#Genre: Crime

[haveyoureadthispoll]

In this, one of the most famous of Doyle's mysteries, the tale of an ancient curse and a savage ghostly hound comes frighteningly to life. The gray towers of Baskerville Hall and the wild open country of Dartmoor will haunt the reader as Holmes and Watson seek to unravel the many secrets of the misty English bogs.

[dapperdelphina]

Peaky Blinders (2013-2022) | Episode 1

[cinema-hallucinations]

Prompt: Write a movie concept where pets commit crimes behind their owners' backs.

Title: Pawsecuted

Logline: By day, Mittens the cat and Duchess the Doberman are pampered pets. By night, they lead a double life as notorious jewel thieves, pulling off daring heists alongside their ragtag crew of criminal critters. However, when a ruthless new dog gang enters the scene, our furry felons must put aside their rivalry and pull off their biggest heist yet to ensure their turf – and tails – remain safe.

Characters:

Mittens (Voice): A sophisticated Siamese cat with a penchant for luxury and a talent for cracking safes. He leads the "Petty Paw" gang, a crew of pampered pets who utilize their owners' routines to their criminal advantage.

Duchess (Voice): A tough-as-nails Doberman Pinscher with a surprising amount of finesse. She heads the "Doggone Dirty Dogs," a rival pet gang known for their brute force tactics. Despite their rivalry, Duchess has a grudging respect for Mittens' skills.

Squeaks (Voice): A nervous but enthusiastic hamster, the getaway driver for the Petty Paw gang. He uses his hamster wheel to power a miniature but surprisingly fast remote-controlled car.

Biggles (Voice): A cynical parrot with a gambling addiction, the lookout for the Petty Paw gang. He provides intel from his perch on the highest shelf.

Rex (Voice): A hulking Rottweiler, the muscle for the Doggone Dirty Dogs. He lacks intelligence but makes up for it with sheer size and intimidation.

Frankie "The Ferret" (Voice): A smooth-talking ferret, the brains behind the Doggone Dirty Dogs. He relies on cunning schemes and inside information to pull off his heists.

Plot Summary:

Mittens, the notorious cat burglar, leads his crew – Squeaks the hamster getaway driver and Biggles the lookout parrot – on a daring heist to steal a priceless diamond necklace. Their plan is flawless, relying on their owner's predictable schedule and Mittens' nimble paws. However, their victory is short-lived when a new dog gang, the Doggone Dirty Dogs, led by the ruthless Frankie "The Ferret," announces their arrival on the scene.

The Doggone Dirty Dogs utilize a more aggressive approach, terrorizing owners and leaving a trail of chaos in their wake. This disrupts the delicate balance of the "pet underworld" and threatens to expose the entire criminal animal network. With their territories and reputations at stake, Mittens and Duchess are forced to swallow their pride and form an uneasy alliance.

Their combined skills – Mittens' cunning and Duchess' brute force – make them a formidable team. They plan an elaborate heist to steal "The Emerald Eye of Cleopawtra," a legendary feline artifact, hoping to lure Frankie and his gang into a trap. The action-packed climax sees the two rival pet gangs facing off in a hilarious showdown, with Squeaks' high-speed car chase and Biggles' sharp beak playing pivotal roles.

Themes:

Teamwork and the importance of overcoming rivalry for a common goal.

Finding humor and adventure in the seemingly mundane lives of pets.

The unexpected skills and intelligence hidden within our furry (and feathered) companions.

Visual Style:

The film utilizes a combination of live-action shots (showing the "normal" lives of the pets) and animated sequences (depicting their criminal activities) seamlessly blended together. The animation style for the pets is expressive and cartoony, capturing their personalities and adding a touch of humor to their daring heists. The action sequences are fast-paced and visually exciting, showcasing the unique skills and gadgets used by the different animal gangs.

Pawsecuted is a hilarious and action-packed adventure that takes viewers on a wild ride through the secret lives of pets. It's a story that reminds us that even the most pampered and domesticated creatures can harbor unexpected talents and a thirst for adventure (and maybe a little bit of bling).

