#The Marple Brothers

[kwebtv]

From the Golden Age of Television

Series Premiere

Trackdown - The Marple Brothers - CBS - October 4, 1957

Western

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written By John McGreevey

Produced by  Vincent M. Fennelly

Directed by Thomas Carr

Narrated by Ed Prentiss

Stars:

Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman

James Best as Rand Marple

Jan Merlin as Cece Marple

James Griffith as Thad Marple

Gail Kobe as Beth Waislip

Tom Pittman as Tom Sladen

Roy Engel as Marshall Fred St. John

John Breen as Townsman

Ethan Laidlaw as Bartender

Henry Wills as George Webster

[pedanther]

And now I feel I have to ask if the St Mary Mead Pargeters are any relation to the Pargeters of Horsehay, because that was really not the context in which I was expecting to see Edith Pargeter's name appear in this thread.

(I suspect Brother Cadfael would be able to tell what your deal was, though he wouldn't call it what we moderns do -- and in fact I rather think he wouldn't call it anything at all, or mention it in any way, just keep an eye out and subtly offer any assistance that might be required. I'm not sure about George Felse; I feel that he wouldn't be unsympathetic if he did figure it out, but I don't know that he's got the right kind of life experience to know what he was looking at. Dominic, on the other hand, I wouldn't be at all surprised.)

sherlock holmes deduces you are trans before you've figured it out yourself and refers to you with those pronouns and then when you look confused is like "ah...had you not arrived at that conclusion yet?" and wafts away in his dressing gown to smoke seventeen pipes, leaving you in a gender crisis

[hotvintagepoll]

Welcome to the HOT AND VINTAGE MOVIE STARS poll blog! The Hot & Vintage Men Tournament and The Hot & Vintage Movie Women Tournament are now wrapped—congrats to Toshiro Mifune and Eartha Kitt! If you are here for the Dracula Daily polls, those will be posted regularly following the progress of the Substack newsletters.

All polls—including ongoing polls, previous rounds, old tournaments, the various shadow brackets, the Dracula Daily polls, and fun mini polls—can be found in the #hotvintagepoll tag.

FAQs:

"What is the next tournament?" We'll either do the scrungly little guys contest or the Ultimate Hotties tournament.

"When is the next tournament?" Sometime later this summer. I need to take a break, but then I'll be back.

"I want to find my favorite hottie!" Try a tag search for them (ie, use a hashtag in my search bar to find every post I've tagged them in). If you still haven't found your hottie, they either did not fit the criteria of being a movie star from 1910-1970 or they did not make it past the prelims.

“Can I start submitting for the future tournaments? I have guys! I have propaganda!” Please wait for me to post a submission form or otherwise formally announce a tournament before submitting anything.

The views expressed in the propaganda are not my own. I don’t submit my own propaganda, and I don’t change what’s submitted beyond fixing obvious spelling mistakes. If you hate a poll bio or a pic, let me know and send me something I can use instead.

I don’t post or boost negative propaganda about any of the hotties. If you really hate that someone is winning, send me positive propaganda for their hot opponent instead. A lot of these hotties were flawed or problematic in some way—or straight up garbage—but for reasons I go into here, I don't boost anti-propaganda.

If I see repetitive, trolling, and/or bigoted remarks in the comments, I may block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a competitor's problems in the replies, that's fine, but if I see consistent bad-faith trolling or targeted harassment of anyone, you will be blocked.

"Tel me again who won the major tournaments?" Eartha Kitt was crowned the hottest Hot & Vintage Movie Woman, and Toshiro Mifune won the Hot & Vintage Movie Man Tournament.

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“My FAQ isn’t on here :(” send me an ask! I love hearing from you guys—just please check these basics first.

Tournament schedule post-hiatus:

Ongoing: Dracula Daily casting polls

Possibly next: Scrungly Little Guys contest (gender neutral)

Possibly next: Ultimate Hottie Tournament (top brackets of the hot men & hot women competing together)

TBD: Horror Hotties (Frankensteins, Draculas, Brides, etc.)

TBD: Dandy Detectives (Marples, Sherlocks, Nancy Drews, etc.)

fun mini polls that pit sets of characters from the same movie together, like the Philadelphia Story or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ones (these can be found in the #minis tag)

Thank you for being here! Enjoy the polls.

[modmad]

Uncle do you have any movie and tv recommendations for the strike?

absolutely! I am very tired but off the top of my head here's some ancient Western-centric goodies for you most of which you can find on youtube completely free!

Buster Keaton. I recommend starting with the shorts (two reelers) which are usually 20 mins. If you want a wild ride complete with 4th wall breaks my favourite movie of his is Sherlock Jr.

Laurel and Hardy. Them goobers had some magical chemistry with comedy, best just to dive in and start laughing.

the Marx Brothers. Fast paced american patter and absurdity, Duck Soup was groundbreaking in its day.

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Gave Keaton many of his first roles. Incredibly talented man, make yourself cry and be angry forever by reading what happened to him irl...

Harold Lloyd. The third of the three greats. I personally recommend Safety Last!

Charlie Chaplin. Y'all know. City Lights, Modern Times and the Great Dictator should be viewed by everyone wanting to get into movies imho.

the Twilight Zone (1959). You like weird? Let's get weird. Get ready to buy as many extra pairs of glasses as you can afford. You'll understand if you watch That episode.

The Three Stooges. Good exercise for the chuckle muscle. Curly's grandson has even been recreating some of their skits on Tiktok!

Vincent Price. Just. Vincent Price.

The Third Man. It's a good movie. Just watch it okay it's a good movie holy shit the finale. Cinematography mind blaster.

COLUMBO

ITV POIROT SERIES

MISS MARPLE

basically just go look up good old tv there's so much of it I haven't even listed the cartoons I could rec bc that would need AN ENTIRE NEW LIST OF ITS OWN which I might make when I have time

As always with old movies and media there are going to be some dated jokes, and even more dated language, so be aware of that going in.

[hydriotaphia]

Tagged by the lovely @grace-williams-xo to rank fics from this year (go read Grace's at that link). Such a fun concept!

Tagging anyone who'd like to do this - @42wallabyway-sydnee, @penny-loaf, @catcorsair, @cannedkopi and all :)

I've only included completed work on AO3, for possibly a me-specific definition of finished (aka morgue fics included), so no WIP multichapters, anon fics or other miscellaneous variations.

10. Trivia (T), Bridgerton

Part of the Domestic Bliss series, it's basically Kate and Anthony being competitive dorks in love. Only features one actual piece of trivia because everything is just a vehicle for their ridiculousness.

9. Edwina: In Retrospect (G), Bridgerton

A 100 word drabble I wrote for fun. It's angsty as are all parts of 'This is me down on my knees'. It's not bad but I think there's not enough to latch onto here so maybe not super successful at 100 words.

8. For my lady’s pleasure (G), Bridgerton

S3 was a dumpster fire AFAIC. There is no world in which Anthony and Kate are so blase with their paperwork. NO. WORLD. So I wrote another version of that appalling study scene. Also I wanted to show Anthony cherishing Kate meaningfully with both words and deeds, and Kate cherishing him right back.

7. On a night like any other: Three brothers (G), Bridgerton

An S2 missing scene. On re-reading, I should've seeded the thematic core much much earlier. Still, I wanted a family scene where they are all showing care for each other but also misunderstand each other fundamentally.

6. Golden gods (T), Bridgerton

This one had some strong reactions. It's told in a series of snippets because the main beats of the story are all captured in these short paras. I know there's a bigger story lurking behind it, but I'm not sure it's one I want to tell, so this went up as a morgue file, but is basically complete. Think of it as a harkening back to the LJ-style fic days.

5. Once upon a rainy night (E), The Nanny

SUCH a fun fic and it should be higher, but I just like what I did with some of the other fic more. A complete whim of a femslash fic, written to match the outrageous sitcom style of The Nanny.

4. O the glory of the winning (T), Bridgerton

This one is a prelude to a story I'll probably never write where Anthony and Edwina do marry because the bangle doesn't fall. And what would be feasible IMO for a Kanthony endgame in that scenario. I've tried a lot of variations on descriptive style before and liked the elements I was able to put into this -- I wanted a sense of suspended animation and lush surroundings. What does it look like for Kate and Anthony to actually live only in a bubble of their love? Sort of Sleeping Beauty-ish where the outside world is sealed away and the audience witnesses both the joy and the tragedy of it.

