BunzelGram

October 4, 2021    Issue #61

 

This Week's Thoughts On Mysteries, Thrillers, and All Things Crime

 

I’m a sucker for James Bond films. Sure, they can be repetitive and self-derivative, but for pure action and adventure, nothing can beat them. Beginning with when my father took me to see Thunderball as a child (my mother did not approve), I’ve seen every movie in the franchise—some of them many times over. So, despite only seeing one movie over the past 20 months, I plan on buying my ticket and social distancing this weekend to see the latest installment (and the last starring Daniel Craig), No Time To Die. This week’s BunzelGram features a ranked list of every Bond film ever made and, while I disagree on some points, I was glad to see my favorite—the 2006 version of Casino Royale—listed at #2. As always, enjoy!

—Reed Bunzel

Every James Bond Movie, Ranked

The new James Bond flick No Time To Die opens in wide release this Friday (Oct. 8) after several delays pushed back its original November 19, 2019 premiere. The fifth and final 007 movie starring Daniel Craig—and the 25th overall—currently holds an 83% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and many critics have given it favorable reviews, despite its complicated plot and long run time (2 hours 43 minutes). To mark the film’s release, Crime Reads’ Olivia Rutigliano has compiled this list of the best Bond movies, which she says are difficult to compare with one another, “especially because their production has spanned six decades and many technological and social innovations have arisen during that time.” Seven actors have played 007, and they’ve all got their unique takes on the role. “Sean Connery is bemused and hairy, David Niven is a daffy blowhard, and George Lazenby is self-effacing and casual,” Rutigliano observes. “Meanwhile, Roger Moore is a blithe playboy, Timothy Dalton is one hair-trigger from going postal, Pierce Brosnan is a Shakespearean tragedian trapped in a lesser series, and Daniel Craig is a stony, angry, semi-sociopathic loose cannon.” The actual rankings of some of these films might produce some controversy, but leave you stirred and not shaken.

 
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Seven Great Thrillers

That Revisit the Past

One of the wonderful things about being a mystery reader (and writer) is all the exciting sub-genres. There’s the locked room mystery, where a seemingly impossible crime has been committed; the isolated mystery, where characters in peril are cut off from the world; the amnesia mysteries, where a character can’t remember what happened. But one of the most popular sub-genres of mystery is certainly when a character returns home to revisit the past. In these novels you can go home again, but something or someone from your past will probably want to kill you. You know the genre, as derivative or formulaic as it might be: An illness or death in the family, or a job, brings the main character back to the hometown they couldn’t wait to leave in the rearview mirror all those years ago. And while they’re there, they take up with an old flame and learn a dark secret, or the body of a person thought to have moved away is discovered. There are many variations of the story but, whatever the circumstances, they are all equally exciting to read. This list from Novel Suspects recalls seven great thrillers that revisit the past, skeletons and all.

 
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COLD CASE

Missing Utah Woman

Identified After 42 Years

The skeletal remains of a Utah woman who mysteriously vanished more than four decades ago were recently identified by authorities. On July 10, 1979, Sandra Matott disappeared from her home town of Salt Lake City without a trace, leaving behind several children and her husband, Warren Matott, who reported her missing. He told investigators he’d last seen his wife in a Salt Lake City bar more than a week earlier; detectives eventually lost contact with the widower and never spoke with him again. Skeletal remains of a human being were discovered by hunters five weeks later, although subsequent investigation indicated no signs of homicidal violence. A ring and a watch that belonged to Sandra Matott were found by the bones, but they alone were not enough to confirm her identity. In 1984, infamous serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to killing Matott and discarding her body, but Salt Lake Police insisted that his claims were vague, and detectives could not verify his confession. Almost 30 years later, in 2013, a Salt Lake City homicide investigator learned from Sandra Matott’s family that they suspected her husband was her murderer, but the man had died in California in 1999. In the fall of 2020, the bones in question were submitted to the University of North Texas for DNA analysis, and August 10, 2021, county authorities received confirmation the skeletal remains were those of Matott. Her cause of death was inconclusive, according to a state medical examiner’s report. Authorities believe Warren Matott had more information related to his wife’s death than he let on, although they never established a probable cause against him and he never faced charges.

