Movie Review: A Beautiful Place to Die - A Martha's Vineyard Mystery

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great characters and mystery

Cons: A few bits of Hallmark cheese

The Bottom Line:

Death of a young man

Fun characters; twists and turns

New franchise starts well

Hallmark’s First New Mystery Franchise of 2020 Gets Off to a Beautiful Start

Hallmark started several new mystery movie franchises last year, and I noticed that all of them were original characters and set ups.  However, for the first new franchise of 2020, they have returned to their habit of turning books into movies, picking the Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries by Philip R. Craig.  Things started out well with A Beautiful Place to Die.

Jeff Jackson (Jesse Metcalfe) is a Boston detective forced into an early retirement.  He’s moved out to Martha’s Vineyard, where he spent his summers growing up, to live in the house he recently inherited from his father.  He’s mostly kept to himself since his move out there, even avoiding his childhood friend Zee (Sarah Lind).  The only person who has gone out of his way to interact with Jeff is Police Chief Madieras (Eric Keenleyside), who was Jeff’s father’s best friend and is Zee’s father.

However, Jeff is coaxed into attending a fund raiser one evening, where he witnesses several tense scenes involving a young man.  When he finds that young man dead the next morning, he can’t help but help investigate.  Will he figure out what happened?

Confession time: I have had the first Martha’s Vineyard mystery, also entitled A Beautiful Place to Die, for years, but I have never gotten around to reading it.  Therefore, I can’t speak to how closely they followed the book or anything from the series.  However, I suspect that this is very different from the book, or at least the plot of book one since the teaser I’ve read doesn’t sound like what happened here at all.

Having said that, I am not complaining in the slightest.  This was a compelling mystery with many great twists and turns.  I thought I knew where things were going, but they completely surprised me when Jeff finally figured out who the killer was.

I also appreciated that they gave Jeff some backstory and they attempted to give him some character growth, something that is often lacking in Hallmark’s mystery movie franchises.  It was fairly predictable, and the resolution to the character growth got overshadowed by the climax, but it still helped set this movie apart.

I love the characters already.  The three I named are obviously the main characters for this franchise, and their relationships are fantastic.  There are a couple of fun supporting characters as well that I’m sure we will get to see more of as the franchise goes forward.  It helps that the actors do a good job of bringing the characters to life.

Being a Hallmark movie, there is a bit of Hallmark cheese, but it is a tiny bit.  Honestly, I’ve watched enough of these movies now that I’m beginning to not notice unless it is pretty major.

Hallmark ran a promo for the next Martha’s Vineyard Mystery already, and I’m looking forward to revisiting these characters in February.  Be sure to catch A Beautiful Place to Die in reruns now.  It’s a fun start to what looks like a great new franchise.

Book Review: The Silent Second by Adam Walker Phillips (Chuck Restic #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Great new characters, strong mystery

Cons: Dark tone, certainly darker than I was expecting

The Bottom Line:

Missing employee

Starts Chuck on a crazy ride

That is dark in tone

Good, but Not the Tone I Was Expecting

Over a year ago, I was at a library event where Adam Walker Phillips was one of the authors.  With his background in HR and his protagonist working in HR at a nameless Los Angeles company, I thought the series could be fun.  The Silent Second starts this series, but the tone wasn’t what I expected.

Chuck Restic has spent twenty years in HR, and he’s good at his job – making sure employees get along so they don’t sue each other or, more importantly, the company.  That’s how he first meets Ed, who has had a complaint filed against him.  Ed seems like a nice guy, and their meeting goes well, but then Ed disappears a couple of days later.  A plea from Ed’s family to figure out what happened to him intrigues Chuck.  He’s recently separated from his wife, and he wants to do something to fill his time away from work, so he uses his boredom as an excuse to start poking around.  The trail quickly leads to real estate around Los Angeles, but how could that have led to Ed’s disappearance?

From listening to the author and the descriptions of the book I’d read, I was expecting a more comedic book.  Yes, there are some parts that made me laugh, mainly when Chuck was in full HR mode or talking about what HR is really like.  However, the overall tone of the book was dark.  This didn’t completely surprise me since the blurbs on the book compared it to some hard-boiled authors and stories.  I guess I was just expecting more of a mix of the two, when it was very heavy on the hard-boiled side.

Now, this isn’t to say the book is bad.  The mystery starts off quickly and never lets up.  We get plenty of twists and red herrings along the way.  I was surprised by the solution yet it all made sense when Chuck figured it out.