3. Haunted (T), Bridgerton

I rarely write creepy fic so I was very happy with this one! It wouldn't have been out of place in 'This is me down on my knees' but tonally it was written to be a gothic romance scene versus angst. Edmund's ghost is meant to be actually perceived (real or not) by Anthony, leading to terrible migraines afterwards.

2. Hidden Depths (M), Bridgerton

This vied for first place but as it is a morgue fic... I was going for a full immersion in sea images, which is tricky because idioms, similes and metaphors become challenging to write. Originally I was going to try for something more Lovecraftian but I am not a good enough writer for that and still really like where this landed.

1/ Esto perpetua (M), Miss Marple – Agatha Christie

It's kind of cheating to even have this on the list - the fic's over a decade old but I only found it again and put it onto AO3 this year. It hasn't found an audience but I can see how perfectly it slots into the movie in my mind's eye and it does everything I wanted it to - it's such a fleshed out world.

[jtownraindancer]

The Burn Collection

Hello friends! I've been hunting down Burn Gorman's works (film, screen, and radio) over the past few months, and since sharing is caring~

Audiobooks

Arkham County- From within the walls of Arkham’s asylum, reclusive writer Randolph Carter tells the story of orphan Violet Flintock, who arrives in Arkham County in search of her own history only to be instantly greeted by the bloody realities of this small town, whose foundations are built from the lore and mythology of HP Lovecraft. Horror; mature themes. 2020. Ensemble cast. Wilbur. [complete]

Torchwood: Everyone Says Hello- Across Cardiff, ordinary people are behaving in odd ways: saying hello to complete strangers, and going out of their way to greet one another. Torchwood discovers that an alien communications field is gathering strength in the area. The team must find the device responsible and shut it off - before civil unrest engulfs the whole city. 2008. Narrator. Owen Harper. [complete]

Torchwood: Slow Decay- A friend of Gwen's has recently done an impressive bit of slimming, thanks to a new Cardiff weight-loss clinic with an incredibly simple system, and now Rhys wants to give it a try. Elsewhere in the city, an ordinary woman with superhuman strength and a extraordinary hunger is attacking people and eating her victims. 2007. Narrator. Owen Harper. [complete]

Films

Agatha Christie's Marple: Ordeal By Innocence- Old wounds are reopened for the Argyle family when a man suddenly turns up after being abroad and claims that the black sheep of the family could not have murdered its tyrannical matriarch. 2007. Ensemble cast. Antagonist. Jacko Argyle. [complete]

Cemetery Junction- In early 1970s England, three friends spend their days in banter, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. Freddie wants to escape their working class world but cheeky chappy Bruce and kind-hearted slacker Snork are happy with life the way it is. When Freddie gets a job as a door-to-door insurance salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie, the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives forever. 2010. Ensemble cast. PC Renwick. [complete]

Color Me Kubrick- The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), despite knowing very little about his work and looking nothing like him. 2005. Period typical -isms. Ensemble cast. Willie. [complete]

Crimson Peak- An aspiring young author travels to a remote Gothic mansion in Cumberland, England with her new husband and his sister. There, she must decipher the mystery behind the ghostly visions that haunt her new home. 2015. Ensemble cast. Mr. Holly. [complete]

Dalziel and Pascoe: A Death in The Family- When a transit depot is robbed of £600,000 in used banknotes, the thieves left one thing behind: a dead security guard. The victim is revealed to be the inside man and telephone records lead to Steve Pitt, found dead in his restaurant. 2006. Ensemble cast. Jerry Hart. [complete]

Enola Holmes- Enola is the youngest sibling in the famous Holmes family. She is extremely intelligent, observant, and insightful, defying the social norms for women of the time. Her mother Eudoria has taught her everything she needs to know to be strong-willed and independent. But on her sixteenth birthday, Enola wakes to find that her mother has disappeared. 2020. Ensemble cast. Linthorn. [complete]

Fred Claus- Santa's bitter older brother, Fred, is forced to move to the North Pole to help Santa and the elves prepare for their big night in exchange for cash. But what started out as an easy way to make money soon turns into a desperate attempt to save Christmas. 2007. Cameo. Elf. [complete]

Guernica- "Listen, George. Here's your damn war story. Twenty-six April, 1937. Gernika. Don't give a damn if you use my name or you have someone else sign it. But it's the story I want printed. Ready? A very small town in the north of Spain is about to become very famous, but for all the wrong reasons." 2016. Ensemble cast. Soviet Consul. [complete]

Imperium- A young FBI agent, eager to prove himself in the field, goes undercover as a white supremacist. 2016. Mature content. Ensemble cast. Morgan. [complete]

In A Valley of Violence- A mysterious stranger and a random act of violence drag a town of misfits and nitwits into the bloody crosshairs of revenge. 2016. Ensemble cast. Priest. [complete]

Jimi: All Is By My Side- In 1966, an unknown guitarist named James Hendrix leaves New York for London, changes his name to Jimi and begins to make his mark in the world of rock music. Ensemble cast. Michael Jeffrey. [complete]

Johnny English Reborn- Johnny English is retired in Tibet and in disgrace in MI7 after a washed-up mission in Mozambique. Summoned unexpectedly by MI7 to stop assassins from killing Chinese Premier Xiang Ping. 2011. Ensemble cast. Agent Slater. [complete]

Layer Cake- A successful cocaine dealer gets two tough assignments from his boss on the eve of his planned early retirement. 2004. Ensemble cast. Gazza. [complete]

Lift- A master thief and his Interpol Agent ex-girlfriend team up to steal $500 million in gold bullion being transported on an A380 passenger flight. 2024. Ensemble cast; antagonist. Cormac. [complete]

Love is Not Enough- DV Indie filmmaker due to shoot promo for unsigned Welsh pop group takes the money and uses it to finish the film he's been working on for 5 years. 2001. Mature content. Period typical -isms. Slurs. Ensemble cast. Al Weisberger. [complete]

Pacific Rim- As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse. 2013. Ensemble cast. Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. [complete]

Pacific Rim Uprising- Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost, reunites with Mako Mori to lead a new generation of Jaeger pilots against a new Kaiju threat. But this time, the threat comes from somewhere much closer to home. 2018. Ensemble cast. Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. [complete]

Penelope- Penelope Wilhern was born with the snout of a pig due to a curse that was placed on her family by a vengeful witch. The only way to break the curse is for "one of her own kind" to love her. 2006. Ensemble cast. Larry Bunter. [complete]

Ransomed- A young diplomat is assigned the task of carrying the ransom money to rescue an abducted diplomat in Lebanon, and a local taxi driver accidently gets involved in the mission. 2023. Ensemble cast. Richard Carter. [complete]

Red Lights- Psychologist Margaret Matheson and her assistant study paranormal activity, which leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic who has resurfaced years after his toughest critic mysteriously passed away. 2012. Ensemble cast. Benedict Cohen. [complete]

Sex, The City and Me- Jess, a high-flying banker, is sidelined in her job by her Machiavellian boss when she returns to work after having a baby. She decides to sue the bank and ends up risking everything, including her marriage. The drama is inspired by in-depth interviews with women who have fought major cases in the City. 2007. Ensemble cast. Lawrence. [complete]

The Curse of Steptoe- Aspiring stage actor Harry H. Corbett jumps at the chance to star in a television comedy show 'Steptoe and Son'. The show's success proves to be a poisoned chalice, thwarting his stage ambitions. Wilfrid Brambell, the actor playing his father, is a gay man in an England where homosexuality is still illegal. Both, in their own way, feel that they have invoked the curse of Steptoe. Ray Galton. [complete]

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: In Divine Proportion- While investigating the murder of an interior decorator, Inspector Lynley and Sergeant Havers quickly learn there is a connection between the victim's murder, and the death of her sister 15 years earlier. Mature themes; references to rape & suicide. 2005. Ensemble cast. Billy Verger. [complete]

The Oxford Murders- At Oxford University, a professor and a grad student work together to try to stop a potential series of murders seemingly linked by mathematical symbols. 2008. Ensemble cast. Yuri Podorov. [complete]