[misireads]

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

[ audiobook, listened in finnish ]

two women born on the same day, in the same area of london, have a chance meeting on their joined 45th birthday. one of them, alix, is a famous podcaster and the whole book is framed as a podcast and netflix true crime documentary series about the events that unfolded after the other woman, josie, asked if alix could do a podcast episode on her because her life is "about to thoroughly change" and she wanted alix to document it. josie is a bit unusual from the get-go and alix is intrigued enough by her to agree. both women also have problems in their marriages, which josie tries to use as some bonding leverage, but during the recording sessions for the podcast, she gradually reveals more and more about just how fucked up her marriage and entire life has been. things escalate when a badly beaten up josie appears at alix's door one night at 3am, saying that her husband attacked her. but this is only the real beginning of alix finding out what she's gotten herself into by connecting with josie.

➕ this was the first book in a long time that had me OBSESSED from the start, i couldn't stop listening for like three days straight. clearly a novel written for true crime documentary fans, which i am. the structure of the whole book follows the true crime doc format, with an innocuous enough introduction part and sinister hints dropped here and there, and then things start escalating little by little. this story even comes with baked-in descriptions of people saying something dramatic for a cliffhanger and then the screen fades to black and the netflix episode ends. jewell really nailed the mood with this one.

➕ given that the title literally says nothing about this is true, it was fun to try and guess which parts exactly were falsified. but the fucked up thing was that josie is written as a decently likable character in the beginning, so even the reader almost refuses to believe that she would be lying. she wouldn't, right?? the poor woman who's lived in an older man's shadow all her life and is only just starting to find her own spotlight!

➖ this too started dragging a little towards the end, it was on track to be a 5 based on the beginning because i was just that hooked, but then the excitement and momentum died a bit towards the end… the points were hammered in a bit too excessively during the uhhh climax. and the very end… could have lived without that.

➖ walter's character is so thoroughly disturbing, that left me feeling i have no idea what the fuck i just read. judging by reviews, everyone kinda feels the same way.

⭐ score: 4 -- i feel like i would have wanted to like this more than i did in the end. still, it was a really solid thriller experience, exactly what i look for. i think i'll try a couple more jewell novels next.

[theannypetite]

Batch #18: Mystery BL

It's been a while since I posted anything, but here's a batch of some Mystery-ish BL titles I wrote about while procrastinating reading SVSSS.

It’s been a while since I posted a batch. Or anything at all. It’s not been a lot of posts this year, but here is another one nonetheless and it’s not SVSSS, although I will post reviews of volumes 3 and 4 sooner rather than later. Believe it or not, mystery and crime are honestly my fav genres, aside from historical fiction, so it’s probably odd I don’t write about more mystery titles. But I’m…

[rythyme]

ok imagine 10 things i hate about you. now imagine 10 things i hate about you, but gay. now imagine that kat and bianca are assassins who kill corrupt politicians and businessmen. now imagine that this is real. many good and wonderful things are possible in this world if you watch thai dramas.

[pirateyang]

a comparative analysis of shows in my favorite genre: the girls are stranded!!

[thermodynamic-comedian]

actually i love it when the characters are all lying. i love it when they all have secrets and none of them trust each other. i love being given clues that solve puzzles i haven't even been presented with yet. i also love it when i get chills watching a scene without even knowing what it means, and when i do know what it means, i get even more chills. i love theorizing and thinking and solving and coming up with possibilities of where a story might be going. i love it and i will do it for free, for fun, for no real reason.

this is a mystery appreciation post!! if you appreciate mysteries and secrets and stories that slowly unravel before you, please interact!!!

