Author: Andres Kabel

Episode 1 of this picaresque series captivated me (I rated it at 8/10) and the next three episodes of “Russian Doll” up the ante even further. Natasha Lyonne sparkles as the profane, feisty Nadia seeking clues as to why she keeps dying and returning to life at her birthday party. Concentration is needed, for it’s clear every minor plot twist and turn could mean something else later. A bevy of fascinating characters, all played brilliantly, sashays in and out of Nadia’s growing nightmare. The cinematography by Chris Teague is sublime and the music rocks. And then, at the end of Episode 4, a plot twist occurs that had me leap from my chair. Holy shmoly! I can’t wait for the second half of the season. Highly, highly recommended as a perfect example of how a prosaic idea can be turned into riveting cinema.

“Life After Life” introduced me to Kate Atkinson’s imagination and prose, and I’m an admirer of her Jackson Brodie series. “Transcription” is somewhat of a detour, a literary post-WWII spy thriller set in England. A young precocious woman, recruited to perform a minor role in a wartime counter-espionage department, discovers a decade later, as a BBC producer, that the past never goes away. Atkinson’s lead character is wonderful and her writing is immersive, but spy fiction is a demanding genre, and a right-angle plot twist at the end left me a little nonplussed. Fans of the current revival in wartime and post-war stories could well lap this us and I raced through the read in Atkinson’s masterful hands.

Dogged lawyer Dan Grant and harried investigator Jayne Brett set off on their third outing in “The Innocent Ones.” Neil White offers an easy, close-up style and a twisty plot, revolving around a murdered journalist following up a cold case of child killings. The two protagonists are easily appealing if a little blancmange in the modern day of heroes with huge handicaps. The Yorkshire settings are well portrayed. Recommended especially for fans of stalwart authors like Peter Robinson.

The ninth in the high-octane spy thriller series starring Dan Roy, “Scorpion Sting” is a quick, almost satisfying read. The plot revolves around our hero on the trail of a killer until he hears a mayday from his old flame, Russian ultra assassin Scorpion; the two unite to tackle a fearsome plot by an ultra terrorist. That one-line description sounds like a parody and therein lies the issue: Mick Bose writes well, the action is quite compelling, the many locales are sketched vividly enough, but … something about the overall plot arc invites feelings of déjà vu. If you love this genre – and I do – grab “Scorpion Sting” for a zinger of a read, but beware of the novel’s limitations.

Older runners will immediately recognize the cover of “The Incomplete Book of Running as part homage, part spoof of Jim Fixx’s “The Complete Book of Running,” the bible of the nascent 1970s running boom. Indeed Peter Sagal attributes acquiring the running bug, as an overweight teen, from his wise dad who saw the light according to Fixx. Sagal’s book is nothing like Fixx’s, less a prescriptive paean, more an extended memoir and wise shoulder, but it is nonetheless an inspiring work. I loved his immersive descriptions of key marathons and his dive into the question of why we runners hurt ourselves was welcome to me at this point in my life. The book also reverberates as a memoir of a comedian whose life plunges low after a divorce. Sagal’s lynchpin is the tale of his terrorism-blighted 2013 Boston Marathon guiding a blind runner. There’s plenty of blindingly brilliant writing here (it’s not easy bringing a run to life, as I know) and the book is artfully constructed. Would I recommend “The Incomplete Book of Running” to a non-runner considering the sport? Possibly not, but if you’ve ever donned joggers and hit the roads, this is a zesty and stylish reminder of why you should be out there right now.