Undergods- A dystopian anthology set in a post-apocalyptic landscape. The breakout film of director Chino Moya, "Undergods" offers a prophetic warning that we will be the instruments of our own undoing if we refuse to address rising authoritarianism alongside growing inequality and scarcity of resources. 2020. Ensemble cast. Tim. [complete]

Up There- Martin (deceased) is stuck in a dead-end job, welcoming the newly departed into the afterlife. All he dreams of is going 'Up There'. But his plans are thrown into disarray when he has to team up with the relentlessly chirpy Rash, and together they lose a new arrival. 2011. Ensemble cast; protagonist. Martin. [complete]

Walking With The Enemy- A young man, separated from his family in World War II, disguises himself as a Nazi S.S. Officer and uncovers more than just his family whereabouts. 2013. Ensemble cast. Lt. Colonel Otto Skorzeny. [complete]

Watcher- As a serial killer stalks the city, Julia -- a young actress who just moved to town with her boyfriend -- notices a mysterious stranger watching her from across the street. 2022. Ensemble cast; antagonist. Watcher; Weber. [complete]

Guest Appearances

A Lark Rise in Candleford: Season 4, Episode 3- Thomas is euphoric when he lands the job of organising the church bazaar. But his joy soon evaporates when the vicar falls ill, and the controversial and free-thinking curate Reverend Marley takes charge. Thomas is convinced that Marley is evil incarnate, and when he comes across a snake on his postal rounds, he sees it as a sign that the devil is indeed amongst them. 2011. Ensemble cast; guest star. Reverend Benedict Marley. [complete]

Casualty: Not Waving But Drowning- Penny's medical skills are tested to the limit during a diving expedition, and Holly is mystified at the collapse of a promising teenage dancer. 1999. Ensemble cast; guest star. Geoff Simpson. [complete]

Coronation Street- 1998. Ensemble cast; guest star. Ben Andrews. [coming soon!]

Forever- Dr. Henry Morgan is a New York City medical examiner who studies the dead for criminal cases, and to solve the mystery of his own immortality. 2014. Ensemble cast; guest star. Lewis Farber/Adam. (Appears only in episodes 11, 14, 18, 21 & 22, but all episodes are here!) [complete]

Game of Thrones- Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros, while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia. 2011. Ensemble cast; guest star. Karl Tanner. (only featuring Burn's four appearances) [complete]

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Flowers For Charlie- Charlie being used as a test subject for a new intelligence pill that makes him smarter and more aware of his messed-up life, causing him to quit his janitor job. Meanwhile, Dee, Dennis, and Mac try to do Charlie's work but get sidetracked and high on gasoline; and Frank tries to bring Charlie back to his dimwitted self. 2013. Ensemble cast; guest star. The Scientist/Science Bitch. [complete]

Lucky Man- From the mind of comic book legend Stan Lee comes a bold new action crime series about a brilliant but flawed police officer with the power to control luck. 2016. Ensemble cast; guest appearance. Doug. (Featuring only the three episodes in which he starred.) [complete]

Merseybeat: Coming of Age- Sgt. Gentle decides it's time for a change and decides to go out on the beat with PC Traynor, and the pair investigate a burglary at the home of an antiques dealer. Meanwhile, Ch. Insp. Oulton tries to help out an old friend who has found himself on the wrong side of the law. 2001. Ensemble cast; guest appearance. Sean Finnigan. [complete]

The Man in The High Castle- In a dystopian America dominated by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, a young woman discovers a mysterious film that may hold the key to toppling the totalitarian regimes. 2015. The Marshal. (Featuring only the two episodes in which he starred.) [complete]

Miniseries

And Then There Were None- Ten strangers are invited to Soldier Island, an isolated rock near the Devon coast in southern England. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. As members of the party start to die one by one, the survivors realize that one of them is a killer and start to turn on each other. Mature themes. 2015. Ensemble cast. Sergeant Detective William "Bill" Blore. [complete]

Bleak House- Jarndyce and Jarndyce is an interminable law case in the Court of Chancery, concerning two or more wills and their beneficiaries. Eventually, after several decades, a verdict is finally reached, but not without a surprising number of twists along the way. 2005. Ensemble cast. William Guppy. (Video formatting issues in a couple episodes- i.e. fuzzy and/or black borders on sides in several sections. Full picture still visible, just with weird borders.) [complete]

Cheat- What starts out as what appears to be an open-and-shut case of academic dishonesty, soon spirals out of everyone’s control, proving there’s far more to the story than just a plagiarised essay. What lies behind the shocking events and tragedies that unfurl? Mature themes. 2019. Ensemble cast. Ben Jarvis. [complete]

Spies of Warsaw- A military attaché at the French embassy is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw. 2013. Ensemble cast. Jourdain. [complete {with Portuguese subtitles}]

The Hour- 2011. Ensemble cast. Thomas Kish. [coming soon!]

The Offer- A series based on Oscar-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy's extraordinary, never-revealed experiences of making "The Godfather." 2022. Ensemble cast. Charles Bluhdorn. [complete]

The Runaway- Cathy Connor and Eamonn Docherty are childhood sweethearts who are desperate to escape their East End roots. When Cathy murders her Mum's pimp in self-defense it changes their lives forever. Mature themes. 2011. Ensemble cast. Richard Gates. [complete]

Wuthering Heights- Based on the classic novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights is a story of love, obsession, hate and revenge. The protagonists, Cathy and Heathcliff, form a love that is dark and destructive and affects the lives of everyone around them. 2009. Ensemble cast. Hindley Earnshaw. [complete]

Podcasts & Radio Dramas

Curl Up & D.I.- Gemma and Andy are two feckless coppers patrolling the mean streets of Slatby, a faded North Yorkshire seaside town with an unsolved murder problem. With conventional leads exhausted, local hairstylists, gossipmongers and armchair crime-solvers Yacky and Reuben are enlisted, and their salon unwittingly becomes the beating heart of all ongoing detective operations. Welcome to the murky hinterlands of soft perms and slaughter. Mature content. 2022. Chief Steve "Wendy" Concern. [complete]

Doctor Who: Timelord Victorious: Echoes of Extinction- Trapped, a haunted monster waits to consume new victims. It needs help. It needs a doctor. Unfortunately, it also needs to kill whoever it meets. Thrust into immediate danger, and on the back-foot, it will take all of the Doctor’s ingenuity to triumph. Two interlinked adventures. Two Doctors. One foe. 2021. Ensemble cast. The Network. [complete]

Glad To Be Back- Opera-loving Lezzo is on home leave for the weekend. His prison term is due to end in four weeks' time, and he is looking for a little innocent enjoyment. His friends have other plans in mind however, and his mother has some worrying news. 1999. Ensemble cast. Norman; Various. [complete]

He Died With His Eyes Open- A detective in 1980s London investigates a brutal murder, but has little to go on except for the victim's cassette diaries. 2013. Ensemble cast; narrator. The Detective. [complete]

King Trash- Mike Hodges adapts King Lear in a gritty retelling following KT, an 80-year-old criminal despot who owns a landfill site in the outskirts of London, and his daughter Honey, who is anything but sweet. Mature themes. 2007. Ensemble cast. Clint. [complete]

The Babington Plot- During the reign of Elizabeth I, a group of Catholic gentlemen conceived a plan to assassinate the Queen. The story of the failed conspiracy, told in documentary fashion on its one-year anniversary, is revealed via the different perspectives of several participants in the events. 2008. Ensemble cast. Robert Poley. [complete]

The Battersea Poltergeist- A paranormal cold case, re-investigated through a thrilling blend of drama and documentary. The true story of one of Britain's strangest hauntings. 2021. Ensemble cast. Wally Hitchings. (includes original adverts.) [complete]

The Mayor of Casterbridge- Michael Henchard spends his life trying to atone for the terrible action that led to the loss of his wife and child. But his past refuses to be buried, no matter how hard he tries to conceal it. Dark themes. 2008. Ensemble cast. Abel Whittle. [complete]

The Reckoning: The Death of Christopher Marlowe- In London, 1593, playwright Christopher Marlowe, a young writer, is stabbed in a disagreement over the bill, and the authorities find that Marlowe was killed in self-defence. History says it was just a drunken quarrel, nothing more. But Charles Nicholl thinks it was murder, and an unsolved murder never grows old. 2022. Ensemble cast. Robert Poley. [complete]

