There are advantages to working for a privately held company, but there is also a downside. The lack of regular shareholder disclosures allows management to conduct business with less transparency, if they so choose. That was certainly the case for Elizabeth Holmes’ notorious start-up, Theranos. Her powerful political connections helped create a perfect storm of…
Serial killers are supposed to be charming. That is how they lure in their victims. There was no better example than Ted Bundy, who was the living embodiment of sinister charm. He was so persuasive, he had his ex-girlfriend Liz Kloepfer at least half-convinced he was innocent of all the charges leveled against him. Their…
Washington DC is the murder capitol of the nation, but it still feels provincial to New Yorkers like Maggie and Henry. The old chums have come down from the City to visit their old high school classmates, but when real-life gets too awkward, they involve themselves in an unfolding abduction mystery in Michael Kerry Matthews…
At a time when extremism seems to be on the rise on both sides of the American political spectrum, it is worth noting the arch words of Tom Wolfe: “the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.” The recent experience of Sweden arguably bears this…
Statistics say murder is most likely to be committed within families. Catherine (Cat) Hogan is convinced her provincial Irish family is a case in point. She suspects her father Jim was responsible for her mother’s supposedly accidental death, but nobody will believe her. For years, her father and siblings openly questioned her stability and undermined…
Charmian “Charlie” Ross is an insecure, hard-partying actress, so there should be plenty of people in Hollywood who could handle the part. Yet, there are reasons why this John le Carré character has been such a tricky role to cast. The author himself has stated he based Ross on his half-sister, actress Charlotte Cornwell, whom…
Julia Roberts is here to help. Her mere presence as the lead of a new conspiracy thriller TV series, based on a podcast, premiering in its ten-episode entirety on a streaming site that started its life as a book retailer, shows us how far television has evolved as a medium. It is highly debatable how…
This adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning” is either an off-kilter serial killer thriller or merely an eccentric case of arson. Either way, a young woman has still vanished under mysterious circumstances. The metaphors get rather ominous, but the lonely, detached nature of modern life is even more dangerous for the protagonist and…
This is the third time the BBC has adapted Wilkie Collins’ iconic novel, The Woman in White. Previously, there were also several silent films, a 1948 Hollywood movie co-starring Sidney Greenstreet, Vadim Derbenyov’s 1982 Soviet production, Andrew Lloyd Weber brought it to the West End and Broadway (ironically his best but least successful book musical),…