And the characters are good.  I doubt I would have felt the darker tone if I didn’t care about some of them.  Chuck is a relatable main character – maybe a bit too relatable to some of us mid-life people working in the corporate world.  We can easily relate to some of the people he meets along the way as the story unfolds.  There is no obvious villain that should be hated; all of the characters are well-rounded people.

This book was pleasantly light on graphic violence, sex, or foul language.  There are a couple of four-letter words sprinkled throughout the book, but everything else is just hinted at.  I will admit, I had wondered if that would be the case when I picked up the book.

I’m still on the fence about reading another book in this series.  I liked Chuck, enjoyed this book overall, and am intrigued to see where his future adventures take him.  If I do pick up the sequel to The Silent Second, it will be when I’m in the mood for something more on the serious side of the mystery genre.

Ornament Review: Nemo - 2019 Hallmark Ornament

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Great looking mini ornament size of Nemo

Cons: Writing on the bottom is obvious, especially with the tilt

The Bottom Line:

A mini Nemo

That captures character well

But writing detracts

Nemo Swims His Way onto Your Tree in Mini Form

My mini trees don’t have very many Disney related ornaments, so when I spotted the Nemo ornament that Hallmark released in 2019, I knew I had to add him to my collection.  He’s a great looking ornament with one flaw.

Yes, the ornament looks just like the title character from Finding Nemo.  He’s an orange and white striped clownfish.  They’ve even got one fin smaller than the other.  And they’ve captured a great expression on his face – he’s smiling and he looks genuinely happy to be on your tree.

The issue with the ornament comes from how he hangs.  The loop to hang him is near his head, so he naturally tips up.  It’s pretty noticeable, but in a fish, it isn’t completely bad.  After all, he could be swimming up, right?  However, the copyright information is on the bottom of the ornament in black.  With the way he is tipped, you can’t help but see it, and it takes away from the ornament overall.

It doesn’t help that I have both my mini trees above my monitors in my cubicle at work, so it is easy to see the writing on the bottom of the ornament.  If you put the ornament on a lower branch of a tree set on the ground, you won’t notice it as easily.

Since Nemo is a fish, he is designed to swim, not stand.  This holds true for the ornament as well since there is no easy way to set him out to be displayed other than hanging him.

I’ll reiterate what I mentioned in passing at the beginning of the review – this is one of Hallmark’s miniature ornaments.  As such, Nemo is small and will get quickly lost on a full-size tree.  Considering his size, the detail is great, however, and he looks perfect on the mini trees I’ve bought from Hallmark in the past.

I’m not sorry I bought Nemo, and I’ll enjoy hanging him on my mini trees each year.  I just wish the writing weren’t so obvious.

Book Review: Buyer, Beware by Diane Vallere (Samantha Kidd #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong mystery and characters

Cons: A few minor details could have been worked in better

The Bottom Line:

Taking buyer job

Samantha undercover

Fun, fast paced story

Is Samantha in Danger Taking a Dead Buyer’s Job?

The problem with discovering an author with lots of books out is the fact that it takes forever to catch up.  That’s partially why it has taken me so long to get back to Samantha Kidd – I’ve been reading other books from Diane Vallere.  But I finally made time to revisit Samantha in Buyer, Beware, and I enjoyed it.

For Samantha, it’s been six months since we last checked in with her, and she has yet to find a new job in her hometown of Ribbon, Pennsylvania.  Then comes word that Heist, a trendy department store chain, is opening a store in the area.  Samantha and some friends are among those who attend the opening night party, but the party ends prematurely when Samantha finds a dead body in the handbag sections of the store.

The victim is the store’s handbag buyer, and Samantha is shocked when she is asked by Heist’s owner to go undercover.  She’s to take the dead woman’s job but also poke around and see what she can figure out about the woman’s death.  She quickly begins to suspect that her new coworkers have something to hide, but is one of them the killer?  Has she put herself in danger by taking on a dead woman’s job?

If I didn’t already know and like Diane Vallere’s books, I would probably be reluctant to pick up this book.  I mean, I’m a guy.  Fashion?  Who cares as long as the clothes fit.  However, I know that Diane can spin a great mystery, and that’s the case here.

The story is fast paced with a number of twists and suspects that kept us guessing until the very end.  Honestly, I had no clue where things were going until we got there, but the journey was lots of fun, and I was hooked the entire way.

There aren’t too many characters who return from the first book, but the small core are all fantastic.  Samantha really has grown from the first book, and she continues to grow as a character here.  We are introduced to a new character I have a feeling will become a series regular.  The other new characters, aka the suspects, are all fantastic as well.  They were believable and did a great job of keeping me guessing their true motives.