The Spy- Henry Wharton, a young British soldier, sneaks into No-Man's Land in civilian clothing in order to visit the family he hasn't seen in over a year. But the happy reunion is cut short when he is captured by American soldiers and must stand trial as a spy. 2012. Ensemble cast. Harvey Birch. [complete]

The Taming of The Shrew- Petruchio, after collecting money from both her younger sister's suitors and a dowry from her father, is ready to marry Katherine, even against her will. Have Katherine and Petruchio learned to love each other? Or is the marriage based on terror and deception? 1998. Ensemble cast. Grumio. [complete]

The War Master: Escape From Reality: The Adventure of The Deceased Doctor- When Dr John Watson is informed of his own murder, only the world’s greatest consulting detective can assist. He just happens to come from a different world. 2022. Ensemble cast. Lestrade/Moriarty. [complete] (included the other three parts of Escape From Reality saga; will have Parts 1-4 indicated in titles)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- When a tornado strikes her farmhouse in Kansas, young Dorothy is lifted to the magical world of Oz where she embarks upon a perilous journey to find her way back home. 2009. Ensemble cast. Tin Man. [complete]

Unauthorised History: The Killing- Four men have rented an upstairs room in a tavern to have a "meeting". Sometime later, a violent commotion is heard, and only three of the four men come out alive. The coroner rules that Christopher Marlowe, contemporary of William Shakespeare, was killed in self-defense. One man is not so certain, and he's determined to uncover the truth, no matter where the trail leads. 2010. Ensemble cast. Robert Poley. [complete]

Television Series

Halo- Aliens threaten human existence in an epic 26th-century showdown. 2022. Ensemble cast; antagonist. Vishner Grath. [complete]

Jamestown- 1619. Alice, Verity, and Jocelyn are among several women arrived from England, duty-bound to marry the men who have paid for their passage to Jamestown. Also arriving from England are Governor Yeardley and his wife Temperance, who will quickly discover the difficulties in both running the settlement and preventing a Company Secretary from undermining his position. 2017-19. Ensemble cast. Virginia Company Secretary Nicholas Farlow. [complete]

Torchwood- The members of the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization founded by the British Crown, fight to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats. 2006. Ensemble cast. Dr. Owen Harper. [in progress- Seasons 1 & 2 posted!]

TURN: Washington's Spies- Long Island farmer Abe Woodhull bands together with a group of childhood friends to form an unlikely group of spies, The Culper Ring, who turn the tide in America's fight for independence. 2014-18. Ensemble cast. Major Edmund Hewlett. [complete]

Torchwood Audios

Corpse Day- PC Andy Davidson is very excited. It’s Corpse Day – the day when the local constabulary get help on dead cases from Torchwood. This year, he’s volunteered to act as liaison, and he knows he’s going to have a brilliant time. For Dr. Owen Harper, today’s just like any other. There’ll be bloodshed, screaming and murder. At the end of it all, he doesn’t care. After all, life’s just for the living, and he’s long dead. 2017. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

Gooseberry- Andy has a girlfriend. She's called Caite, and she's utterly lovely. And then she meets Owen. Owen finds out that Caite has a secret. One that he's desperate to understand. But the more he discovers, the more dangerously close to Caite he becomes. What's going to happen when Andy finds out? 2021. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

Iceberg- Dr. Owen Harper gets a call from an old friend in the middle of the night. She's got a ward full of coma patients, all of them checking in with a dead relative as their imaginary friend. Is it mere coincidence, or have they discovered a bridge between the living and the dead? 2020. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

Lease of Life- 3 bed, 1 bath, shared house in a vibrant area with easy access to Cardiff city centre. Has a real lived-in feel. Note to interested parties: There is a small spreading mould issue, and an investigation is being undertaken on site. Those worried are advised to contact the Council's Mould Expert, Dr. Owen Harper. 2021. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

The Hope- Megwyn Jones is one of the most hated women in Britain. She used to run a home for troubled children in an isolated part of Snowdonia called The Hope. For a long time there were rumours about what was happening there, and then one day it was realised that the children had gone missing. The years have been long and hard, but now Megwyn’s dying, and she’s agreed to go back to The Hope, to reveal the horrible secret she’s kept all these years. 2019. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

The Last Beacon- A signal in a Welsh mountain is calling an ancient battlefleet to Earth. Owen Harper and Ianto Jones head up into the Brecons to stop it. The problem is - Ianto really loves camping. Owen? Owen does not. 2018. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

The Three Monkeys- Andy Davidson's been ordered to watch over a local businessman, and he's suprised when Owen decides to tag along on the stakeout. Andy knows it can't just be coincidence- Owen knows something- the businessman's attracted Torchwood’s attention. Tonight, the two of them are going to take him down. But will luck be on their side? 2020. Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

Torchwood Special: Believe- The Church of the Outsiders believe that mankind is about to evolve, to reach out into the stars. Owen Harper believes that Torchwood has to do whatever it takes to stop them. Mature content. 2018. Main cast! Ensemble cast. Owen Harper. [complete]

*This post will be updated as I find more content. **Quality may not always be the best due to age and/or limited availability. Will do my best to clean audio/video up, and will hopefully be able to find better quality replacements in time.

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent Day 16: Paris

PAAAAAARRRRRRIIIISSSS!

There are not words for how much I love this episode, there really aren't. I actually listened to it early this morning because I was so excited, and then had to deal with a difficult personal situation and was like "oh dang I wish I hadn't listened to it yet so I could cheer up from it now!" But I had, so I listened to Hot Desk (from Double Acts) instead. Also very effective.

Anyway- I love everything about this episode, because I LOVE Golden Age mysteries! I'm not super well read on all the different authors, but I've had a lot of fun over the years reading Conan Doyle (and Poe and Wilkie Collins, if we're going that far back), Chesterton, Christie, and more recently Sayers, and even more recently have read a smattering as well of John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, and a bunch of others. To digress a little, I highly highly recommend Martin Edwards's excellent book The Golden Age of Murder and his wonderful short-story anthology compilations and reprints- it really got me on a kick of trying to read a bit more broadly in the genre after discovering how much I loved reading a few specific authors growing up. It's been really rewarding and I highly recommend it!

Now, the thing with Paris is that the popular backstory is "John Finnemore had Benedict Cumberbatch on the show, he became famous as Sherlock on Sherlock, Finnemore thought it would be funny to do a mystery themed one as a result, and so we have Marin Crieff as "Miss Marple." Which is apparently not UNtrue per se, but JF himself has said that he always planned to do a mystery episode. Which makes sense, as in the first link just now JF makes clear that Golden Age mysteries are his "trashy fiction of choice," about which I can only say amen!

Which is what makes the episode so great- because it's super clear what kind of love for the genre he put into the episode as a result. There's the Christie- obviously the Miss Marple references but also the "gathering everyone together in the parlor" thing (which she doesn't do ALL the time... but she does PRETTY often lol). There's obviously the Conan Doyle reference, which is "snappily put," as Douglas says. There's a fun reference to Raffles- who may not be a detective himself but is definitely a cousin to the whodunnit genre (or shall we say brother-in-law, as he was Conan Doyle's...), and there's "Crieff of the Yard," which is a phrase that I'm confident has a basis in detective writing but that I'm not able to pinpoint, which is annoying. Arthur's example of the monkey at the circus also evokes a few stories of MASSIVELY varying quality involving unlikely murderous animals, which is always fun. (And parenthetically, while there are no Sayers references that I can find, I will say that I continue to be confident that the dog-collar plotline in Here's What We Do from Double Acts is a reference to the dog-collar plotline in Gaudy Night. He has never confirmed it but like, how could it not be? Or at least so I tell myself.)

But all of that is window dressing- the episode itself is a beautifully written impossible crime mystery, and I love that about it. JF has mentioned that he likes John Dickson Carr, who was big for locked room mysteries/impossible crimes- though loads of writers wrote them (including, incidentally, AA Milne, who you likely know better from Winnie the Pooh, who wrote a fun early example of the genre that you can read here for free because of that magical phenomenon, copyright expiration). And this episode is just such a good example of one that it makes me wish that JF would get into the whodunnit-writing game more broadly (beyond his Cain's Jawbone sequel). If Richard Osman can do it...!

