Tangled Vines by Frances Dinkelspiel is a true account the greed, murder, obsession, and arsonist that have plagued the vineyards of California (available October 6, 2015). On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's…
There could probably be some arguments made about just exactly when teenagers became a real force to be considered in American society, and anybody making the case for the mid-1960s being that time has a good chance of winning the debate. I’ll leave that matter for now and instead focus on what one savvy filmmaker…
X by Sue Grafton is the 24th mystery in the Kinsey Millhone series about the California-based private eye (available August 25, 2015). An apt subtitle for Sue Grafton’s latest book X is the oft-repeated quote that “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” In the 24th in her series of alphabet…
“We deserve a better world.” Yes, we do. Just as in Season 1, the tying up of loose ends isn’t True Detective’s strong point, and unfortunately that’s the majority of the finale this time around. The big mystery is finally addressed: Who killed Ben Caspere? And that is quickly revealed, after a lingering scene with…
Dead Soon Enough by Steph Cha is the third mystery featuring Los Angeles P.I. Juniper Song who has finally just received her detective's license (available August 11, 2015). Juniper Song is managing her own cases as the junior investigator of Lindley & Flores. When a woman named Rubina Gasparian approaches Song, she knows she's in…
“I’ve been waiting for that all my life.” Too many hotel rooms, not enough maps. The story comes together like an L.A. cloverleaf interchanged designed by M.C. Escher in this penultimate episode. Ray (Colin Farrell), Ani (Rachel McAdams), and Paul (Taylor Kitsch) are holed up in a motel with Vera (Miranda Rae Mayo), the escort…
“I sold my soul for nothing.” That’s Ray’s opening complaint, as we pick up from last week’s cliffhanger. He’s learned that the event he considers his personal Rubicon—when Frank Seymon (Vince Vaughn) slipped him the identity of his wife’s rapist—was a setup, that he was sent after the wrong guy, to put him in Frank’s…
As undisputed fans of all things dark, chaotic, and deadly, it seems like it's our duty to bring to your attention The Port of San Pedro, an upcoming television series created by Cleo Valente. The Port of San Pedro is a clear homage to the glory days of noir, from its black-and-white stylization to the…
“You and me need to talk.” After last week’s disastrous gunfight, where Ray’s (Colin Farrell) old partner dirty Dixon (W. Earl Brown) led the trio to a Mexican-run meth lab that was supposedly inhabiting Caspere’s L.A. sleaze pad, we recoup three months later, with our detectives reassigned or demoted, and a politician announcing that the…
“Well, that’s a bold choice.” Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels from which True Blood was adapted, said that phrase was her most polite way of telling someone they were possibly a walking disaster; as the husband of a Southern woman, I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than “Bless your heart,”…