[junipum]

s5e16 house takes methadone, it cures his pain completely, and when cuddy says he can’t take it at her hospital, he basically quits without a second thought. he's fully choosing a painless life over one that he's comfortable with and knows inside out, despite the recurring issue with him and change, be it positive or negative. whether this is destructive behavior, or if it's truly what he's willing to give up is your interpretation, but either way, he's choosing being pain free over anything else in his life, as he's done time and time again.

he will literally try ANYTHING to feel physically okay because he's so accustomed to living in constant agony. he's done extremely dangerous things to stop, delay, or even mildly treat it (experimental drugs, faking cancer for meds, life threatening treatments, etc). in the scene on the coma bus with amber, though its a hallucination, he has to rely on his own guilt/subconscious to pull him away from the choice of life or death. he's more than tempted to give up and accept death right then and there, because it "doesn't hurt here," and because he believes wilson will hate him if he comes out of it alive.

and THEN, you have the C word. when he willingly gives up the last of his vicodin to help wilson feel better. because as much pain as he himself is in, he doesn't want wilson to ever experience anything similar, and if he can even help just a little bit, it will be worth it. he couldn't give up pain relief for anybody in his life except for wilson. cuddy and stacy, two women i do believe he loved, were not enough for him to give that up. not his job, not his intellect, and not his pain relief. but for wilson? barely a second of hesitation. he can throw away his vicodin, his physical health, and entire being away if it means he can be with wilson, in any capacity and as unhinged as they are.

[daisywords]

anyway my stance on "reading the classics" basically boils down to the fact that what is or is not defined as "a classic" is somewhat arbitrary, and therefore it makes no sense to treat "the classics" as some sort of uniform genre that you either like or dislike. Whether you liked Great Expectations has no bearing on whether you'll like 1984 or Rebecca or Pride and Prejudice or East of Eden or Frankenstein or Crime and Punishment. Because those are all vastly different books. "I don't want to read Classics; they're all boring and probably sexist or something." <<free yourself from the arbitrary category of "classic." It just means a lot of people liked the book. You might not. but you might. Treat it as an individual title.

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Just after midnight, a snowdrift stops the famous Orient Express in its tracks as it travels through the mountainous Balkans. The luxurious train is surprisingly full for the time of the year but, by the morning, it is one passenger fewer. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of the passengers is none other than detective Hercule Poirot. On vacation. Isolated and with a killer on board, Poirot must identify the murderer—in case he or she decides to strike again.

[shesmore-shoebill]

this episode really feels like them just hanging out and bonding while there happens to be a camera present. and a nerf dart martini

[cinema-hallucinations]

Prompt: create a movie about a detective with a strange ability. When wearing someone's belonging, they can gain relevant glimpses of knowledge about their past. Mix the drama of crime solving with the occasional comedic effects of having to wear wildly inappropriate or merely uncomfortable clothes (such as a leather bondage hood or high-heel shoes). Not to mention tensions with colleagues and DAs with reasonable concerns about evidence tampering or contamination.

Tagline: What do your clothes say about you?

Worn Memories

Logline: A detective with the uncanny ability to access memories by wearing objects discovers a string of seemingly unrelated murders connected by a single, elusive clue. As he delves deeper into the cases, he must navigate the challenges of his unique gift while uncovering a sinister conspiracy.

Characters:

Detective Randy Kirkendall (30s): A brilliant but unconventional detective with a mysterious ability. He can gain insights into a person's past by wearing their belongings.

Dr. Pam Ballard (50s): A renowned forensic psychologist who studies the human mind and its relationship with objects. She becomes Randy's mentor and helps him understand his unique gift.

Captain Jason Folkus (40s): Alex's skeptical and no-nonsense boss. He initially doubts Alex's methods but gradually comes to appreciate his unique abilities.

The Killer: A shadowy figure with a complex motive and a penchant for leaving behind cryptic clues.

Plot Summary:

Detective Randy Kirkendall is investigating a series of seemingly unrelated murders. The victims have no connection, and the crime scenes offer few clues. Desperate for answers, Randy begins to experiment with his unusual ability. He discovers that by wearing a victim's clothing, he can gain insights into their final moments. Shoes reveal their movements, hats and wigs provide clues about their whereabouts, and glasses offer a visual perspective.

As Randy delves deeper into the cases, he uncovers a disturbing pattern. The victims are all connected to a secretive organization involved in illegal activities. The killer is leaving behind cryptic clues, using the victims' belongings to taunt Randy and the police.

