#international mystery

[chantireviews]

THE FOREST by Miriam Verbeek - Crime Thriller, International Mystery, Organized Crime

The Forest, a slow-burning mystery and the second book in Miriam Verbeek’s Saskia van Essen series, follows a young investigator trying to unravel a mystery that sits deep in the core of a private logging organization. Saskia, a co-owner of International Financial Services, is requested by Tania to help uncover a network of criminal activity in her family’s Australian timber business. After…

[ombwarrior47]

The Island by Ragnar Jonasson

Title: The Island Author: Ragnar Jonasson Series: The Hulda Trilogy #2 Number of Pages: 336 Genre: International Mystery & Crime Thrillers Publisher: Minotaur Books Date of Original Publication: May 21, 2019 ISBN: 978-125019377

 As the winter draws to a close I am looking forward to spring and reading outside! This was a nice one to finish outdoors along a river the other day. Surprisingly April has been busy but I’ve had time to read!

This is book 2 of the Hulda trilogy by Ragnar Jonasson. The Island was an entertaining read. The characters are likeable and the story was interesting. I was quite surprised as I did not like book 1: The Darkness. The storyline of that one was terribly boring and I didn’t care for Hulda. Book 2 is set before book 1 regarding the case of two murders set ten years apart with relation to the same people. The island is an ominous and treacherous place, however people like to visit and mysterious things happen.

 I like all of the characters except for the main character. Each character has their own personality, roles, and develop well during the story. I like the twists in the book and how it has multiple events that keep the book moving. No slow parts and comes together nicely.

 I don’t like Hulda, unfortunately I think she’s quite drab and her life is quite boring. She also doesn’t seem to have much of a personality, I wish the author would give her a little bit of spunk. I’m also not a fan that the trilogy is not in chronological order. Book 2 is set before book 1. Wonder if book 3 is set before book 2. Oh bother.

 ★★★★ It’s worth a read. I actually think I would recommend skipping book 1 and going directly to this one.

~

Up Next:  Dark Secret (The Dark Series Book 15) by Christine Feehan

Yearly Goal Marker:

Book Goal: 10/75 – 13.3% Page Goal: 3.2K/10k – 32.8%

Follow me on LibraryThing, Goodreads, and Amazon. Same handle: OMBWarrior47

[whendidmythoughtsgocrazy]

“You’re an actress, right?”, ”All women are actresses, dear. I’m just clever enough to get paid for it.”

k.b. // murder mystery - netflix

[ronovanwrites]

11 Questions with Russel Brooks, author of Jam Run!

11 Questions with Russel Brooks, author of Jam Run! #IARTG #Afro #Caribbean #Mystery #Thriller #BYNR @Bookgal

Synopsis: What if crying out for help made you a target? Within hours of arriving in Montego Bay, Eddie Barrow and his friend Corey Stephenson witness a gruesome murder outside a bar. When the victim’s sister reaches out for help, they learn of machinations to conceal foreign corporate corruption and a series of horrific sex crimes. However, Barrow and Stephenson’s commitment to solving the case…

[bethccassidy]

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997) dir. Jay Roach

[seizethegay420]

[charitydingle]

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery 1997, dir. Jay Roach

[dailyflicks]

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997) - dir. Jay Roach

[scribz-ag24]

the sun will come out tomorrow, at least

[krysmcscience]

Don't mind me, just slacking on a big Billford comic by making other far more ridiculous Billford comics and also some AU art (please excuse my slapdash human!Bill thank you please, also before anyone asks the art style is messy and all over the place because idgaf LOL)

This started out as an excuse to design a Bill Cipher-inspired "wedding" dress, but then spiraled wildly out of control. Various rambles and a bunch more human!Bill arts under the cut, including another silly little comic at the end! (Feel free to skip the rambles, I won't be offended. I know I'm bad at shutting up. XD)