In one of the above-linked blogposts, JF mentions that it's "pleasing how naturally my main cast fitted into familiar roles from the detective fiction genre - the meticulous detective, his devoted assistant, his no nonsense boss… and his nemesis, the Napoleon of crime." Which is awesome, but I think there's even more there. I particularly love that it's an impossible crime mystery in a closed circle. While there's a genre of whodunnit where you have the corpse or whatever and have to cast a wide net to find witnesses and clues, writers there often either have to make the potential dead ends in the detective work REALLY interesting or rely a lot on coincidence. Closed circle crimes (like ones at a country house or within a workplace or somewhere with guards at all the doors or something like that) can help mystery writers focus in on the story without having to worry too much about the logistics of "why these people?" and it's why you get so many mysteries set on trains or ships or islands or whatever. And an airplane is one of the best closed circles there is, because unless you're DB Cooper you're not getting out. Agatha Christie did an early one in Death in the Clouds which is a lot of fun, and this episode is a great example.

The fun thing about closed circle whodunnits and impossible crime mysteries is that the whole point of them is that usually, the author is just straight up lying to you. There's a vent for a snake to go through, or a secret doorway to the outside, or the time when the door was locked or the circle was closed isn't actually when the crime took place, but a fake gunshot makes you think it was. And that's why I love this so much- because the author/liar of the mystery is Douglas. He's the genre savvy one. He's the one who's lying, he's the one who's turning it all into a whodunnit, and he's waiting to see if he can get away with it. He's the Napoleon of Crime- and a Columbo villain setting up the false trail that he hopes Columbo will fall for.

Because... and JF notes this in both blog posts... there's no mystery here! Obviously Douglas did it. The point here is that this episode is like if Columbo was as dumb as he seemed and the criminal managed to lead him down the garden path and got away with it. It's "what if Poirot were a moron but still had to solve the murder of Roger Ackroyd." Douglas is the one who creates an impossible crime scheme, anticipates that he'll still be suspected because, well, he's him, and manages to come up with alternative scenarios- including ones that open the seemingly closed circle of the crime- that are convincing enough to throw Martin off the scent. Without him, it would just be "so how did Douglas do it this time?"

Now, the impossible crime is still important, because while we all kind of know that Douglas did it, we still don't know how he did it. And from that perspective alone, JF's impossible crime puzzle is genius. The clues that he drops are really interesting (I'm not 100% sure I see the nail polish bottle as being fair play, but plenty of whodunnits aren't so I don't really care) and it's something that, even as we see Douglas writing a whole separate decoy mystery (reminiscent of his decoy apple juice?) on top of his own scheme, keeps us intrigued throughout even once it becomes pretty clear that Douglas has been snowing all of them. So all of that is fun- but it's far more fun with all the other tropes and schemes and false trails laid on top of it, giving it so many more dimensions.

And then, at the end, nobody solves it- the detective's reveal, after all the carefully left false trails, comes from the thief himself.

It's just... so beautiful. Ahhhh.

I feel like (and one of the blog posts mentions this) that there's a question of whether Douglas actually pulled it off, particularly in the context of whether Martin would really need to pay Carolyn at the end. My opinion is: practically, yes, Douglas stole the whiskey. If Birling hadn't offered them the cufflinks, he'd never have revealed his trick and he'd have had ample opportunity the rest of the trip to empty his decoy apple juice in the sink, replace it with whiskey, and fill up the bottle with cheap whiskey from the plane's bar or the Paris airport duty free. (Or whatever his plan was- but that seems plausible.) Carolyn would have never known once they returned. And the episode leaves open whether practically speaking Martin actually does have to pay Carolyn, but thematically... yes, of course he does, the whole question here is "is Douglas the organ grinder" and the answer is that he obviously is. The monkey's gotta pay up!

I love, incidentally, so many more things about this episode- the humor, Mr Birling, the ways in which everything is so true to character, basically everything about Arthur... but I've already gone on long enough.

[therealvinelle]

As a casual Agatha Christie fan, I am delighted by that recommendation. Do you have any other favorite books from her?

Sure!

And Then There Were None Ten people go to an island, it does not go well. This one stands out in that it has a good adaptation!

Appointment with Death The murder is ingenius and all in this one, but what I particularly enjoy is how well Christie captures the power an abusive mother can have over her adult children, it's a dynamic you don't often see in fiction (at least not played out this way).

Cards on the Table M. Shaitana has a fantastic idea: he's going to invite four murderers and four law enforcers to his house for a night of bridge, and he's going to stir up as much drama as possible. Things do not go well for M. Shaitana. (Stay miles away from the Suchet adaptation)

Crooked House The patriarch of an affluent family dies, and his twelve-year-old granddaughter decides to investigate. I was the same age when I first read it, which made the ending uh interesting.

Curtain Poirot finds the perfect murderer.

Death on the Nile Makes the list for many reasons, it's such a classical Christie but also because nobody agrees with Jackie's life choices, not even Jackie.

Hallowe'en Party A child claims to have witnessed a murder, no one believes her. A few hours later she's found murdered. I mostly like this one for the utterly insane murderer. What a champ.

Murder on the Orient Express There's a murder on the Orient Express. (If you want a film version, the 1974 version is the best. Suchet's version is... melodramatic, I don't like its ending but it had a fantastic opening scene, while the Branagh version is an atrocity, do not watch.)

Ordeal by Innocence Five years ago Arthur Calgary nerded about penguins to some random guy then left for Antarctica the next day. It was great. Now he returns to England only to find that the man was Jacob Argyle, and he was accused of murdering his mother that night. He kept claiming his alibi was some penguin guy and could give very specific, identifying details that five years later make Arthur Calgary "yup, that's me!", but Calgary was in Antarctica at the time so he never came forward. And uh Jacob died in prison in the meantime. But, Calgary tells himself, the important thing is that Jacob was innocent, right? Right? The Argyle family, who had finally put this behind them only to learn that their brother was innocent and one of the remaining members did it, don't agree.

Sad Cypress Elinor Carlisle is sad. She's about to hang for a double homicide she might not have committed, but even without that she'd still be pretty miserable.

The Secret Adversary I felt I had to recommend a Tommy and Tuppence, and while I don't remember much of any of them I'll just recommend the first one in the series. Tommy and Tuppence books are more political thriller than the usual fare, great fun if you want to switch things up during your Christie binge. (Do not touch ITV's By the Pricking of My Thumbs, though.)

The Mirror Crack'd One of my all-time favorites and weirdly formative. Miss Marple is grappling with the realities of old age, and solves a murder along the way. It's more character heavy than many of Christie's books, people do the things they do because it is in their nature and they can't escape it.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles The very first one! It makes the list for that. And because if you plan to read Curtain, you should read this one first as it references this one a lot.

Towards Zero Following the logic that the murder isn't the beginning of the story, but rather the culmination of one, this story is building towards the zero point - the moment the murder will occur.

Honestly, anon, I'm just listing Christies I fondly remember, I can keep going but the post will just get unreasonably long. Go read Agatha Christie, she's great.

Hercule Poirot's Christmas and A Pocketful of Rye get special shoutouts because while I haven't read the books, the ITV adaptations were really good, the former particularly with the casting and the latter particularly with the way the reveal was done. Same goes for One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, haven't read it but the adaptation was great.

(Overall I'm ambivalent about ITV's adaptations, the Poirot series wanted to be a fairly light, feelgood show the whole family could watch after dinner, and while both series liked to change things from the books and overall make them more daytime television, the Miss Marple series changed a lot more than the Poirot series did. They both have a nasty habit of putting Poirot and Marple in stories they weren't originally, usually to the story's detriment (passive aggressive shoutout to By the Pricking of My Thumbs). It's annoying, though does make it hilarious that they couldn't put Poirot in Crooked House.

They're still entertaining and I don't turn off the TV when an episode is on unless it's one of the bad ones, but... well it's daytime television-ified Christie.)

[usagirln12003]

Shanks: Hogwarts AU

Shanks is a Pureblood wizard that was born on the 9th of March 1960 and started attending Hogwarts on the 1st of September 1971, being sorted into Gryffindor House.