Randy must navigate the challenges of his unique gift, often finding himself in uncomfortable or even dangerous situations. He wears a leather bondage hood to gain insights into a victim's final moments, only to be mistaken for a fetish enthusiast. He stumbles through a crime scene wearing high heels, drawing curious glances from his colleagues.

Despite the challenges, Randy's unconventional methods prove invaluable. He uses his ability to piece together the killer's identity, unraveling a complex web of lies and deception. The climax involves a tense confrontation with the killer, where Alex must use his unique gift to outsmart the villain and bring them to justice.

Themes:

The power of objects: The film explores the idea that objects can hold memories and emotions, providing a unique perspective on the past.

The dangers of incomplete information: Randy's ability can sometimes provide misleading information, leading to hilarious misunderstandings and costly dead ends.

The dangers of obsession: The killer's obsession with leaving behind cryptic clues becomes a central theme, showing the destructive power of obsession.

Ending:

Randy successfully apprehends the killer, using his unique gift to uncover their identity and motives. The case becomes a landmark in forensic science, demonstrating the potential of unconventional methods. However, Randy's experience leaves him changed, forever aware of the hidden stories that can be found within everyday objects.

[misireads]

The Breakdown by B.A. Paris

[ audiobook, listened in english ]

on a stormy night, a young teacher is driving home from a party with friends and decides to take a shortcut through a winding forest path, where she sees a lone car parked on the side of the road. she gives the driver a chance to ask for her help but when they don't, she decides to keep driving and goes home. the next day, a story about a woman having been murdered in her car on the forest road is all over the news. weighted by the guilt of not having helped the woman in the car, the main character gradually spirals out of control with increased paranoia as she believes the murderer saw her that night and is now after her as well. at the same time, lapses in her memory make her worry she's on path to having early onset dementia like her late mother, and all of this combined is also making her previously happy marriage fall apart.

➕ yes i'm back giving ms paris another chance, because she was recommended to me. so did i like this better than behind closed doors? absolutely i did, here we have a genuine mystery thriller with all the cosy tropes and a plot with actual tension! i knew this was a superior book from scene one, it immediately set such a strong scene, i was just YEEHAAAW time to buckle in, finally. it's not the most masterful or unique story or anything and has a bit of a lacklustre deus ex machina resolution, but it's the good old thing. with an ending i didn't see coming, too! obviously behind closed doors immediately put me in the mindset of finding the husband suspicious but [spoiler] humouring that the best friend might be the bad guy was just a wild theory of mine, and i certainly didn't suspect two people. i thought it would just be choosing between the husband and the john guy, where either could be the culprit

➕ a spoiler-free plus point, more vaguely: there weren't a whole lot of suspects in here, but i think the story did a good job juggling with those it had and making you wonder which one it is, steering you this and that way as it went. i don't mind simpler mysteries like this because i'm not very smart so it makes me feel like i can actually participate in the guessing game GNDJGNDJ

➕ the main character is almost reminiscent of victorian era stuff, what a Woe Is Me dramatic bitch with larger than life emotions and melancholy. horrible but great

➖ these bitches be speaking all their stupid ass thoughts out loud in these books tho. sometimes you just wanna reach out a hand and put it in front of their mouths like shush…time to shut up. why are you saying these things in this situation. don't you have even a crumb of self-awareness. AND the fact that she immediately jumps into thinking the murderer is also after her (based on… umm… nothing???) because clearly she's such an important person, some real self-important buffoon behaviour. plus never once thinking the culprit could be a woman, not a man. heteronormative self-important buffoon behaviour?

