Mark Billingham's Time of Death

It's good. A vintage Billingham. While a continuation of the Tom Thorne series, if can be read as a stand-alone. So go ahead and read it. :-)

For those who need a blurb:

The Missing
Two schoolgirls are abducted in the small, dying Warwickshire town of Polesford, driving a knife into the heart of the community where police officer Helen Weeks grew up and from which she long ago escaped. But this is a place full of secrets, where dangerous truths lie buried.

The Accused
When it's splashed all over the press that family man Stephen Bates has been arrested, Helen and her partner Tom Thorne head to the flooded town to support Bates' wife - an old school friend of Helen's - who is living under siege with two teenage children and convinced of her husband's innocence.

The Dead
As residents and media bay for Bates' blood, a decomposing body is found. The police believe they have their murderer in custody, but one man believes otherwise. With a girl still missing, Thorne sets himself on a collision course with local police, townsfolk - and a merciless killer.

Tom Thorne returns in a chilling mystery that will keep readers guessing until the final page. Time of Death is Mark Billingham's most timely, atmospheric thriller to date.

Lisa Garnder's series

I'm reading Lisa Gardner all wrong. I started with Catch Me, which is fairly late in the Detective D.D. Warren series. I followed up with other books in this line, mostly reading the more recent ones first, probably because I could get hold of them as audio books and listen to them while communting to work.

When they ran out, I moved onto the Tessa Leoni series. It's only three books, so now I'm on Rainie Conner - again, mostly backwards. I've just finished The Third Victim.

For those of you who'd like more order in their lives, have a look here: http://lisagardner.com/books. But it's not as simple as it looks, for the main characters sometimes appear in other charaters' series as cameos....

Inside Out

Whether you have kids or not, go see it. That's all I'm going to say about it.

(OK, that's not all I'm going to say about it. I absolutely loved the idea that emotions like Joy, Sadnass and Disgust are living, breathing people. Well, cartoon people, but you get the idea. I loved how every person has a dominant emotion, and, weeks later, I hope mine is not Disgust.)

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation

Back when, I enjoyed Mission Impossible 1. Part 2 and 3 were so forgettable, I can't even remember whether I've seen them. Something about a warehouse exploding in one of them, maybe? The one with climbing the tall building Spiderman-style, on the other hand, was way cool.

The latest instalment, Rogue Nation, is a curious mix of enjoyable and forgettable. I remember I enjoyed it very much when I saw it two weeks ago. Yet I struggle to remember the plot. Vienna and the Opera House. Free diving. Something like that.

Oh, yeah. The aeroplane scene at the beginning was excellent.

China Rich Girlfriend

I'm really enjoying "China Rich Girlfriend" by Kevin Kwan. It's like intelligent chic lit set inside the world of "Dallas" or "Dynasty", except the players are Chinese (from the Mainland, Hong Kong, or Singapore) and more than just a little crazy.

Huge diamonds? Check. Apartments with individualised car elevators? You got it. Hermès designer bags worth a hundred thousand dollars apiece? Yep. Add mystery and intrigue,a nd you have a book that's diffucult to put down.

Revisiting Agatha Christie

Ghastly covers books had in those days. The plot is good though, like all Agathas. This one I haven't read as often as my favourites, but it's well worth a re-read.

From the blurb: "When a house party gathers at Gull’s Point,the seaside home of an elderly widow, earlier events come to a dramatic head. As Superintendent Battle discovers, it is all part of a carefullylaid plan—for murder."

Wayward Pines Continued

Right. I've now watched 7 episodes and I'm hooked. 2 and 4 gave me nightmares. At one point (taught by the likes of Lost and Game of Thrones) I was so concerned about a character's wellbeing that I had to look up spoilers.

Very Lost-ish.
Very Twin Peakish.
Eureka gone wrong, but in a right way.

Watch it.