Friday Miscellany

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Mysteries to Try

I put together a list of some easily likable mystery/thrillers for a friend at work. These are all contemporary and set in the US or Europe. There are a lot of great historical mysteries set in other times and far-flung places (e.g., The Mistress of the Art of Death, about a woman doctor who performs autopsy in medieval Europe, and Shinju, about a detective in 1600s Tokyo). But I kept it simple for this list.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson
A very popular and well-written mystery by a Swedish writer, featuring an investigative reporter and a brilliant, troubled young woman.

Thirteen Steps Down, by Ruth Rendell
The essence of Rendell: creepy and psychological.

In the Woods, by Tana French
An involving police procedural; kind of a paragon of the form.

Gentlemen and Players, by Joanne Harris
An academic mystery set in an English private school, with all the delicious cleverness and evil that implies.

The Horse You Came In On, by Martha Grimes
Martha Grimes is a huge name in the biz and extremely reliable. Her Richard Jury novels are some of my favorite mysteries, partly because the detective is an urbane detective with fun, funny friends---a refreshing change from the Ian Rankin-type of worn-down, middle-aged cop that is so prevalent. All of her Jury novels are named after pubs in which some of the action takes place, and this is one of my favorites, natch, because it’s set in Baltimore.


Kurt Cobain Biopic

Courtney Love just announced she’d like to see Robert Pattinson star in a biopic about Kurt Cobain. I think he’d be amazing: he looks enough like Cobain, does a great American accent, and has the acting chops to pull it off. My fear, though, is that critics’ (and some viewers’) feelings about Pattinson are too compromised by his association with Twilight.

A writer named Courtney recently wrote a review of Twilight for Pajiba.com. In it she wrote this: “I didn’t know much about the series, vaguely understood vampires were involved, and had only caught glimpses of the Robert Pattinson kid on Access Hollywood. Unwittingly, I had already been ensnared in what I like to refer as the Tom Cruise Syndrome: No matter how much you try to isolate one component, the others filter through and pollute or enhance the first. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who can watch Cruise and not immediately pull up the Rolodex of images of him jumping on Oprah’s couch, Scientology, and the Matt Lauer interview.”

This is so true. No one can see Tom Cruise for the good actor he is anymore (unless perhaps you were lucky enough to catch him heavily made up in an uncredited recent role, before his cover was blown). Likewise with Rob Pattinson. You know that just the IDEA of “Robert Pattinson cast in Kurt Cobain biopic” would immediately become a culture-wide joke, and his actual performance would be irrelevant. I feel like this happened with Chris Cornell’s last solo album as well; the mere idea of “Chris Cornell and Timbaland” was instantly mockable, and critics heard in the album exactly (and only) what they expected to hear.

I'm kind of a broken record about these things, aren't I? Chacun a son gout, says my friend Julie, but I always want Chacun a mon gout.