➖ this isn't a massive complaint since i overall enjoyed the story but the pacing was a bit off. the beginning is a bangin' but then when we get to the silent calls and cass's dementia scares, well about half of those could have been halved or cut out tbh. and the SMS part in the end, it was not only some hyper turbo mode exposition stuff which seems to be a common problem in paris's writing judging by these two books, but also dear god, fucking insufferable to listen to in audiobook form LMAO

➖ speaking of phones. how are the characters in her books so dumb about phones? like, we are talking about mobile phones here, right? i had so many questions about the silent call sequences. why didn't she ever call the number back? track down where the calls came from? why didn't she just leave the line open to a forever stalemate/wasting the caller's time until they have to give up? how did she know the caller was a man? why didn't she just leave the phone be and only let the answering machine work when any important person needed to get to her? why do both the house phone and matthew's phone work but magically hers never does so she can't use it????? this all was some real tedious buffalo shit ass garbage plot-convenient turdmageddon stuff right here

➖ probably there was something else but i forgot because the phone stuff got me so worked up. oh now i remember! maybe the dumbest scene i've ever come across in any book (in recent memory anyway). the main character looking at a room, ""sensing"" that something is amiss (but not actually seeing a single thing, not going in to investigate, nuthin'), and proceeding to verbally freak out about it to the point of calling the police that someone has broken in, like, yes okay sure go ahead and have some fucking sixth sense, but did it not cross her mind for even a second that she could, oh i don't know, have like… evidence? to back her words up? and how it looks and sounds like that she doesn't??? i'm just, i can't. that scene was so fucking stupid, it made me second guess whether i like this book after all. like sure she's messed up from paranoia and drugs and whatever but that scene was very much set up as her being like, 100% confidently saying this shit and underlining how sharp she is feeling about it. well if you're so fucking sharp then put yourself in another person's position for five fucking seconds and think how what you're saying sounds like to them i beg you, jesus christ on wheels.

⭐ score: 3½ -- still, i liked it. maybe because i read it after behind closed doors, which i didn't like. so i was just so happy to have a genuine, atmospheric murder mystery to listen to that also managed to surprise me a little.

[good-beans]

this is so stupid but i always have fun imagining the milgram characters watching their own/others mvs and seeing their reactions, especially for MeMe

That’s not stupid at all, thank you so much for the ask!! It’s sooo interesting to think about! I planned on just posting this drabble, but the more I thought about it, the more I started jotting down headcanons for everyone 👀 Of course there’s the initial disbelief and shock that Milgram can really do what it claims, but once they accept that, they’d have a lot of interesting reactions…

Es gets to watch the video first, then the prisoners are free to watch their own in the privacy of the courtroom/extraction room/wherever. Other prisoners can watch them only with explicit permission from the video’s singer. No one is allowed to watch Undercover except for Es. At first they spend hours looking at those final frames of themself flinching from the camera, hoping to jog any sort of memories, but eventually they give up on it. While actually watching it, they don’t mind the murder silhouettes. While sleeping, however, it has triggered more than one nightmare.

Haruka: He thinks Weakness is very pretty – he’s amazed seeing himself on the screen and hearing his voice, knowing he’s not that good of a singer. Even before his innocent verdict, it gives him a huge surge of confidence. Once he gets to know the others better, he gives them mv permissions, then stares intently at their faces to see their reactions as they watch it. AKAA scares him a bit, seeing his own intense emotions on screen, and he only gives Muu permission to see it. When he’s alone, Haruka pauses the shots of his mother, just to stare for a while.

Yuno: Laughs at the symbolism her mind used in Umbilical. She’s never shied away from sexual words/thoughts, so it's funny the video was as tame as it was. She thinks the song is fun, and isn’t afraid to show the others and sing snippets of it around the prison. Some days it’s too emotional for her to get into it, but most of the time she tries to display a confident attitude about it. After Tear Drop, she’s satisfied with her anger and more overtly sexual images. If anything, she feels too exposed by the shots of herself looking more vulnerable/sad. 

Fuuta: He experiences a solid mix of embarrassment at the gaming theme in Bring it On and feeling a surge of pride that he looks badass in the knight’s armor. He’s worried the warden won’t take him seriously with the video game obsession, but he absolutely loves the song and thinks it portrays his toughness and ideals well. He’s less thrilled with Backdraft, everything about it unsettles and embarasses him. He’s thrown by the shot of crossing out his own silhouette – he’d had self-harming thoughts, but wasn’t quite ready to confront them so blatantly yet. Like Haruka, he can be caught pausing the arcade shot just for a moment before turning the whole thing off and storming away.