He has a Marple wand with a Phoenix Feather core.

His Patronus is a Lion.

His favorite subject was Defense Against the Dark Arts and his least favorite subject was Potions.

He was one of the Gryffindor Prefects of his year and later Head-boy.

Shanks is an extremely laid-back man, preferring to take his time by traveling around the world with his friends while enjoying himself as opposed to rushing from one place to another. This was already the case in his youth, where he was portrayed as playful and innocent in contrast to the grumpy and opportunistic Buggy, his foster brother. However, Shanks still suffered from occasional bouts of immaturity, starting trivial arguments with Buggy solely out of stubbornness. In many ways, Shanks was very similar to Luffy (as a child) in his younger years.

Shanks and his friends are almost always partying and drinking alcoholic beverages, as Shanks' favorite pastimes are attending and hosting parties and banquets. He is even able to waver the resolve of prominent figures, such as Dracule Mihawk to join in with his fun, as a testament to his strong charisma. Shanks is endlessly fond of parties and will start them for all sorts of occasions (regardless of whether he had already partied beforehand), as he did when he finally met Luffy's brother, Portgas D. Ace. Shanks is also quite the jokester and has a penchant for teasing others.

Despite his outward simplicity, Shanks has a rather complex moral code. His aversion to conflict has led him to believe that if personal opinions conflict, no matter how close the individuals may be, it is better for them to part ways. It is indicative that Shanks prefers others to see him as someone who cares little about his own well-being, preferring to laugh off even dire situations as opposed to taking direct conflict. His carefree nature ends, however, when those under his leadership or protection are threatened, which extends to those he views as friends. As one of the world's most famous Curse Breaker, Shanks acknowledges that he too has a reputation to maintain and will hunt after those that dare cause trouble on his territories, regardless of his own personal thoughts on the troublemakers. This was best exemplified by his handling of the Barto Club, as while he showed fondness for Bartolomeo and his devotion to Luffy, Shanks still had them arrested for burning down his house, since, as an adult with many people relying on his name for protection, he could not risk being perceived as weak by the ministry or rival wizards.

As noted by the higher ups at the ministry, Shanks is a pacifist by nature who does not actively seek to cause chaos and disorder. He is also against the idea of needless bloodshed, even if honor is involved, and so far he seems to only step up for a fight when a friend is in danger. He seems to admire those who display extreme bravery for the sake of humanitarian reasons, having protected and commended Koby for gathering his courage to try to convince the higher ups that the Fourth Wizarding War is about to begin in front of the ruthless ministry worker Sakazuki, as the young Gryffindor believed that it was pointless to continue to deny the truth and preparing for war should be prioritized. While Shanks seems to always favor peaceful solutions, he will stand up and fight if the enemy leaves him no choice or if he wants to avoid further destruction to places he cares about.

Unlike some of his fellow Curse Breakers, Shanks is not arrogant and is fully capable of acknowledging the threat his enemies can pose. In his talk with Whitebeard, Shanks admitted the scar he got from Blackbeard was not because of a mistake on his part, but proof of Blackbeard's power at the time. This allowed Shanks to understand Blackbeard had been biding his time in Whitebeard's family to build up his power until he was ready to make his move. Despite his own immense strength, he does not underestimate his opponents, using his occlumency before fighting Kid Eustass and quickly jinxing him when he saw Kid's attack. When he decides that he needs to fight, he is ruthless, having a building destroyed and seemingly wiping out Kid's friends. This aspect makes Shanks harder to defeat compared to other wizards such as Kaidou, Big Mom, and Blackbeard; he will not give his opponent any openings or play around with them. Instead, he will properly crush them.

Shanks also has skills in diplomacy, which, coupled with his status as one of the most skilled Curse Breakers in the world, means that his words usually carry enormous weight for those aware of his reputation. He brokered a ceasefire between the Whitebeard family and the ministry because he knew that joining the fight himself would have tipped it against the aurors. Shanks managed to convince Sengoku, the then ministry of magic, to agree with his proposition, even though Sengoku has a strong hatred for him.

Despite being calm and brave most of the time, Shanks is sometimes surprisingly careless, acting and reacting in ways that are not always fitting to what others expect from him, a trait noted by Buggy to be "endlessly annoying". Those include panicking when things go wrong or shrugging off Buggy's angry disposition towards him to greet him in a friendly manner. That said, Shanks can be surprisingly serious and mature while dealing with certain topics, which runs opposite to his normal, fun-loving persona. It has been noted that he has problems relaxing while in enemy territory, causing his magic to burst out of his control, even though, outwardly, Shanks appears fine. Like many of his rival wizards, Shanks has an interest in having a life full of adventure, stating his intention to start battling for it after the downfalls of two of UK's most famous wizards, Kaidou and Big Mom. Additionally, Shanks is also aware that he needs the Elder Wand to achieve this goal and therefore does not shy away from fighting for the Deathly Hallow himself.

Having traveled around the world, Shanks believes the best sake can be found in his hometown, indicating a nostalgic streak. During his encounter with Whitebeard, he referred to alcohol as "healing water".

Like other wizards, Shanks has his own unique laugh, starting it with a "Da" (i.e., Dahahahahaha!).

[noahsbookhoard]

📚April 2024 Book Review (Part 2/3)📚

Lots of "first" this month: there are so many classic authors I had never read before! But they were all really enjoyable, it is another good batch.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

To save her family's pub, Polly Perks has to find her brother, a Missing in Action soldier of the Borogravian army. She disguises herself as a man and enlist in the army under the name Oliver. A brilliant idea she might not have been the only one to have.

This one I was impatient to read, the concept was such a classic of fantasy novel that I had high hopes Terry Pratchett would make something awesome out of it.

I love the characters in every Discworld novel but this one especially: all the soldiers have different reasons to be here but they all stay together and care for one another. And I love the clown car effect of "surely this one isn't a woman too!" I couldn't get enough of it.

The story in itself is a bit blury in my memory, sorry. It's probably because I listen to the audiobook and I sometimes lose sight of the plot, on top of it being 5 months behind me. I remember most of all the Nuggan's ever expanding list of Abominations (religious taboos which includes the color blue, people under 3ft tall and sneezing) and the question of The Duchess (deified ruler of Borogravia) being alive or dead.

The message of the novel isn't subtle but if you need to be told that war is bad, religious bigotry and jingoism are bad and misogyny is bad you might be beyond subtlety. I love that Terry Pratchett is definite in his position, razor-like in his satire but always entertaining and funny. Fantasy is a political tool and he proves it everytime.

And (because I am still a fangirl inside) I had my little Vimes cameo as the cherry on top. 10/10 no notes.

Murder at the Vicarage (L'affaire Protheroe) by Agatha Christie

The Colonel Propheroe is widely disliked in the village of St Mary Mead, even his wife is cheating on him. So when he is found shot dead and with a strange half written note, there is no shortage of suspects, not even the Vicar with his very unkind words a few hours before. Miss Jane Marple, the Vicarage's neighbour, decides to solve the mystery.

My first Miss Marple novel! I have absolutely no reading order, this is a bit disjointed so I thought it was my first Christie but I remembered that technically I read And Then They Were None some time ago, it just completely slipped my mind. At that point I hadn't read any Hercule Poirot either so I was quite fresh to Christie's writing and ready for the challenge.

I made the questionable decision to read her novels in french because I wanted to give myself the best chance to solve the mystery. I thought reading in my native language would be easier. Well, apparently the most common translation is old and really not that great so I might rethink that! But for the foreseeable future (at least september) I will have read them in french. And completely failed at solving the crimes but that's another issue.

I don't want to say too much about the plot because that's the whole point of a whodunit but Agatha Christie always has the art of making an asshole the victim of the murder and you still want to know who did it just for the thrill of the chase.

But what I love with Christie is her detectives. The characters are usually quite flat and archetypal, but Poirot and Marple are a delight. Where Hercule Poirot is well established and respected in his craft, Miss Marple is just the nosy neighbour with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue. The narrator is just so done with her putting her nose in this case which makes it even funnier. I love Miss Marple so much, I want to be her when I grow up.

