Augie March, Moo, You Bloody Choir (Red Ink, 2007)

Augie March hail from Melbourne, Australia. Led by guitarist/vocalist Glenn Richards, this modern rock quartet specializes in melodic but melancholic laments of love and loss. It's a familiar formula to be sure, but Richards, drummer David Williams, guitarist Adam Donovan, bassist Edmondo Ammendola, and keyboardist Kiernan Box mostly make it work due to some tight musicianship and good songwriting. Richards, in particular, has a feel for melodies and a soulful voice that is well-suited to the kind of songs he writes.

Their third album, titled Moo, You Bloody Choir, came out last year in Australia but just got released in the U. S. last month. The band plays mostly straightforward rock, with some country leanings. A lot of the album is pretty moody, as typified by the opening song and single "One Crowded Hour," which will please some people more than others. I don't mind music that leans towards the more somber side of things, but after hearing the band rock out on "Just Passing Through" and get somewhat rustic on "Thin Captain Crackers," I kind of wish Augie March had made the album a bit more diverse.

Moo, You Bloody Choir does have enough good tracks to justify giving it a listen, though. It will appeal to people who like melodic, no-frills guitar rock with tinges of country and soul.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

In Defense of Britney

If there's one thing the public loves more than seeing a star rise, it's then seeing that star fall. There may never be greater proof of this than the amazingly vitrolic backlash against Britney Spears after her performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.

I am not a fan of Britney Spears. I think her music is completely bland, she owes her success to self-exploitation, and any interest I have had in her is based on simple prurience rather than artistic interest in her as a musician or [shudder] an actor. That said, after she performed headlines continue to blast her -- and I'd say unfairly.

Most of the articles focus on her weight, claiming she is "fat," "doughy," and "displaying a paunch." True, Britney is no longer of the modelesque proportions that used to land her in the top spots when Maxim and FHM would list their 100 hottest women. But so what? To quote the title of a movie, real women have curves. And if Britney wasn't under 100 pounds, she also wasn't sporting a beer belly or looking ridiculous. I wonder how many women commenting on how heavy she's gotten would have felt comfortable with their look if they were in a spangled bikini dancing in front of millions.

There has been criticism that Britney lip-synched very poorly to her song. This is true -- but MTV is built on lip-synching (do you really believe the musicians are really singing in their music videos?) and the network has also done their own "enhancing" of supposedly live performers before. To fault Britney for poor lip-synching is like saying she isn't as good as cheating as the network is.

What hasn't received much notice is the new song itself; you'd think this would be the most important part of the performance. It's no better or worse than anything else Britney has done. If she wants to improve her reputation, Britney should try to focus on and improve as an artist, like Christina Aguilera (who went back to big band sounds) or Mariah Carey (who didn't stop showing her body but made better music at the same time).

Perhaps this performance shows that Britney can't just shake her money maker and garner the same approval she once got. But the public shouldn't crucify her over what is, essentially, one poor performance.

Commented on by James Lynch

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

What does it take to be the next legendary supernatural serial killer? Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a comedy exploring the slasher's plans and methodology from the slasher's point of view.

Leslie Vernon (Nathan Baesel) is a cheerful, enthusiastic young man out to join the ranks of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Meyers (or, as he calls them, Fred, Jas, and Mike). As he plans his spree, he has college journalist Taylor Gentry (Angela Goethals) along to shoot a documentary on him. Joined by two cameramen, Taylor is both repulsed and fascinated by Leslie's grand plans.

Behind the Mask explores the "famous" serial killer motif from several angles. On the practical side, Leslie rigs the potential weapons and escape routes of his victims, and he performs cardio to keep up with running victims while appearing to slowly walk behind them. Philosophically, retired serial killer Eugene (Scott Wilson) explains that their type exist to provide the evil that good must struggle against. Leslie is even very careful in selecting his targets, from the "girl survivor" who must grow from helpless victim to leader-fighter to the right sort of group that mixes jocks and geeks. And when Leslie's psychiatrist Doc Halloran (played by Bob Englung, best known as Freddy Kreuger) turns up, Leslie is thrilled: "I have an Ahab!"

