Comments | evelyn_b: My Beautiful Murder Monday

evelyn_b

My Beautiful Murder Monday

Sep 12, 2016 12:21

What I've Given Up on For Now

A Forest of Eyes. Nothing was sticking together in my mind. Sorry, Victor Canning. I'll try again some other time.

What I've Finished Reading

It should probably come as no surprise that in Last Ditch, [this is a spoiler]Ricky Alleyn gets kidnapped, AGAIN. That's what you get for trying to be in a book, Ricky! Look how worried your ( Read more... )

dorothy porter, mystery bundle of mystery, murder mondays, agatha christie, ngaio marsh

Comments 10

osprey_archer September 12 2016, 19:27:46 UTC

HUMP DAVIS. What a name. He's lucky he ended up as a detective's buddy and not in a low-rent porno with a name like that.

evelyn_b September 12 2016, 19:33:04 UTC

A HUMP by any other name. . . maybe it's short for Humphrey? Anyway, it's the only name we get. I think you have to have a certain amount of self-confidence to go around calling yourself HUMP DAVIS, so more power to him.

a_phoenixdragon September 12 2016, 22:36:23 UTC

*HUGS*

lost_spook September 13 2016, 08:24:51 UTC

Look how worried your dad is; you can almost see it in his face if you know what to look for.

LOL.

I am scared by how 70s that book cover is. I spend a lot of my time in the 70s, but go out of my way to avoid the bit of it that looks like that. The names are spectacular, though and I can't help but feel that it might turn into pr0n partway through. Which would also be scary.

evelyn_b September 13 2016, 15:39:49 UTC

I don't know if I even have enough cultural context to make a lazy analogy about what this cover is like. There's a scowling head and a woman in a bikini and a guy getting punched! Excitement!

No pron so far, but several half-hearted stabs at lusty misogyny. The most interesting thing about them is their half-heartedness; HARDMAN assesses "the meat" of one or two women in a sort of confused way, but he's not really paying attention. HARDMAN has experienced some unexpected anxiety about aging and the softening (heh) of his large body. These things were unexpected because based on the cover image and the series title, I imagined him as a solid block of wood with a scowl drawn on. Instead, he spends several paragraphs worrying about his weight, and feeling grateful to this girl he picked up at a bar for looking kindly on his stomach rolls.

lost_spook September 13 2016, 17:02:05 UTC

HARDMAN... not so hard? Heh...

littlerhymes September 13 2016, 09:28:19 UTC

I think the language of Monkey's Mask is very Australian but otherwise I'm not sure - perhaps that aspect is just invisible to me.

DAMN that cover is amazing. I really want to know about Hardman #1-5 now.

evelyn_b September 13 2016, 15:30:21 UTC

The language makes me think "very Australian" though the number of Australians I have actually heard speak is probably under 10, so what am I even basing this impression on? a question for students of literature, maybe; I don't know exactly how it works.

Physical place details are few but in context they fell telling. There are some gritty beaches and a lot of driving. Probably most of the "sense of place" work is being done by the language.

ETA Hardman is a little unexpected - like he has a lot more anxiety about his body than I would have guessed from the cover, which is interesting - but the plot is confusing; I keep mentally dozing off.

liadtbunny September 13 2016, 14:34:03 UTC

Ladies and Gentleman we have the 1970s!:D I suspect a time traveller from the future who can't cope with 70s dodginess?

The Black and White Minstrels carried on as a stage show into the 80s!

evelyn_b September 13 2016, 15:45:41 UTC

Hah, poor time traveller! He's got a lot of stabbing to do, maybe he should take another approach, like not going to the 70s. Or maybe he was thrown back against his will; that seems more likely.

I did not know! I knew they briefly tried to do the show without the blackface, but the ratings dropped so they put it back on. :\