I found it interesting that Samantha is starting a relationship, but her boyfriend is in Italy for the book.  It worked from a story standpoint, and I still was rooting for their relationship, but it isn’t something you see this early in a typical cozy series.  I especially enjoyed it for that reason.

I did feel a few details could have been explained better or smoothed out.  Overall, this is a minor complaint since I was still able to follow the twists of the story with no problem.

And yes, there is discussion of fashion.  In fact, fashion plays a part in the mystery.  However, I didn’t feel bored with that aspect of the story at all.  It was perfectly mixed into a book that never once forgot it was a mystery.

If you enjoy high fashion and want a mystery set in that industry, Buyer, Beware is definitely for you.  But if you aren’t into fashion, don’t let that scare you away at all.  This mystery will entertain anyone looking for great twists and turns.

If, like me, you have some catching up to do, here are the Samantha Kidd mysteries in order.

Disney Pin Review: Ariel - Windows of Magic - 2019 Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Beautiful Ariel with some fun touches

Cons: Secondary prices are high

The Bottom Line:

This Ariel pin

Captures under sea, in glass

With friends suggested

Magic Under the Sea

You can’t have evil without magic to offset it, at least in the Disney world.  So, after spending 2018 releasing the Windows of Evil limited edition pin series, Disney released the Windows of Magic pins in 2019.  For each villain they’d already featured, they released the hero or heroine that battled the villain.  So we got Ariel as one of the Windows of Magic.

The main focus of his pin is Ariel in all her under the sea beauty.  She takes up three quarters of the window with her red hair sweeping over her shoulders to rest in front of her.  She is looking out at us and smiling.  Above her, we get the blue of the sea.

Again, it’s the little touches that make this so much fun.  The window frame looks like seaweed on the sides and bubbles on the bottom with a sea shell like Ursula wore on the very top.  And in the bottom of the window, we get bits of color that represent Sebastian, the king’s trident, and Flounder.  No, the characters aren’t clear, but it is very easy to tell that they are being suggested by the way the color and lines are laid out.

Again, the lines and colors easily suggest the stained-glass window, and it is easy to get the big picture right away.  Some of the smaller details require a closer look, but I enjoy finding those things that make the pin so much fun.

I know some people love the villains, but I don’t know that I would have bought the Windows of Evil series if I hadn’t first learned about the Windows of Magic series.  But I then knew I had to get both.  Ariel’s so lovely that making her pin part of my world was an easy choice.

Here's a picture of the pin.

Disney Pin Review: Ursula - Windows of Evil - 2018 Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Fun stained glass take on Ursula

Cons: Price on this one can be high

The Bottom Line:

Stained glass Ursula

Captures this villainess well

With some fun touches

Evil Under the Sea

I started spending time on Instagram last year, and it proved to be deadly to my pocketbook.  See, I found an account that shared information on new Disney pin releases.  Since I haven’t been to Disneyland for three years (sob!), I had gotten out of the know on what was new, especially when it came to limited edition ornaments.  (Okay, so I was never super in the know, but it’s been worse.)  I immediately saw several limited edition pin series I had to have.  One of which included back collecting the companion series from 2018.  All of this background brings us to today, where I am looking at Ursula, one of the Windows of Evil series of pins released in 2018.

This series of pins features different Disney villains in faux stained-glass windows.  I say faux because there is a back to the pin, so you will never get light to shine through the glass.  However, it does a good job of faking it.  There are multiple silver ridges going through the pin to help create the illusion of stained-glass window.  The pin features Ursula with an evil grin on her face.  Behind her, you can see a couple of her tentacles and a couple bits of blue ocean.  The bottom of the window features a silhouette of Ariel as she is in the middle of transforming.

The pin is shaped like a rectangle for the bottom two thirds while the top one third goes to a point on top, so it is shaped like a traditional stained glass window.

One thing that I love about these pins is how the window frame changes.  Most of the frame is wavy lines that look a bit like waves in the ocean.  Up at the top of the window is a shell that Ursula used to capture Ariel’s voice.  The two bottom corners have Flotsam and Jetsam, Ursula’s two eel sidekicks.

It’s those touches that make the pins in this series so much fun.  I’ll admit that a few don’t work quite as well as they should, but this isn’t one of them.  It’s easy to tell you are looking at Ursula.  You do have to look a bit closely to catch some of the details, but that’s what makes it fun.

This was one of the more expensive pins to back collect since Ursula is a popular villain.  But she was worth it.  This is a fun pin that I’m glad I added to my collection.