Much like the Scream movies, Behind the Mask plays with the idea that the people in horror movies actually know the mechanics of horror movies. Ultimately, Behind the Mask doesn't do much to advance the genre: The first two thirds of the film walk us through the horror movie cliches we all know (and sometimes love), then the final third turns into the planned slasher flick. Nathan Baesel makes for a likeable villain, and fans of horror movies will find quite few chuckles here. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a mildly entertaining look at the slasher's world.

Overall grade: B

Reviewed by James Lynch

The New Pornographers, Challengers (Matador Records, 2007)

The New Pornographers began life in the late nineties as a side project of a number of performers involved in the Vancouver music scene. By the time their first CD Mass Romantic came out in 2000, though, most of the band members' other musical projects had fallen by the wayside. Only vocalist Neko Case, who has had a superb career as a solo artist, has matched separately what the New Pornographers have accomplished collectively. Last month they followed up their excellent 2005 CD Twin Cinema with the release of their fourth album, titled Challengers.

Challengers largely follows the same formula established on the first three New Pornographers albums. Guitarist A. C. Newman writes most of the songs, giving a few to Case to sing and singing the rest himself. The remaining songs are contributed by Danny Bejar, whose quirky stream-of-consciousness lyrics have always provided a welcome counterpoint to Newman's more conventional approach. Musically, the band haven't strayed too far from the power pop that defined their sound initially, although the new album does include a bit of orchestration. Some of Newman's lyrics on the new record take a fairly serious tone as well; on the opener "My Rights Versus Yours," he sings about not wanting to fall under the wheels of "the new empire in rags."

I felt that the New Pornographers took a big step forward the previous time around with Twin Cinema, especially Newman as a songwriter. Challengers, while still good on the whole and certainly worth getting if you're a fan, didn't make quite the same impression on me. It has some fun songs like "All Of The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth" and "Mutiny, I Promise You," but I feel that the band covers mostly familiar territory here. Still, it's a respectable effort from one of the better bands out there right now.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

Freedom Writers (2007)

Freedom Writers is this week's "stand up and cheer" movie about a teacher taking on a challenging classroom and suceeding. It stars Hillary Swank, Scott Glenn and Patrick Dempsey (better known as McSteamy from "Grey's Anatomy"). It takes place after the 1992 LA riots.

Swank plays Erin Gruwell, a student teacher who truly wants to make a difference. She is married to Dempsey, who plays Scott Casey. She gets thrown into a freshman English class where half the kids are on probation, and the other half are in gangs, many bringing weapons to school. The class is polarized around racial lines, and they live in a literal war zone where daily violence is the norm, and not the exception. The more senior teachers teach at the junior and senior level because most of the problem students have either gotten killed, or at least dropped out, so the remaining students at least have an interest in learning. After a riot breaks out in the first week of school, this new teacher starts to realize that she has her work cut out for her.

Gruwell has more ambition than experience, and she takes on the challenge. When she can't get the school to supply her with books, she gets a second job to be able to buy them herself. When she figures out that the kids have such a narrow view of the world because they've never been anywhere else than Long Beach, CA, she gets a third job to do a field trip. When her department director and principal start to squawk, she gets support from the board of education. In short, she becomes a rebel who takes up the cause of tolerance.

This devotion to her students of "Room 203" starts to exact a high price on the rest of her life. Her husband rarely sees his wife, and their relationship becomes strained. Her father, a retired successful businessman initially views this a big mistake for his daughter, and can't believe how hard she works for 27K a year.

Gruwell, comes up with the idea of the kids writing their own story in a daily journal. This was inspired after the students read The Diary of Anne Frank, and can identify with the Nazis oppression and violence of WW II as the "ultimate gang," and compare it to their oppression. Through reading her student's journals, Gruwell gains even greater insight into the impoverished, and violent circumstances that the students are facing. Many of them view it as an achievement if they are not dead or pregnant by age 16. These stories get collected into a book, The Freedom Writers Diary.