Muu: She has mixed emotions towards After Pain. She hates seeing herself look so weak and pathetic, but it gives her a lot of hope that her story will be understood. She misses her friends, and seeing them again is bittersweet. She closes her eyes at the moment of the stabbing – she’s only gotten the courage to watch it through her fingers once. She watches INMF once, then refuses to look at it again from shame/horror. Despite Haruka’s begging, she doesn’t let him watch it, either. 

Shidou: He asks Es what they saw in Throw Down. Upon finding out his family wasn’t in it, he chooses not to watch it. He believes he already knows all about his emotions and crime, so there’s no need to go through that pain again. He’s tempted to watch it when he’s confused about Es’ verdict, but still holds off. He does watch Triage when informed his family is in it. He spends hours in front of the screen by himself. Only after seeing that one does he watch Throw Down, though he’s still left confused about Es’ decisions.

Mahiru: Absolutely loves TIHTBILWY. She thinks it perfectly describes her situation, and that the song is very cute. She lets others watch it, and unlike Yuno, feels like singing it 24/7. It reminds her of her bf, and she thinks that’s very romantic. Similar to Shidou, she spends a lot of time watching I Love You just to look at her boyfriend. She shows it to everyone, just to show him off and talk about him, even if she does skip over the beginning and end each time.

Kazui: He is very similar to Shidou; he refuses to watch his videos until T2, assuming it would be too painful to watch something he already knows and wishes to avoid. Unlike Shidou, seeing Hinako is far too painful, and he regrets watching it and seeing her so happy on their wedding day. Though maybe he’s still waiting, and hasn’t seen any of the videos yet…

Amane: Magic makes her worry more than anything. She fears she’s poisoned by unnecessary vainness since so much of her video involves cute things, colors, outfits, animals, and is set up like a tv show. She’s also worried that Es and the others will really see her as a child because of how cute the whole thing is. She prevents herself from watching it too many times, but buried under all her fears, it gives her a surge of pride seeing herself so talented and pretty and the star of the show. Purge March only reaffirms her confidence in her crime – the video brings up some awful memories, but it shows her as a leader, a warrior, a hero! It brings her comfort and confidence more than anything.

Mikoto/John: The videos are distressing to both of them, and they spend all their time studying the others’ screentime. Mikoto watches in horror as John does things that line up with his spotty memories, and John panics seeing that his actions distress Mikoto more than they’ve reassured/saved him. John does end up watching his own scenes a few times – it feels incredibly good to appear in a way that Mikoto may finally notice him. He feels seen. Now, logically I think that MeMe would be the final tipping point in which Mikoto finally accepts the situation and his DID, but if I must stick to his canon denial, then I’d say he goes on a whole rant about movie magic andt the crazy things you can do with editing nowadays. He doesn’t have a good explanation on how Milgram found his home and knew so much about him, but he explains everything away as cgi or camera effects. Double manages to sway him a bit more, as he hears John speak so plainly to him. Just as the audience had some debate on who was apologizing at the end of Double, Mikoto and John wonder who is apologizing to whom. Though they both come to the conclusion it’s their own apology, they decide that if it was the others’, they’d accept it and forgive them.

Kotoko: She’s very pleased with Harrow, and is unashamed to show it to the others. Though she’d been able to watch a few of the previous prisoners’ videos, it still shakes her a bit when she realizes that Milgram really does have the tech to look deep inside her. She watches it just a few times – not obsessing over it, but not afraid either. Deep Cover, however, is a once-and-done sort of deal. She claims she’s not letting the others watch it because “they couldn’t handle such harsh but true criticisms about themselves,” but she doesn’t end up watching it anymore herself, either.

[horrorlesbians]

shows like nbc hannibal and true detective (season one at least) are not cop propaganda at their core. criminal minds and b99 are. hope this helps