I may or may not write some comedy stuff for this AU, which I'm calling 'For Better Or Worse (But Mostly Worse)'. While Ford DOES remember getting sloshed enough for one thing to lead to making out with another after karaoke, neither he nor Bill remember this wedding, At All. The Love God did nothing to dissuade them from going hog wild on their marriage spending, either, so it got...uh. Exorbitantly Expensive. As in, the grand total could probably buy the entire fucking MOON sort of expensive. (It's fine, don't worry, Bill's good enough at crime to be able to afford it.) Also, because the logic of this AU is mostly dictated by Rule of Funny, the Love God's powers are close to unlimited when it comes to matters of romance, but ONLY when it comes to matters of romance. (Like weddings!)

Want an empty human vessel to smash the soul of a triangle into for date nights or when it's convenient, or perhaps even when it's NOT convenient? Easy peasy! Want the marriage to be recognized in every corner of the multiverse from now until the end of time, thus making any potential future divorce nigh-on impossible? Can do! Want to buy an entire beach for the ceremony and honeymoon and in general, and totally not at all because it would be Super Hilarious to prevent any specific movies from being made on that very same beach in the future? Fine, whatever, it's not his finances he's ruining!

Does the Love God also provide special rings that just so happen to turn incorporeal as long as the "happy couple" doesn't remember that they barged into his dreams to bully him into presiding over their marriage? ...No comment!

He spends the next thirty years trying and failing to get in touch with either of them for payment. This is why you should always demand half the money up front, my guy!

Also it's absolutely a traditional Jewish wedding, because I like the idea of Bill demanding all the keepsakes from the marriage that he paid for, and being completely confused when one of the things he's handed is a fancy container full of broken glass. He gets it later, but in the moment, he thinks the Love God is just fucking with him some more.

Ramble over! Here's the full dress that caused the comic to happen, along with what Ford wound up wearing at the wedding (and begrudgingly agreeing to put on again later for Reasons), aaaaand also a close-up of Bill's ring:

I may have forgotten to draw Bill's hair floofier when drawing the back of the dress, lmao

Since double ring ceremonies have been leaking over into Jewish wedding customs for a while now, Ford also has a ring, but his is the much more traditional plain gold band. There's definitely a message engraved on the inside - embarrassing, cringe, or incriminating somehow - but I haven't decided what it is yet, so use your imagination for now. XD Bill, on the other hand, saw the phrase 'traditional plain gold band' and said "No Thank You" before proceeding to embellish his ring to his liking. And because he's a secret sap who adores Ford's extra fingers, the triangle points add up to twelve, as do the engraved stars. Yes, they're stars, not dots, I just got lazy. There's also six lashes on the eye gem, and probably an eye engraving on the inside with another six lashes. (Bill's got it BAD, okay? We all know this.)

Here are the initial scribbles of Bill's custom vessel in more casual attire, please ignore the wonky anatomy and the fact that I flat out refuse to ever draw him with a proper top hat:

He does actually need a cane in this vessel; since Bill tends to possess men and especially Ford more often than not, he's used to having a higher center of gravity when in a human body, so his ability to balance is pretty garbage. (He may or may not topple over with concerning regularity.) As for his empty eye socket, his bangs don't do much to hide it since he's so high-energy (dude is constantly on the move), and he also refuses to wear a patch over it, because 1.) why bother, and 2.) it's more fun to freak people out.

To better align with Ford's attraction towards the strange, the vessel was designed with super minor shapeshifting ability - Bill can look like a perfectly normal human, but he can also make the teeth and fingers sharper whenever he likes (which is mostly just when he's angry or being more of a menace than usual), as well as slit down the pupils or outright ditch the irises altogether. He can also have whatever he wants in the downstairs department, just because I'm an indecisive bitch on that front, lmao. Maybe he can have boobs if he wants them, too, but I ain't drawin' tits on no triangle, nuh-uh, no sir. His powers are otherwise limited down to what humans can do, because for some reason, the Love God doesn't trust Bill to not snap into Immediate Apocalypse Mode if he's given a physical form that's actually all his and no one else's.