Freedom Writers reminded me quite a bit of The Ron Clark Story. Both films deal with young educators taking on an inner city students, and succeeding against all odds. Of the two, I think that Freedom Writers is the stronger film. By using voice overs of the students and their personal stories, set against their homes and violence, it makes a powerful impact. It was also impressive that all of Gruwell's students went on to college when none of them were expected to even graduate high school.

Overall Grade: A-

--Jonas

Inside Out (2005)

As the resident expert on healthcare and entertainment, when I saw the DVD box for Inside Out, featuring Eriq La Salle from "ER," and Kate Walsh from "Grey's Anatomy," (and this upcoming Fall season "Private Practice"), I figured I had to see how we could combine the talents of these two veteran actors of the hospital entertainment scene. To put it bluntly, the box was the most enticing part of the experience.

La Salle plays Doctor Peoples, a strange psychiatrist that moves into a very ideal appearing suburban neighborhood. It becomes clear from the outset that his just doesn't fit in with his neighbors, especially when he mows his lawn after midnight! This is reinforced when he has a garage sale, and sells some goods that are simply too dirt cheap. As time goes on, Doctor Peoples antics start having an effect on the families of those that surround him. Add in some strange sounds coming from his basement, and we have the makings of a mystery.

While the premise had some potential, things keep dropping another notch until we're in the subbasement. At no point does any of this seem in any way realistic, and is just too far out there. the fact that La Salle plays a psychiatrist is only cursorily related to the plot. He could had the profession of a typewriter salesman just as easily. Finally, the end was quite obvious from one half hour into this dismal film.

While I used to be a fan of "ER," and currently watch "Grey's Anatomy," the film Inside Out has no redeeming quality. Skip this one.

Overall Grade: D

--Jonas

Lost City (2004)

In my mission to finish up reading the entire bookshelf of Clive Cussler novels, I directed my attention to Lost City. This is the follow up novel to White Death, which I found more than a little lackluster. Cussler writes this side series of novels, better known as the NUMA files, with coauthor Paul Kemprecos. At times, I think the coauthor is the source of the inconsistent quality when I compare these novels to the rest of Cussler's work.

I can tell you that, unlike some previous outings, the writing duo is in top form here. Following his own formula, Cussler starts with a tale of a pilot attempting to cross the Alps in 1914 with an aerial dogfight that Snoopy and the Red Baron would have enjoyed. From there we get into present day, and we have a main plot of a powerful European family, and their centuries long quest for profits, power, and the "fountain of youth." They are like the modern day equivalent of the Hapsburgs, and they are heavily involved in the lucrative industry of weapons manufacturing. Side plots include trips under a glacier (subglacier?) with a research lab and power plant no less. If that isn’t exotic enough, we also have a trip to the bottom of the Atlantic, and to a reportedly deserted British Isle. There are also more cosmopolitan destinations of Washington, and Paris with a cast of expansive characters.

This NUMA files series is starting to mature, and it is including what could be signature elements to this series, and not merely living off what has been done already. For example, we have a St. Julien type expert of aviation that offers some background information analogous to the colorful, and knowledgeable nautical expert that permeates the main series of novels. Another example is the use of the Trouts- a couple with maritime expertise that have appeared in previous NUMA file works. Lost City also felt more like a Cussler novel as we had references to both Sandecker and Dirk Pitt that seemed to naturally fit in, and were not forced.

As if this wasn’t enough, Cussler and his coauthor also made multiple literary references, not too indirect either, to many of Edgar Allen Poe’s novels. It was nicely done to include many of Poe’s protagonists at a costume party, that true to Poe, turn a lot creepier than initially advertised. Finally, this whimsical reference to Poe's work, particularly The Fall of the House of Usher carries through to the end of Lost City.

