she did.

   My praise isn’t unstinting, however. I did have a problem with the plot in that was very similar to a couple of previous books. Even with 31 books in the series, those of us who’ve read them do remember and can’t avoid noticing recycling a premise even if there could be a similarity in crimes over time. Had Dallas made a reference to the previous cases, the similarity would have been noted as intentional rather than a possible rehash of old plots.

   You can certainly say that these books are formulaic, but it is a formula that works and is very enjoyable. It is not great literature. Even with its flaws, and they are there, it is a darn good read that made me happy I’d read it and smile when I’d finished it.

Rating: Good Plus.

Editorial Comment:   There are now, believe it or not, 35 books in this series, or there will be come this next November, when Delusion in Death will be published. For a full list, along with a large selection of cover images, check out the Fantastic Fiction website here.

NUMB3RS. CBS. Two episodes: “Jacked.” Season 5, Episode 12. First broadcast: 16 January 2009. “Con Job.” Season 6, Episode 9. First broadcast: 20 November 2009. Regular cast members: Rob Morrow (FBI agent Don Eppes), David Krumholtz (math genius Charlie Eppes), Judd Hirsch (Alan Eppes), Alimi Ballard (FBI agent David Sinclair), Dylan Bruno (FBI agent Colby Granger), Navi Rawat (computer whiz Amita Ramanujan), Sophina Brown (FBI agent Nikki Betancourt), Aya Sumika (FBI agent Liz Warner), Peter MacNicol (Dr. Larry Fleinhardt). Guest star: Fisher Stevens (John Buckley). Writers: Don McGill (“Jacked”); Cheryl Heuton & Nicolas Falacci (“Con Job”). Directors: Stephen Gyllenhaal (“Jacked”); Ralph Hemecker (“Con Job”).

   You might remember uber-conman Lewis Avery Filer from two episodes of Hawaii Five-O, reported on here.

   Evidently the producers of Numb3rs felt that a brilliant but warped mind like Filer’s shouldn’t go to waste and used a similar character twice in the show’s final two seasons: John Buckley, an absolute genius at the con. Like the Five-O episodes, the results were a lot of fun.

   It would be unfair to relate too much of what happens in these two episodes, since both are replete with twists and turns, crosses and double crosses and triple crosses, so minimalism will be our watchword here.

   In the opening credits of “Jacked,” we see the following: “24.9 million tourists per year” / “128 bit encryption key” / “18 million dollars” / “4 hours.” All of these do come into play during the course of the show.

   A busload of tourists has been kidnapped by a vicious John Buckley (Fisher Stevens) and his handpicked team. Buckley wants a ransom from the FBI, or he’ll start shooting people — and he proves he means it by killing one of his hostages at random.

   But what lead FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) doesn’t know going in is that he’s dealing with a con artist of the highest caliber — and absolutely nothing is what it seems.

   Despite all the potentially lethal firepower the authorities could bring to bear in this situation, Buckley survives but winds up in prison.

   Buckley turns up again in “Con Job,” which opens with: “3 gunmen” / “16 million dollars” / “26 hostages” / “1 con.”

   Nearly a year has elapsed when a gang of heavily-armed criminals takes over a diamond exchange with dozens of hostages. The methodology this bunch uses reminds Agent Eppes of Buckley, so Eppes enlists his assistance.

   Buckley admits he confided some of his secrets to one of his cell mates, including the diamond exchange takeover — and the security cameras confirm the leader of the gang is that very individual.

   Working closely with the FBI — and ingratiating himself with everyone in sight — Buckley helps Eppes & Co. plan how to foil the robbery.

   While he is suspicious of Buckley’s motives, Eppes seems to have a handle on the situation, but the truth is that from the very beginning — in fact, even before the robbery took place — things have been completely out of his control….

   Some actors can steal every scene they’re in, and Fisher Stevens (born 1963) is one of them.

   Numb3rs ran for six seasons on CBS (2005-2010, 119 episodes). The premise of using mathematics to solve crimes might be unique. Except for PBS’s Mathnet (“The story you are about to see is a fib, but it’s short. The names are made up, but the problems are real”), if anyone knows of other math-based mysteries, please inform us.

   In a very imaginative job of publishing, Dennis McMillan Publications has collected many of the early pulp mysteries of Fredric Brown and published five paperback collections, at $5.95 each: Before She Kills, The Freak Show Murders, Homicide Sanitarium, Pardon My Ghoulish Laughter, and 30 Corpses Every Thursday, which contain introductions by William F. Nolan, Richard Lupoff, Bill Pronzini, Donald Westlake, and William Campbell Gault, respectively.

   Each introduction limns a different aspect of Brown’s life and work. No, these stories aren’t quite as well written as Brown’s later novels. After all, he was a more experienced writer when he penned The Fabulous Clipjoint and The Lenient Beast.

   Still, they’re just as readable, and what a joy to be able to read material from forgotten pulps of the early 1940’s like Thrilling Detective, G-Man Detective, Clues, Popular Detective, Ten Detective Aces, Strange Detective Mysteries, and Phantom Detective.