 
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Really? The 100 Best

Movies Of All Time?

I’m going to state right up front that I don’t necessarily agree with the rankings of films in this list, nor that some of them even deserve to be included. [Not to mention that some notable classics were omitted entirely.] Also, since many of them aren’t mysteries, crime flicks, or thrillers, this entire compendium reaches far outside the parameters of BunzelGram. However, I greatly appreciate it when reviewers—in this case Time Out’s Phil de Semlyen and Joshua Rothkopf—have the audacity to step way out on a limb and develop something called “the best 100 movies of all time.” , “Everyone has their favorites," they write. "That’s why any debate over what makes the best movies of all time can take hours or, in our cases, a lifetime. From silent classics, to noir, to space operas, and everything in between: Can there ever be one list to rule them all?” Whether you agree with the rankings (or inclusion/ exclusion of films), how many of these classics have you seen? My total is 57.

 
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REVIEW

Parker’s A Thousand Steps Is

A Brilliant Yet Subtle Masterpiece

T. Jefferson Parker’s A Thousand Steps is a brilliant masterpiece that deftly draws subtle, yet dark, parallels between a dysfunctional California family and a war-torn America at odds with itself in 1968. Seen through the personal lens of 16-year-old Matt Anthony, the book opens at the onset of a warm summer in Laguna Beach, a SoCal surf town wrestling with change as tie-dyed purveyors of peace and love clash directly with the uniformed grip of law and order. When Matt’s older sister Jasmine disappears on the same day that the remains of a missing girl are found on the rocks, the young teen is yanked from his comfort zone of fishing the breakers and delivering newspapers when no one seems to see a connection between the two incidents. Physical evidence, including the presence of a mysterious cocktail of drugs in the deceased’s system, leads authorities to suspect foul play, but a particularly myopic police sergeant seems more interested in rounding up the mind-bending hippies that have invaded his town than investigating the young woman’s killer…or looking for Matt’s sister. Against a backdrop of hallucinogenic enlightenment, spiritual evolution, and personal mindfulness, Parker draws on his dexterity as a three-time Edgar Award winner to pull us deeper and deeper into the elemental conflicts of love, greed, justice, fear, pain, betrayal, survival, and regret. A Thousand Steps is all at once a mystery, crime novel, thriller, love story, and American epic told with such honesty and boldness that we instantly become one with it, and it with us, as we relive the Age of Aquarius—or experience it for the first time. Available January 11, 2022.

 
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ALSO:

 

Mystery, Crime, And Thriller Programming That’s Streaming This Fall

Whether you’re looking for a binge-able mystery series, a true crime miniseries, or a thoughtful heist drama, here’s a list of new programming set to stream over the next few months. [Crime Reads]

 

Podcasts—Including True Crime—Fuel Rise In Advertising Dollars

The rise in popularity of podcasts, including those dealing with true crime and related topics, has effectively changed the landscape of the entire media market, attracting major advertising dollars. [Nielsen]

 

Upcoming Mysteries on Turner Classic Movies for October 2021

If you’re looking for some of the best classic mysteries and crime thrillers, TCM is always the go-to channel. Here’s their latest line-up for the month of October. [Cozy Mystery Blog]

Look For Indigo Road Next Year

 

What others have said about Jack Connor:

 

“Sweeps you in with intrigue and authority and never lets you go.” —Michael Connelly

 

"Raw, irreverent, and witty, Jack Connor is someone you want with you in a foxhole or the bloody back roads of South Carolina." —Fmr. Secretary of Defense William Cohen

 

“Lights up the Southern sky with taut, exciting action.” —Michael McGarrity

 

"It may be hot in South Carolina, but Iraq War vet and crime scene clean-up specialist Jack Connor is nothing but cool. Reed Bunzel has created a winning series." —Alafair Burke

 

[Cover image subject to change]


 

 

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