I was absolutely lost in all the clues, so I did not deduce any part of the revelation but even if I had I would not have seen the murdered coming, I was floored. Everything is there, you know it is, and the culprit still takes you by surprise. Great job Mrs Christie, you did it again.

I, Robot (Robots #1) by Isaac Asimov

In the 2050's Dr. Susan Calvin, famous robopsychologist, answer a reporter's interview and tells him several stories about robot intelligence and their interaction with humans.

Asimov is a legend in SciFi so it was a prerequisite in my discovery of the genre. I read very few short stories anthology so I was a scared I wouldn't enjoy it but as always good books prove me wrong.

I don't remember all the short stories, the one who stuck to me are Robbie, Reason and Catch that Rabbit! but they were all good. Some more compelling than others (Catch the Rabbit! stayed in my memory because I STILL don't understand it) but I'll try to give an overall review rather than story by story.

The play on the Three Laws is at the heart of almost all of them: either it is a source of conflict or it helps in the resolution but it is endlessly creative.

Susan Calvin is an interesting character: a woman, pioneer in her field, a respected authority and she represents a more serious and scientific approach. The stories in which she appears are very murder mystery-like: there is a problem, some set of rules; how do you use the rules to solve the problem? Boom, done.

On the other hand you have the more comicsl stories with my goats: Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell! They approach each assignment as if it was some punishment in a hell design specifically for them (mood) and their first step to solving any problem is always to complain about it and bucket with the other. They are such and old couple together, please give me 10 more shorts stories with Donovan and Powell!

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

While rummaging in a dead man's appartment, Johnny Truant found a stack of paper, disorganised, written on scraps of paper, some half destroyed. Johnny will lose himself trying to organise the notes, which turn out to be an essay on a documentary film called The Navidson Record. In this film Navidson, a famous photographer, records the exploration of the house he moved in with his family and the strange dark hallway that appeared in the living room.

I've heard about House of Leaves A LOT and had no idea what it was about, I thought it was some dark academia novel and since Fourth Wimg I am weary of social media's popular book rec. A booktube account I follow talked about it and although its reviews was very lukewarm, I was intrigued. The dedication sets the tone: "this is not for you" and that finished piquing my curiosity.

I loved the actual House on Ash Lane subplot the most: it's the heart of the book, the most mysterious and the spookiest. I loved the mise en abyme, and how it saltoed back to be a book in the book's universe. The academic paper language and scientific description of the events contrast with the uncomprehensible nature of the house and the format growing more and more indecipherable as the exploration of the house progresses. It was creepy, I felt pulled in the story, I deeply enjoyed that.

I was more lukewarm toward Johnny's subplot. Watching him slowly lost himself in Zampano's work and lose his grip with reality was chilling but there came a moment where I was lost in references. It was mostly the part with her mother where you can't say what is dementia and what is real. Some theories online are interesting but some or batshit insane and made sense of a small element of the book at the expense of all the rest. At least the Labyrinth under the house doesn't make sense in a somewhat linear matter. I can deal with linear nonsense. The fact that some part of the book (some of his mother's letters and poems) are still undecyphered (That's not just a matter of turning the book upside down) was just frustrating to me: there's content here and I just can't read it? Why?

I read it while oscillating from the french paperback (there's no way you can read it on an e-reader) and a pdf of the original I found in the subreddit for the book. Sadly there's a lot that's lost in translation but also some translating choice I am still pulling my hair about. (September 19, 1988, in which the words aren't translated literally, the name of Parisian streets and landmark aren't the same... either they were throwing things at the wall trying to see what sticks (unlikely) or they knew something us reader don't...)

Overall it is an interesting book, I understand the craze. However I am not obsessed enough to spend much of my free time trying to decypher it. I lurk sometimes in the subreddit trying to see if someone came up with an interesting theory but not much more.

[engineer-gunzelpunk]

Traintober 2023: Big World

(A little bit of a story from my humanised TTTE AU This Is Sodor: The Age of Iron, concerning Aus Steam '88)

For Your Consideration

NWR Head Office, 1988

The Fat Controller looked at his calendar and roster of locomotives for the weeks and months ahead. It was coalescing nicely.

The plans for sending a group of Sudrian locos in their human form to the great Aus Steam '88 locomotive festival that was going to be held at Spencer Street Station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was heading apace.

What a clever idea for Flying Scotsman to suggest, using the Australian Steam Festival as a cover to send some of the Sudrian locos to teach the local steam engines how the NWR survived decades of onslaught of persecution; from the LMS, from creditors, from the BR, from Beeching and Marples and the whole bloody lot of them.

What an honor would it be for them to meet not just Scotty but the Australian locomotive rights radicals VR H220 Heavy Harry, VR R707 and NSWGR's 3801 on their own metals.

It would give some of the locos a nice little experience outside of their Sudrian bubble... get them to see the world, to a place where the hateful Lokodammerung was successful and where the preservation movements were running on fumes. Maybe it would pacify and humble them a little, make them see how difficult it really was to be a locomotive and not have what the NWR provided.

He had heard that Heavy Harry's residence at the North Williamstown Railway Museum at the former Newport Workshops... was not the best. It wasn't exactly the luxurious surrounds of the National Railway Museum in York.

Or that R707 was put aside by the VR in spite of being the closest thing the state had to a premier passenger locomotive... and was saved by volunteers fixing him up themselves.

He'd hoped the Sudrian locos would draw lessons from how harsh things could be outside of their little island.

Or that was the fantasy.

The reality would be they would likely get drunk and indulge in all kinds of sin, and he didn't necessarily blame them. The human world outside of Sodor was as exotic to them as railways outside the little island.

This the Fat Controller pondered. Ever since that TV show began airing, he's had to keep its star Thomas under wraps. It wouldn't do for him to get captured in the papers doing something silly, especially since the books and TV shows were a bowdlerized version of what he got up to...

So no, not Thomas, not this time.

He thought of his Strike Trio, and against common sense he had the compulsion to send them. He knew Gordon would be keen to meet a foreign Pacific express passenger locomotive and to meet his brother, and maybe perhaps the Hudsons in attendance.

He pondered Henry and James. Henry had worked pretty hard and he partied harder, but he had been pretty well behaved this past decade after being angry and restless in the 70s... And James, well, he knew that giving him a special job often made him more tractable and agreeable to work with.

Just to make sure, he put Edward down as a sort of unofficial chaperone. If this experiment worked, he would send Thomas out into the world at some point.

Not now though, not while the attention was upon him with a whole bloody TV show named after him having just screened in Australia a year previous and the world's attention was on the little blue tank engine.

"Charles, bring me to Tidmouth Sheds when the listed four have been properly hostled... I have something wonderful to tell them..."

[bropunzeling]

Mm top 5 comfort/vacation reads?

Top five tropes (to write or to read or both!)

comfort reads:

the brothers sinister series by courtney milan! great little romance series, solid sex scenes (the one in the governess affair novella is actually literally to die for), a delightful cast of characters. courtney's books are always solidly rooted in a mix of period detail and thoughtful politics, and i like how everyone likes each other!

kj charles generally but probably specifically think of england and proper english. i love very few things more in life than murder mysteries. i especially love when people initially at odds fall in love during mystery solving. it warms the cockles of my heart.

protector of the small quartet by tamora pierce - all the tortall books are comfort reads to me but this is THEE comfort read for me. i love kel with my entire body! she is precious to me! tall and buff and even-tempered but as stubborn as a mule. she and dom should have kissed!!!

agatha christie - i powered through every single one of her books available at the start of the plague times. i love the poirot books but i think for general consistency miss marple ones are almost always more solid. miss marple herself is a great outsider detective and i think there's few enough books that agatha couldn't grow to be tired of her lmao

i just powered through the goblin emperor books by katherine addison (had read the first but not the next two) and those are great fantasy books! the lingo is admittedly a bit opaque and hard to parse at first, but once you're in you're in, and the stories are really about human decency and kindness (while also providing political machinations (book 1) and murder (2 and 3), which as we all know are very comforting to me lmao)

tropes (this was really hard lmao and is for sure not definitive):

soulbond/mark/etc aus - a well done soulbond au is my jam. my artisanal preserves. the questions it raises about free will and fate? about someone being meant for you? i think there's really fun angles about like, how even relationships with this extra something still aren't going to be easy and smooth. there's also the aspect of like, strong or weak bonds? romantic or platonic (lol)? can you hear inside someone's head? or do you just feel better around them? or do you just have their name or first words to you sitting on your skin? what happens if it's one sided? what happens if it's unrequited? what happens if you're not ready? what happens if one of you wants it more than the other? what if you fall for someone you're not meant to fall for? these themes are SO fun and i love to explore them.