Summing up, Lost City served to revive this offshoot series of Cussler novels in a major way in my mind. The prose is crisp, and it is quintessential Cussler. It would appear that this writing team has hit their groove in a way that I haven’t seen since the first two novels of this series: Serpent and Blue Gold. This novel is strong enough to fit in with the best of Cussler’s work.

Overall Grade: A

Reviewed by Jonas

Anúna, Celtic Origins (Elevation, 2007)

The Irish choral group Anúna began their career over a decade ago, presenting Irish and Celtic folk and Medieval songs in a choral setting. On their new CD Celtic Origins, they perform highlights of their career live during a series of concerts at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland.

A glance at the song list shows that Anúna are well-versed in the contemporary shapers of the Irish musical tradition. For example, seminal rock bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span established a whole new way of looking at traditional songs, and the importance of these two bands is acknowledged by Anúna with the performance of "Our Wedding Day" (a variant of "She Moved Through the Fair") and the Christmas chant "Gaudete," respectively. The Bothy Band brought the attitude of rock fully to bear on Irish music, making some great recordings in the process, and their repertoire is represented here with the classic Gaelic tounge-twister "Fionnghuala." Tradtional Irish songs popularized by more current performers like Clannad, Altan, and Enya are included as well, along with a medley of two well-known standards from the English tradition, "Greensleeves" and "Scarborough Fair."

Michael McGlynn and John McGlynn serve as the directors for Anúna. Michael arranges the pieces and does some composing, while John wrote one song on the disc and is a featured vocalist on several tracks. The arrangements on Celtic Origins are generally straightforward for a four-part mixed chorus, and the performances are good but not spectacular. Anúna does get ambitious on a couple of the tracks, though. "Our Wedding Day" greatly expands on the fairly simplistic chord progression generally associated with that song. On the Latin chant "Sanctus," the band makes excellent use of throat-singing to give the song an eerie (and decidedly non-Irish) ambience.

Celtic Origins works well on the whole, although more for the choice of material than for the strength of the performances. I suppose that somebody more deeply rooted in Irish music than I am might criticize them for not taking more chances with less familiar material, but Anúna seem primarily intent on bringing traditional Celtic music to new audiences. In that regard, they've done a fairly good job.

A DVD of Celtic Origins is also available, and the performances have been broadcast on public television.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Bobby (2006)

If I was looking for a film that would fill up our tags, then Bobby was the one to do it. The superpower cast includes: Harry Belafonte, Anthony Hopkins, Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, Helen Hunt, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Demi Moore, Martin Sheen, Elijah Wood, Joy Bryant, and William H. Macy.

The plot focuses on the day at the hotel before the night that Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Most of this film takes place at the Ambassador Hotel, which was a landmark until it was torn down recently. Bobby attempts to portray the characters of all social levels, from the busboy on up to the owner of the hotel as their live proceed during the day. It also tries to show that their paths intertwine, and that these folks are all related somehow, kind of the "six degrees of separation" thing.

My criticism of this film is twofold. Firstly, I felt that at times,we were reinterpreting the "stormy sixties" of 1968 through our modern times. While I guess this is impossible to avoid, as we all interpret the world through filters, it still doesn't need to be so obvious as it was in Bobby. The other thing was that there was very little of RFK. He finally makes a cameo appearance at the film's end to declare victory in the California primary, and get shot exiting through the kitchen (not much of a spoiler there, I think we all knew how it would end). His other several appearances are all canned newsreel footage of RFK giving speeches that made me feel like I was watching some type of "Kennedy marathon," on the History Channel, and not a major motion picture with this much star power.


Strange as it might seem, the part of Bobby that I enjoyed the most was the setting. The props all looked quite accurate and authentic for 1968. It reminded me of the analog world of the late Sixties, and how the digital revolution would change the world over the next three decades.

The acting performances were all excellent, although with so many characters, I would have liked to know less of them better, and at times I felt that the film lost focus. At least a few of the characters lacked depth, and I wasn't really sure who they were, or what they were doing in the hotel that day.