Due to the body being all his and no one else's, it's also not really a standard possession so much as it is just...Bill being temporarily human. He's a lot more aware of and in tune with his human body's senses than he ever was with his "puppets", which makes things like pain a lot more intense. (He is mostly fine with this, because he's a fukken masochist.)

A bit more fashion stuff, including beach and party attire~

The beach outfit was mostly me trying and failing to nail down his body shape, which is still not bottom-heavy enough. I then decided to slap a bikini on it, before making it supremely unsexy with a pair of fugly shorts, because Bill's fashion choices are not allowed to be conventionally attractive. Meanwhile, the party outfit was mostly me looking at the casual attire I designed, asking 'how would Bill make this Worse', and then drawing the result. The mismatched thigh-highs are killing me inside! :D

No, his vessel can't actually summon fire, I just drew it for funzies before I decided on said vessel's limitations. Yes, the gold brick tattoos are absolutely a reference to the fic 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' - I simply could not resist.

I also HAD to draw Bill in one of his canonical(?) shirts, just made tank-top'd:

He is absolutely about to over-correct and fall backwards after this. USE YOUR CANE, GOOFBALL!!! (I meant to draw Bill closer to this degree of bottom-heavy in the other images, but. Alas. I am bad at anatomy, LOL)

And, last but not least before More Comic Time, I attempted to draw him closer to Gravity Falls style:

Jury's out on whether or not I succeeded, but - hey. I tried. Now have some Handyman Bill AU, but with my goofy human design, instead:

Hey, it's a 'mystery snack', and the guy wanted A BITE to eat - the joke was right there, guys!!! (Based on this post, because it just screamed BILL CIPHER to me.)

whoops i forgor bills ring and cracks ahaha too late now

I WILL SHUT UP AND STOP RAMBLING NOW K THX BYYYYYE

[chantireviews]

CHASING OTHELLO: Book 2 of the Cleopatra Chronicles by Tina Sloan - International Mystery, Action & Adventure, Global Thriller

CHASING OTHELLO: Book 2 of the Cleopatra Chronicles by Tina Sloan - International Mystery, Action & Adventure, Global Thriller

  Chasing Othello by Tina Sloan has lies and spies, betrayal and espionage, love and hate, all wrapped up in a story that grabs the reader on the very first page and doesn’t let go until the last. Forty-something Cleopatra is shattered after discovering that one of her best friends was a terrorist who had planned to blow up Pearl Harbor. When she discovered his intentions, she was forced to kill…

[i-like-media]

[frog-thief]

"once a ordinary monk picked up a lonely and lost sparrow"

[doubtfultaste]

Madhouse (1974)

[bethccassidy]

AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997) dir. Jay Roach

Austin Powers: [holding Scott hostage] It seems the tables have turned again, Dr. Evil.

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

hot take I think the sexes would be much happier if we just accepted each other as mysteries instead of constantly shaming one for not being more like the other.

like, personally, in my own life, the whole idea of romance & marriage became way more exciting and attractive when I ditched the notion that men are just bigger stronger women, or women are just smaller prettier men.

like. not only is it okay that men are from mars and women are from venus, it's good.

do I know what's going on in my guy friend's head? I used to think I did, but it turns out I don't. Turns out I've never known what was going through the heads of any of the men in my life. And you know what? what a relief. he can do or say things that don't make sense to me, and they don't have to make sense to me. I know he's a smart, good-hearted guy; I can safely assume he had a reason for saying or doing that thing. And if I listen to him over time, I may even start to understand what that reason was. But I don't have to. What I can recognize instead is that each sex has a wisdom in their way of thinking and doing which befits given situations. More often than not, a situation requires both.

But you simply can't get both from one person, and you shouldn't demand it. And what a relief knowing my guy friend doesn't expect guy thoughts and behavior from me.