   Homicide Sanitarium even contains Brown’s very first story, “The Moon for a Nickel,” from the March 1938 Detective Story Magazine.

Editorial Comments:   In all Dennis McMillan did something like 18 collections of Fredric Brown’s shorter work, including poetry and some non-fiction, most of them appearing after this review was published.

   This is the first of several reviews of anthologies and short story collections that Marv Lachman wrote for this same issue of The MYSTERY FANcier. Look for most of them to be posted here over the next few weeks.

ALAN RUSSELL – No Sign of Murder. Stuart Winter #1. Avon, paperback reprint, 1993. First published by Walker & Co., hardcover, 1990.

   I read this out of the library when it came out in 1990. It says something about my memory and the number of mysteries I was reading that I didn’t begin to remember pieces of it until and a number of pages into my re-reading.

   Stuart Winter is a San Francisco PI, fallen from the lofty heights of the financial community (and marriage to the daughter of one of its big shots) because of his integrity. He’s a bird-watcher and a Scotch drinker, and describes himself as a “cleaner.”

   He is hired by an Oakland socialite to find her deaf daughter, who has been missing now for six months. The family was not a close one, but the mother is convinced she would have heard from her if she was all right. Winter warms her that investigations often turn up unpleasant truths, but she hires him anyway.

   I liked the book, and the character, quite a bit/ The supporting cast, including a quirky psychiatrist friend of Winter’s, a deaf friend of the missing girl, and the very interesting voice of Winter’s answering service, were nicely done. The portrait of the missing girl was also very finely drawn.

   Russell writes well, and tells a good story. I didn’t believe, however, in the characterization of the murderer, and there was fillip at the end that I found both unpalatable and unnecessary.

   All told, this was a good book, and Winter a worthy member of the PI ranks. I’m going to hunt up the second in the series, which I don’t think I’ve read. I wouldn’t bet any huge amount on it, though.

Bibliographic Data:   Stuart Winter’s second case was The Forest Prime Evil (Walker, 1992), but that was the end of his career, as far its having been recorded in book form. Russell also wrote two mysteries in a followup series about Am Caulfield, a former surfer turned hotel detective, then four standalone psychological thrillers and suspense novels.

NUDE IN A WHITE CAR. Champs-Élysées Productions, French, 1958. Original title: Toi … le venin. Also released as Blonde in a White Car. Robert Hossein, Marina Vlady, Odile Versois, Héléna Manson. Based on the novel C’est toi le venin… by Frédéric Dard. Director: Robert Hossein.

   Back when I was a teenager in Columbus, Ohio, one of the local TV stations seemed like kind of a slap-dash affair, particularly on weekends, when the station was apparently run by the town drunk and the village idiot, and anything might turn up in the afternoon or late at night, regardless of what was listed in the paper.

   What did turn up generally started at the wrong time and, if it was a movie, came on cut to ribbons, flickering across the little black-and-white screen like a bruised and battered prize-fighter trying to hold up to the last round.

   I particularly recall one Sunday when a Fritz Lang movie was supposed to start at 2:30 PM. Knowing how things were on Channel Six and not wanting to miss any, I tuned in at two o’clock and was treated to thirty minutes of silent footage showing a kid hitting a paddle-ball, followed by the movie promptly starting at 2:30—with the first thirty minutes cut out! Such were weekends at Channel Six.

   So I don’t know if they ever actually showed Nude in a White Car, but they listed it in the paper every six weeks or so, always on a Sunday night/Monday morning at 1 AM, which was quite beyond the viewing grasp of the High School kid I was back in the 60s.

   And I can best leave to your imagination the effect those words Nude in a White Car in tiny print buried in the Sunday Paper TV section had on the fantasies of a tawdry youth like myself. Suffice it to say that the film became something of an obsession with me, and I finally found a DVD of it last year, nearly a half-century after those thrilling days of yesteryear.

   Well, I wasn’t expecting a great deal, and I found the movie (titled Toi, le venin, which loosely translates to “You, Venom!”) rather a mixed bag, with an edgy, hard-boiled attitude, a fascinating premise and somewhat slack execution.

   The premise: Pierre (Robert Hossein) an out-of-work “celebrity” walking the beach at Nice one night gets picked up by the eponymous babe. Following a dark-and-steamy encounter, she forces him from the car at gunpoint, then tries to run him down.

   Well we’ve all had relationships like that, but Pierre is determined to repay the favor. He tracks down the car to an elegant mansion shared by two wealthy half-sisters, Helene and Eva (Odile Versois and Marina Vlady): both blonde, both beautiful and both obviously interested in getting to know him better.

   Which is the one from the car? Well one has been in a wheelchair since she was a teenager and the other just doesn’t seem the type, so it’s Pierre who must get to know them better, then decide what form his retribution will take.

   Up to this point, Nude has been tense, amoral, riveting and sexy. But it soon degenerates into merely sexy as Pierre literally dicks around trying to decide which sister he can trust and which one is a psycho who tried to kill him.