Here's a picture of the pin.

January 11ths Weekly TV Thoughts

TV shows are slowly coming back now that we are in 2020.  More will be showing up this week, including the final two episodes of the crossover!  But again, I'm looking ahead when I should be focusing on what I did watch this week.

God Friended Me – I knew it was coming.  It was no surprise at all.  And yet I was still tearing up at the end of the episode.  Such a good episode, so uplifting.  I’m surprised that Cara went back to Miles so quickly.  I figured they’d milk that for another few episodes.  I’m wondering what is up with Ali.  It can’t be good at all.  I was happy with how much of a team player Joy was.  I really liked her character this time around.  And I’m sure we aren’t going to get any answers any time soon about the God account.  This is a dead end.

Jeopardy: Greatest of All Time – I’ve been watching this all week.  I’m rooting for Ken since he’s the only one I remember watching.  Honestly, I don’t watch that much Jeopardy, so it isn’t that surprising.  Anyway, I’m really enjoying it.  I am rooting for Brad to win a game before Ken wins, however.  James is fast.

The Good Place – They were so close!  When they admitted a couple of weeks ago that humans will never be good enough on their own, they were so close to good theology.  Not that I expected them to get it right.  This compromise sounds interesting, and I wonder where they will take it.  Meanwhile, I loved Disco Janet.  Such a fun Janet.  And Shawn has grown on me.  He gets some of the best bits.  And I’m with Eleanor – I want to hear that story as well.

Carol’s Second Act – For a while, I thought this episode might be going well.  We were finally going to get that date, but it crashed and burned in a way I didn’t expect.  And I was enjoying the storyline with the patient, but it lost its way in the middle.  (Pun not intended, but I’ll take it.)  Still, it turned out to be okay in the end.  I keep waiting for the show to really do something truly classic and funny, but I guess that just isn’t going to happen.

Book Review: Murder on Bank Street by Victoria Thompson (Gaslight Mysteries #10)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Wraps up ongoing story well

Cons: A bit of repetition early on

The Bottom Line:

Closing a chapter

As we solve long running plot

Fans will be happy

Solving the Murder of Dr. Tom Brandt

When we met midwife Sarah Brandt and New York City Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy in the first Gaslight Mystery, we learned that Sarah was a widow, and that her husband’s murder had never been solved.  That mystery has been a through line in the books, sometimes getting only a mention and sometimes getting a few steps forward.  But now, ten books in, it is the main focus of the mystery in Murder on Bank Street.

In the spring of 1897, Frank Malloy has been given permission by NYPD Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to focus solely on solving Dr. Tom Brandt’s murder.  However, since people are expecting Teddy Roosevelt to be called to Washington to serve in the new administration at any moment, Malloy knows he must act quickly to solve the case.  He has three good suspects and a description of the murder weapon, but he is facing the fact that Tom died over four years ago.  He can’t establish alibis, and the killer might have gotten rid of the weapon over the years.  He’ll only have one shot at confronting the suspects as well since his best weapon is the element of surprise.  Can he gather enough evidence to get the killer to confess?  Will Sarah be happy with what Frank learns along the way?

Usually, the books in this series split their time equally between Malloy and Sarah, with both of them contributing to the final solution.  This book still splits time between them, but Malloy has a new sleuthing partner in this book, and we get some scenes from this character’s perspective as well.  Don’t worry, every time the point of view changes it is obvious and easy to follow.

Instead of actively attempting to solve the case, Sarah spends her time reacting to what Frank has learned.  It gives her a great chance for some character development.  While we get to see a different side of several characters in the series, and I liked seeing the growth in all of them, Sarah is the one who grows the most.  It only makes sense given the focus of the book.  And this isn’t to diminish her part in the book.  Honestly, it would have felt hallow if we hadn’t had Sarah’s scenes, and her part of the story is just as compelling as the actual investigation.

The case is definitely the focus of the book.  There are no subplots here.  It is all about the case and nothing but the case.  While I do feel we had a bit of repetition early on in the book, it’s a minor complaint overall.  I have been invested in this story for nine books now, so I was happy to see the solution and see Sarah get some answers.  The solution was logical, but I was kept guessing until the very end.

As always, I was drawn into New York City of 1897.  While there are only references to what is actually happening in the world at the time, it is the details of life during the time that make it all come to life for us.  It’s in the attitudes and actions of all the characters.  This series is such a wonderful time machine.

While much of this book was been set up over the last few books, there is plenty here so that you won’t be lost if you jumped in with this book.  Which also means that if it has been a while since you read the last book, you’ll get the reminders you need of where things stand so you won’t be lost either.