In summary, if you're a Kennedy fan, than Bobby is probably a great film for you. If you're not, then despite its big name star power, its only average.

Overall Grade: B-

--Jonas

The Negotiator (1998)

The Negotiator is a thriller from a few years ago (ok, it's almost a decade, but it really doesn't feel like that long). It stars Kevin Spacey, Samuel Jackson, and David Morsein in a cop style drama.

The film is based around Lt. Danny Roman, ably acted by Samuel Jackson who is a police hostage negotiator in Chicago. The film opens with a sequence that shows him at the top of his game, intervening to save lives from bullets. Next, his partner confides in him about some missing money in a pension fund, and the plan is to look into it. Unfortunately, especially for the partner, he turns up dead shortly thereafter. In a textbook frameup, all of the evidence quickly starts to pile up that makes Jackson look guilty with a capital "G." In an act of desperation, Jackson takes key members of the police hostage in a spontaneous moment, and walls up in the police headquarters. In other words, the hostage negotiator becomes the hostage taker. Jackson decides he only wants to deal with one other negotiator- Sabian, played by Kevin Spacey. Perhaps it is because he has a reputation for long, drawn out (we're talking 55 hours) negotiations, or maybe there is another reason...

I really enjoyed this film. There's plenty of action that runs at breakneck speed until the very end, but it is also well balanced with a hefty helping of drama that glues the whole thing together. It is a little lengthy at 2:20, but the time was worth it. This is one of those "one man vs the world" plots that makes you cheer for the underdog. The acting is well done, and this is one of Jackson's (pre Snakes On A Plane) and Spacey's better films. If you missed The Negotiator the first time around (like I did, and the 2nd time too), it is worth seeking out on DVD.

Overall Grade: A-

--Jonas

Liberty Stands Still (2002)

Liberty Stands Still is a look at the gun industry, and one man's mission to extract revenge. It stars Wesley Snipes, and Linda Fiorentino.

The plot of Liberty Stands Still gets based around Joe, played by Snipes who sets himself up in a building over a park. Liberty Wallace (hence the title, at least in one meaning), played by Fiorentino, is going through the city park, when her phone rings. It's Joe, and he has her in the sights of his sniper rifle. Before she can say "hot dog, extra mustard" she is chained at the ankle to a local food vendor's cart. The rest of the film plays out between these two as they discuss guns in our society, and profit vs. morals. The other plot is the police efforts to figure out where the raining bullets are coming from.

This film really fell flat. It reminded me too much of Cellular where too much of the film takes place over the phone without enough real story to glue it all together. A better look at the gun industry is Lord of War. I mean, the whole premise of this film is that snipes is antigun, so in order to express that he shoots a rifle into a city park? Talk about a double standard!

Liberty Stands Still should be renamed "Snipes Snipes Into Park- News At Eleven." I thoroughly did not enjoy this film, and suggest others skip it.

Overall Grade: C-

--Jonas

Dungen, Tio Bitar (Kemado, 2007)

Lots of different styles within the rock genre have come and gone over the years. Every so often, a performer or band tries to revive one of the older styles, with varying degrees of success. The Swedish group Dungen are such an act, bringing psychedelic hard rock and extended hippie jams into the present, with no attempt to modify the old style to make it sound contemporary. Predictably, you have to be a fan of the old style to appreciate the result.

Dungen are a quartet when they perform live, but in the recording studio nearly all of the work is done by the band's principal member, Gustav Ejstes. Ejstes is as devout a disciple of the heavy, psychedelic guitar rock of the late sixties and early seventies as you're likely to find thirty-five years after the fact. Indeed, Dungen's fourth CD Tio Bitar apppears to have been quite deliberately designed to sound just like it could have been made in 1971. The album runs only forty minutes, with two distinct halves of five songs each, just like a typical LP would. If not for the songs on Tio Bitar being in Swedish, they'd fit right in with most of the songs that have enjoyed regular rotation on classic rock radio for decades.