   After awhile, even the sexy bits pale (this was filmed in 1958 after all) and all we get is a domestic triangle, with the attempted murder pushed way in the background. It all gets a bit wearisome, but I have to say the ending is a shocker that caught me off-guard, grimly poetic and just plain nasty, and it’s worth getting around to.

HACKERS. United Artists, 1995. Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Fisher Stevens, Alberta Watson, Lorraine Bracco, Wendell Pierce. Director: Iain Softley.

   As a rule, and I don’t have too many rules, but Number Five is that I don’t review movies I don’t understand. But every Rule has an Exception, and so does Rule #5. Movies about computers, computer whizzes and computer geeks I don’t have to understand to review them. I can even enjoy them, but not always.

   Hackers is a movie that falls into the category of “I didn’t really understand the plot,” but I did enjoy it. A lot. The story deals with a worm and/or computer virus dreamed up by some slimy corporate security guy, but which a gang of high school hackers stumbles upon. And (with some travail but not too unexpectedly) they save the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP6iTjhlOvs

   There is a lot of symbolic nonsense about what you see on the screen when someone is hacking, or at least I think it’s nonsense, but what do I know. Psychedelic images looking very electronic, in other words, but symbolic in the sense that it’s maybe what the hackers have in their brains while they are sitting at their computer screens typing madly away at the keyboard.

   The reason I could enjoy this one is that the gang of hackers, whose actions and life style may or may not be authentic, but which feels authentic, except for maybe the roller skates, is so much fun to watch – their competitiveness, their one-upmanship, and their comradery – along with a romance that begins with hatred at first sight.

   Or at least what feigns to be hatred at first sight, but these are teenagers, and their hormones are all mixed up.

   I’m speaking of Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone, to some of us) and Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft, to some other of us, with some overlap, I’m sure). Miss Jolie was all of 20 years old when she made this movie, and from the first moment she’s on the screen, you know that, yes, here is going to be star.

   The computer stuff was outdated even before they finishing filming this movie, so there’s no need to go into any of the details, even if I could (or even if I could fake it), and here it is, well over 15 years later already.

   You needn’t be for a minute concerned about that. If you watch movies for fun and entertainment, this is one for you. Even if you don’t understand what’s going on: the plot, that is – the unimportant, non-essential part. Rule #2: Know which is which.

DANA STABENOW – Better to Rest. Signet, paperback reprint, September 2003. Hardcover edition: New American Library, 2002.

   I’ve never availed myself of the method, but I’m told that a good way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it completely — in a class or a group session in which nothing but the language is spoken, for example — and eventually, by necessity, you’ll start to catch on.

   As I say, I’ve never tried it, but I’ve often done what seems like the equivalent. Such as picking up a new mystery series in the middle, for example, and trying to pick up on who’s who and why this one doesn’t get along well with that one, and why these two are an item but aren’t talking to each other at the moment.

   Sometimes, though, it seems to take an awfully long time.

   Such as with this one, just as a handy example. Stabenow started out as a science fiction writer, but after three books, she seems to have abandoned the field and has concentrated on writing mysteries. Her first series character was Kate Shugak, whom I think might be best described as an Aleut private eye. There have been some 13 books about her since A Cold Day for Murder, which won an Edgar in 1992. Better to Rest, to get back to the book at hand, is the fourth in her second mystery series, featuring Alaskan state trooper Liam Campbell.

   Alaska being what it is, the two major means of relaxation and/or pleasure are alcohol and sex, or at least that’s what I’d have believe after reading this book, as Liam, his current love, pilot Wyanet Chouinard, and their assorted families and friends (and not-so-friends) indulge in one or the other (or both) throughout the book.

   But they all know each other, and I didn’t know any of them. Some of them, by the time I’d figured out who they were, the book was over. Which is OK, in a way. Some of them I decided I didn’t care about knowing.

   The lovemaking scenes are often free-spirited if not totally rowdy, and one of them is outright distasteful. On the other hand, the Alaskan countryside is definitely spectacular, especially with winter arriving soon. On the other hand, the slow decay of Alaskan life in the town of Newenham, with the imminent death of the fishing industries, makes for a rather melancholy backdrop to the mystery that has to be solved.

   And, yes, there is one, or rather two, but a long-time mystery reader will get the feeling early on that perhaps they are connected. (Whether they are or not, I leave for you to discover.) The major one is the discovery of a wrecked World War II airplane in a nearby glacier, complete with bodies and a gold coin clutched in the hand of a dismembered arm.

   The other is the murder of a sexy 74-year-old grandmother, whose death Liam takes very badly. There’s very little detection involved. On page 259 (or 293) Liam says he knows who did it, and so he does. It seems more like guesswork to me.

   Educated guesswork, I hasten to add, since he knows and lives with these people. For the most part, though, reading about them suits me just fine. Alaska sounds like a great place to visit, but I don’t think I’d care to live there.

[UPDATE] 07-01-12.   Bad Blood, book number 20 in Dana Stabenow’s Kate Shugak series, is scheduled for next year (2013), but for whatever reason, this is still the most recent book-length adventure for Liam Campbell.