This storyline has been such a part of the series for so long, I’m curious how the series will progress now that it has been laid to rest.  Other fans looking for the conclusion of this particular storyline will be satisfied with Murder on Bank Street.

Need more trips back in time?  Here are the rest of the Gaslight Mysteries.

This review is part of this week's Friday's Forgotten Books.

January 10th's Book Beginnings and Friday 56

Second Friday of the year, and second time doing Book Beginnings and Friday 56 this year.  I'm on a roll!

This week, I'm featuring Buyer, Beware by Diane Vallere.

I finished this book earlier this week.  It was a lot of fun.

Here's how the book begins: 

This wasn't how I'd planned to spend my Saturday night.

Yep, just one teaser sentence from the book this week.  But it worked to hook me.

I'm going to quote a bit more from page 56 (and 57), but it's too funny not to share.

The comforter on the bed started ringing.  I padded my hand around until I found the cordless phone twisted up in the sheets.  It was early for Nick to call, but maybe he was making up for last time.
"Hey Tiger," I said in my best sex-kitten voice.
"Samantha Kidd?  This is Detective Loncar."

I will be reviewing the book on Monday, so if you want to read more about it, I hope you'll come back then.

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Action, effects, fun, wraps up story mostly well

Cons: A few storytelling holes never get filled in

The Bottom Line:

Jedi and Sith fight

Concludes its third trilogy

Good wrap up for fans

“We’re In This Until the End.”

We’ve reached the end of an era.  Oh, you can quit laughing now.  I fully expect them to go back to the original Star Wars saga at some point, but for now, Star Wars Episode IX:The Rise of Skywalker is the climax of the original storyline for this franchise.  The movie has some issues despite its long running time, but it does as good a job as it can of wrapping things up.

As we drop in this time, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) is relishing his role as the supreme leader of the First Order.  He is prepared to crush the Resistance once and for all, but a mysterious summons brings him to a meeting with a shocking new ally.

Meanwhile, what is left of the Resistance is trying to figure out how to counter the First Order.  Rey (Daisy Ridley) is focusing on her Jedi training while Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac) work on battle plans.  But when they get bad news with a firm deadline to respond, the three must travel the galaxy in search of a way to stop the coming annihilation.  Will they be able to stop it?

I am being incredibly vague here.  I fully realize that.  Even though the movie has been out for several weeks now, I’m trying to avoid spoilers.

I’m of two minds about this movie.  Overall, I enjoyed it.  There is action as our heroes fight against overwhelming odds.  We get great space battles.  We get the force.  It has everything you’d expect from a Star Wars movie.  If you just sit back and watch, it’s a very fun movie.

However, the story has some issues.  Most noticeable to me is a plot point introduced, teased a second time, and then never paid off.  Seriously?  Don’t introduce something if you aren’t going to pay it off.  That’s storytelling 101.  Okay, so it’s a minor issue in the movie overall (not sure why it has bothered me so much), but there are some other rather major issues with the story.  Despite the fact that the movie is two and a half hours, we don’t get the hows to some of the pretty major plot points explained.  I guess I’ve become so accustomed to Hollywood storytelling that this part didn’t bother me as much.  And the transition between this one and the previous movie seems a bit rough to me, too, although it has been a couple years since I watched The Last Jedi.

Having said that, we did get answers to the big questions here.  I was only caught off guard by one of these revelations.  Most of the time when there was a big reveal of some kind, I was a bit ahead of the movie, but that didn’t dampen my enjoyment at all.

Let me reiterate, I did enjoy the movie.  I like this new cast, and they have some great scenes together.  We get some good laughs thanks to C-3PO and the other droids.  The acting is uniformly good.  And the action and effects are great.

Speaking of effects, they do a good job of working General Leia into the movie despite the fact that Carrie Fisher sadly passed away right before the last movie came out.  It’s obvious that they use lots of effects to make her part of the film, but I bought it.

There are several moments that are definitely nods to fans, designed to please them as the saga wraps up.  Some of them were more blatant than others, but I still enjoyed them all.  I did feel these nods were more nods and less recycled storytelling, which was my biggest complaint with The Force Awakens.

One thing that stuck out to me is how they played out the theme of standing up for what is right and working together.  This has been an ongoing theme in the series, but I really liked how they stated it here.

Obviously, this film isn’t perfect, but overall, I was satisfied with how the Skywalker Saga wrapped up.  I’ve seen some mixed reactions, but overall reaction to The Rise of Skywalker has been positive, and I’m right there with the majority.