The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

Director: Nicholas Ray Writers: Andrew Solt, adapted by Edmund H. North from a story by Dorothy B. Hughes Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Graham, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith, Jeff Donnell, Martha Stewart, Robert Warwick The violent, antisocial temperament of a down-on-his-luck screenwriter (Humphrey Bogart)  makes him a prime suspect in the murder of a cocktail waitress and ultimately alienates the woman he loves (Gloria Graham).  Bogart's performance is sometimes perfunctory and unconvincing in the fight scenes, but he projects a frightening intensity in numerous intimate confrontations with other characters.  He creates a character that Graham could believably fall in love with and then just as believably begin to fear later. Spoiler alert!!! End of the movie!!

by Keigo Higashino A tragic bus accident causes the spirit of a woman,  Naoko, to take over the body of her daughter, Monami.   "Secret" (Japanese) Naoko's body dies, and Monami's essence appears to be lost forever.   "Secret" (Korean) Naoko and her husband, Heisuke, decide to deal with this situation in secret.   "Secret" (Chinese) After all, who would believe them?   "Naoko's Secret" (Vietnamese) So, to the world, it appears that Heisuke is a widower living with his daughter, when in fact his daughter has died and he is living with his wife--although, really, he has lost them both.   "Secret" (Thai) When author Keigo Higashino is focused on this complex relationship, his novel is quite involving and even moving, although it is not as suspenseful or edgy as the cover copy would have us believe.   Keigo Higashino Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of extraneous material to slow down a narrative that is already rather relaxe...

by Larry McMurtry Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae begin their  life of adventure by joining up with two ill-fated expeditions that expose them to the brutality and lawlessness of the West.   Chronologically, this is the first adventure of the future Texas Rangers who are the protagonists of McMurtry’s epic Western, Lonesome Dove.   Here, they are relatively naive and all too willing to sign up for expeditions led by incompetents, drunkards, and petty martinets.   Only the Indians are complete masters of this land, and Larry McMurtry makes it clear that it was only by sheer numbers that the white man was ultimately able to persevere.   Larry McMurtry The resulting adventure reads like a Western mashup of Deliverance meets the Bataan Death March.  This fine and harrowing story is seriously damaged by a rather contrived resolution that is robbed of impact because it is telegraphed by the introduction of the story elements needed to set it up. "The March of th...

by Helen MacInnes Helen MacInnes starts with the hoary cliche of the spy  who just happens to be a dead ringer for the man he is assigned to impersonate to tell a frequently involving story that too often depends on unlikely coincidence to move the plot along.   Helen MacInnes The novel is strongest when it is depicting the grim camaraderie that arises among an occupied people.   I admire the way MacInnes didn't include action just for the sake of it, but nevertheless, I sometimes felt that something was needed to break up the interminable tramps through the countryside.  There's a sweet love story and the whole thing ends on a nicely ambiguous note. "He Came from the Air" (Danish) "Espionage in Brittany" (Dutch)