While Ejstes varies the volume from one song to the next, he maintains the psychedelic prog feel throughout the album. The quieter songs feature acoustic guitar, usually accompanied by strings and flute along with some organ and one-note-at-a-time piano riffs. The album's strength comes from its rockers, though. Blistering tracks like "Intro" and "Gör Det Nu" feature heavy guitars plugged in, presumably, to vintage amplifiers to generate feedback effects evoking Jimi Hendrix. By contrast, the power pop of "Du Ska Inte Tro Att Det Ordnar Sig" sound like it comes straight from Big Star's Radio City album. Ejstes makes no attempt to hide where he gets his musical ideas from; if anything, he seems determined to reproduce his favorite recordings.

I enjoyed Tio Bitar quite a bit. It may not be all that original, but as a long-time fan of classic rock who's been listening to lots of other very different things lately, I found this to be a fun breath of fresh air. Still, I really can't recommend this to everybody. If you didn't grow up listening to classic rock radio or don't care for the style, you'll probably sit there wondering what the big deal is. On the other hand, Gustav Ejstes and his band certainly believe the music of the late sixties and early seventies holds up today, and people who are too young to have experienced it, or even to have heard a lot of it on the radio, might just dig the new sound.

Overall Grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

Honor Bound (1994)

Following a brief hiatus from WEB Griffin, it was time to delve into another of his series. After all, I had finished The Corps, and The Brotherhood of War, but still didn't want to get back into the Presidential Agent series. After finishing his longest series, it was time to look at his shortest series, Honor Bound.

Honor Bound starts with a brief look at the Marines on Gaudalcanal, and even uses a character from The Corps series, Colonel Dawkins, in a cameo appearance. The connection with The Corps quickly ends, and a Marine aviator ace, Captain Clete Frede, who should be on a war bond tour gets pressed into service. The plot focuses around this Frede character, and how he ends up in the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA that is a common thread that permeates many of the Griffin novels (and also the film, The Good Shepherd).

Interestingly, this OSS had jurisdiction throughout the Western hemisphere, including Latin America. Now, while my knowledge of WW II is pretty good, I can't say I'm well versed in what went on in South America during that war. Seriously, the last time I studied Argentina and Brazil, it was high school global studies class! The author, Griffin, winters in Argentina, so he's picked up some first hand knowledge, and it clearly shines through here. Even though Argentina was officially neutral, there was a significant Nazis involvement down way south. For the plot of Honor Bound, the Germans are running submarine supply out of Argentinian waters, all on the QT- except the OSS knows.

The decision is made to send a small group of Americans to disrupt things for the Germans, without bringing the war down to Argentina. This Clete Frede is an interesting character as he is half American, and half Argentinian by descent. This reminds me of the protagonist of the Presidential agent series who also has mixed blood, and therefore uncertain allegiance.

Honor Bound successfully transports us to a far corner of the world, during a tumultuous time in world history. It is a novel less about war in the end, and more about what it takes to mount a clandestine operation in a foreign country, without getting caught. It is definitely not the standard WW II novel with the marines charging up the hill. There is a lot of culture, and place setting. This novel builds in the first 100 pages at a slow pace. Once the freight train gets moving, it is quite intriguing. I'm already working on tracking down the next novel in this series, Blood and Honor.

Overall Grade: B+

--Jonas

Blind Justice - Bruce Alexander (1994)

Historical mysteries exist as a sub-genre of mystery fiction. By "historical mysteries" I don't mean, "What happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste?" or "Who was Jack the Ripper?" Rather I mean novels which are essentially contemporary detective novels set in eras other than the present. The most famous example is probably the "Brother Cadfael" novels set in and around medieval Shrewsbury. However, if one is so inclined one can read about murders in Victorian London, Republican or Imperial Rome, Pharonic Egypt and more. There is a further sub-genre (a sub-sub-genre?) which uses actual historical figures as detectives. If you've ever felt that Jane Austen would have made a better detective than novelist, there's a series of books out there for you.