historical or period aus - i love aus, so jot that down, but when an author clearly loves the historical period and has taken time and care? i am there with my spoon. ALSO codes of conduct and manners just create such fun restraints to force characters who would just fuck it out to do other things because they CAN'T just fuck it out due to SCANDAL

slow burn - none of that 7k shit. but like a proper slow burn? a "takes 10k before they physically touch" slow burn? a "we're 50k in and they might actually kiss oh god please let them kiss" slow burn? mmm!!!! mmmMMMMMMMMMM

break up/make up - the thing is. the thing is!!!!! i like when characters have a history. a past. when they were something really important to each other and then that was ruined and now due to fate and or author contrivance they have been tossed together once more. like a salad. and then! the airing of grievances! the bad decision sex! (oh, the bad decision sex). the realization that there are things you know about them that they haven't told anyone else. you were the one who was there. you're the one who knows!!! in some ways you still might know them best! but right now you are worse than strangers because you may never become acquainted! until suddenly perhaps??? unless??????

arranged marriage / woke up married / marriage of convenience - i am combining all of these because the fact is i love when people get married for stupid reasons (or reasons that are not because of their ~heartfelt feelings~) and then they fall in love with the person they married and have big ol' feelings about it. i'm sure this comes as a shock.

[hotvintagepoll]

Welcome to the HOT AND VINTAGE MOVIE STARS poll blog! We are currently processing submissions for the Scrungly Little Guy (gender neutral) contest. The Hot & Vintage Movie Men & Women Tournaments are now wrapped—congrats to Toshiro Mifune and Eartha Kitt! If you are here for the Dracula Daily polls, those will be posted regularly following the progress of the Substack newsletters.

All polls—including ongoing polls, previous rounds, old tournaments, the various shadow brackets, the Dracula Daily polls, and fun mini polls—can be found in the #hotvintagepoll tag.

FAQs:

“Who counts as a scrungly little guy?” I feel like you know a scrungly little guy when you see one. Feel the scrungle within your spirit. Picture them damp.

“What are the scrungly submission rules?” They're all in the link posted above! Here it is again. If I didn't cover something in those rules, send me an ask.

If you’re submitting propaganda for your scrungly little guy, I don’t accept propaganda that’s from beyond the end of 1970. I also don’t accept them performing in TV shows unless it's a cameo appearance where they're clearly playing themselves.

The views expressed in the propaganda are not my own. I don’t submit my own propaganda, and I don’t change what’s submitted beyond fixing obvious spelling mistakes. If you hate a poll bio or a pic, let me know and send me something I can use instead.

I don’t post or boost negative propaganda about any of the hotties. If you really hate that someone is winning, send me positive propaganda for their hot opponent instead. A lot of these hotties were flawed or problematic in some way—or straight up garbage—but for reasons I go into here, I don’t boost anti-propaganda.

If I see repetitive, trolling, and/or bigoted remarks in the comments, I may block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a competitor’s problems in the replies, that’s fine, but if I see consistent bad-faith trolling or targeted harassment of anyone, you will be blocked.

“Tel me again who won the major tournaments?” Eartha Kitt was crowned the hottest Hot & Vintage Movie Woman, and Toshiro Mifune won the Hot & Vintage Movie Man Tournament.

“Tell me more about this shadow realm?” There is too much lore.

“I want to find my favorite hottie from a past tournament!” Try a tag search for them (ie, use a hashtag in my search bar to find every post I’ve tagged them in). If you still haven’t found your hottie, they either did not fit the criteria of being a movie star from 1910-1970 or they did not make it past the prelims.

“My FAQ isn’t on here :(” send me an ask! I love hearing from you guys—just please check these basics first.

Tournament schedule post-hiatus:

Ongoing: Dracula Daily casting polls

Currently accepting submissions: Scrungly Little Guys contest (gender neutral)

After that: Ultimate Hottie Tournament (top brackets of the hot men & hot women competing together)

TBD: Horror Hotties (Frankensteins, Draculas, Brides, etc.)

TBD: Dandy Detectives (Marples, Sherlocks, Nancy Drews, etc.)

fun mini polls that pit sets of characters from the same movie together, like the Philadelphia Story or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ones (these can be found in the #minis tag)

Thank you for being here! Enjoy the polls.

[readwing]

Anyways, here's the books I read last year (that weren't manga or cookbooks)-

The Beautiful and Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sister, Kjell Ola Dahl (#......like 7 or 8 in the Oslo Detective series)

American Prometheus (Oppenheimer biography), Kai Bird

Matilda, Roald Dahl

Blackmail and Bibingka, Mia P. Manansala (#3 in Tita Rosie's Kitchen)

Homicide and Halo-Halo, Mia P. Manansala (#2 in Tita Rosie's Kitchen)

The Moving Finger (Miss Marple #4), Agatha Christie

The Love Hypothesis, Ali Hazelwood

Ymir, Rich Larson

I'm not sure how to put these in an order of what I liked the most because I read them for different reasons so I'll just do a drive by:

Ymir - Started with the pedal to the floorboards and did not let up one bit. One of my favorite flavors of sci-fi is when the narrative is unabashedly About Somewhere Else. Loved how the protagonist could not move through the story without somehow cutting everyone around him, and I loved the traumatic, unresolved tension between him and his brother. Probably my favorite book by vibes alone

Sister - I adore the Oslo Detective series, for reasons that possibly scratch my brain and my brain alone. It's so dry and uninterested in selling you melodrama. I want to study the way this guy writes his interview scenes; they are the main way the detective work gets done and they work so fluidly. They never slow down the pace to make sure you're keeping up. This was a particularly fun installment, seeing one of the lead two detectives on his own doing PI work after having quit, although the cases took brutal turns.

The Moving Finger - Loved it. Love how AC is just out there inventing characters whole cloth that you'll never meet again, but as soon as you meet them you're like 'oh, wow, you're not just a character you're like a full ass person.' I loved this installment in particularly because the dynamics between the characters were just so fascinating?? Once again, I've yet to correctly guess an AC mystery. Better luck next time.

Matilda - read it for a fic I am writing. Spent most of it getting big feelings and marveling at how completely fucking accurate the live action Mara Wilson movie was. Like there were entire scenes where I was like 'this is the movie, this is exactly what happened in the fucking movie.' Great book, but also wow that movie was a wonderfully accurate adaptation.

American Prometheus - Two things I like in a biography: research and calling out when the research didn't yield anything and/or yielded contradictory records. While I struggled to get through the political back half, particularly the bits leading up to the trial, this book was an interesting look on the development of scientific ethics in the twentieth century and on how today's scientific community today is still shaped by the political machinations of the past.

Both of the Tita Rosie's Kitchen books - it's a food-themed setting for a murder mystery book (which is like it's own genre now, which is cool). Relatively easy read. I think the author is still growing into herself, but one thing that she does well is mystery-plotting. Another thing is food descriptions.

The Love Hypothesis - Mainly read it because I owned a copy. It was... probably more enjoyable for people who like romance. Given that it is a romance book. But I do try to read a bit of everything, because I think each genre has something to bring to the table story-wise. This one had some very nice getting-to-know-you moments between the characters, who had good chemistry, but I think where it was weakest was in giving similar moments to the side characters, who often felt one dimensional. The story beats about feminism and institutional unfairness could've been less heavy-handed. For something that was relevant to the plot, it often felt like the author knew they were supposed to say something about it but couldn't figure out how to say it in a way that hadn't been parroted before, which is a shame because the scenes where the protagonist actually had to deal with those issues played well.

[seals-are-cool]

I was watching A Murder is Announced in Prime and I was NOT expecting a lesbian couple there and I was so so excited I screamed and my brother came to the kitchen running. THEY EVEN KISSED and then you know what happened? Not even a fucking minute after that one of them fucking dies. AGDJAGAGSHSGAHA Miss Marple should investigate the murder I'm about to commit