As one might expect, the results of these attempts to recast modern detective novels, especially those with actual historical figures, vary a great deal. In Blind Justice, Bruce Alexander (a nom de plume for Bruce Cook) has had a reasonable amount of success. He avoids many of the jarring anachronisms of many of these series (the convolutions required to do forensic medicine in the 12th century are fairly elaborate) by setting his book in Georgian England and taking the historical Sir John Fielding as his detective. Sir John was a London magistrate and instrumental in founding the first professional police force in England.

The book itself is well-enough written. It captures the spirit of the time adequately; although it is not an era with which I am particularly well-informed, there were no obvious anachronisms. Good research is essential if one is to write a believable historical novel, and Alexander has clearly done his homework. The characters are interesting and engaging, a diverse lot of rogues and villians providing a nice contrast to the more upright citizens who are the protagonists. A nice touch is provided by the fact that Sir John, being blind, requires an assistant in his investigations, thus providing a better rationale for a young sidekick than one usually finds.

The plot is decent enough, although unexceptional; if one reads a lot of mysteries, the twist ending is apparent well before the climactic scene. That is not, however, a fatal flaw in a mystery if the pacing, characters and incidents are compelling enough - as is the case here. To summarize: Lord Goodhope dies in the classic locked room. It is, naturally, not a suicide. Suspicion falls on the half-brother, the mistress and the creditor to whom the victim owes money. In the end, after appropriate twists and turns, truth outs and evil is punished.

If I sound a bit lukewarm, that is not my intent. Mystery novel plots tend to be rather formulaic. The appeal lies in the writing style and the characters. For historical novels, there may also be appeal in the setting. In all of those respects, this book does a better job than most; while I did not feel the need to run out purchase the remaining nine books in the series, I will certainly pick them up if I see them at my usual street-side vendor, and that is decidely not the case with many mystery series. In short, while this book is not truly exceptional it is well above average.

Overall Grade: B

Munchkin Cthulhu 2 - Call of Cowthulhu

Who knew that the horror of H.P. Lovecraft and the silliness of farms could result in wonderful humor? Anyone who's played Munchkin Cthulhu, of course! Call of Cowthulhu, the first expansion for Munchkin Cthulhu, brings a barnyard basis that scores big for playability and humor.

(For those unfamiliar with Munchkin, it's a card game from Steve Jackson Games lampooning gaming Munchkins, those power players who exploit every loophole, argue about everything that doesn't go their way, and cheerfully betray their teammates in order to get ahead. In each Munchkin game -- different ones cover different genres, from medieval fantasy to sci-fi to superheroes -- the players try to kill monsters, collect stuff, and play cards to advance from level 1 to the winning level 10 (or, if you're playing with the Epic rules, level 20). The players can (and usually do) interfere in other players' combats, necessatiting requesting help from someone to win a combat (through bribery, most often) and still facing interference from the other players. And players will switch races, classes, skills, and other attribtes they hope will let them win. It's very cutthroat, silly, and fun!)

Call of Cowthulhu adds 56 cards to the mix. While there are no new classes (my one complaint about this expansion), there is a new type of card: Madness! These can be played on oneself or others and are both a help and hinderance at the same time. For example, Gammaphobia gives a bonus to monsters for every G in their name (+1 for lower-case Gs, +5 for capital Gs) but gives an extra level to the player if they kill a monster with a capital G.

This expansion adds new monsters, items, and other cards, almost all of which match the farm setting of the title. Players can battle K'horn-Roze, ride the Green Reaper, or end a combat with Bovine Intervention. And of course, Cowthulhu is lurking in the cards, ready to strike.

If you have Munchkin Cthulhu, I highly recommend adding the Call of Cowthulhu to your deck for some more playing fun. If you don't have either, get 'em both!

Overall Grade: A

Reviewed by James Lynch

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