"The Chalet" Netflix's hidden gem

What a relief to watch a 6 part miniseries (each episode is around 50 minutes) where all is resolved so there's no chance of a second season. This French murder mystery is wildly improbable but after the first half hour you are hooked. The glorious scenery around Chamonix in the French alps contrasts with the dastardly doings of the villagers.
The chilling nursery rhyme and the model village (with rivers of blood in later credits) telegraphs to the viewer that things are going to get nasty. Alternating between two timelines (the summers of 1997 and 2017), we see what has happened to the villagers and their children. No spoilers here. Just enjoy the ride.

"The Secret History of Las Vegas" by Chris Abani - review

Conjoined twins, serial killing, secret psychological testing, Las Vegas's outcasts ("the Downwinders" - those affected by decades of atomic testing in and under the Nevada desert), the life of an exotic prostitute (Asia), life in 1980's Soweto, the torturing and death carried out by secret police in Apartheid South Africa and an ongoing murder investigation - this novel covers a lot of ground in its 317 pages.

The characters are complicated and contradictory: Dr Sunil Singh, a South African psychologist with a dark past (no pun intended), now working in Las Vegas on a secret and highly unethical project for the military and world-weary but dogged detective Salazar who is investigating the murders of Las Vegas's homeless. All these elements are intricately linked in this strange, haunting book.
The chapters describing the sideshow in the middle of the desert (The Carnival of Lost Souls) could have been expanded. The chapters containing Sunil's back story in South Africa were harrowing but essential to understand why he is being hunted by the mysterious, Eskia.
If you are looking for the usual serial killer thriller, this is not it.

"The Disappeared" C. J. Box - Joe Pickett #18 - A great winter-read

"Things almost got Western", remarks game warden, Joe Pickett, early in the book.
And they certainly do. Furnaces, fish-slapping, massive wind turbine projects, snow mobiles, cougars (the human kind), five star ranch resorts are in the mix this time. Nate Romanowski is back with a new form of interrogation (trout-slapping). It beats ripping off ears - used in earlier 'chats' with the local miscreants.
Concluding with a call from former-Governor Rulon, there is bound to be Joe Pickett #19.

Set in the middle of a bleak Wyoming (U.S.'s least populated state) winter, the reader is advised to snuggle up by an open fire with your favourite tipple.

70's TV Guilty Pleasures (10 of the best)

Not The Brady Bunch, thought it was naff. Liked the two sendup movies, though.
I did watch The Partridge Family (for Susan Dey). You must bear in mind I was between the ages of 14 and 23 in the seventies.  Here we go, in order of what I would most desperately like to see again ....

U.S. 70's shows

1. Columbo (Where do I start? I think the first few seasons are my favourite) "Er....just one more thing....." 
2. The Name of the Game (glossy Universal telemovies with rotating stars, I'm also a sucker for great opening titles/theme music)
3. Kolchak: The Night Stalker
4. Night Gallery patchy Universal horror anthology series with great guest stars and soon to be famous directors (Steven Spielberg)
5. Search (Probe was the pilot movie, loved the Dominic Frontiere theme music and the changing stars format)
6. Rich Man, Poor Man mini-series (polished Universal production)
7. Laugh In (1968-1973)
8. MacMillan and Wife (Universal again, John Schuck really annoyed me!)
9. Banacek (Cool Peppard rowing down the Charles River)
10. The Snoop Sisters (shortlived but not forgotten, those old birds were good)

British 70's shows

1. Family at War  must-see wartime melodrama
2. The Sandbaggers  I preferred this to Callan, but my wife will kill me for saying such sacrilege.
3. Bouquet of Barbed Wire  miniseries, pretty raunchy, if I remember.
4. Journey to the Unknown   another horror anthology series, creepy introductory whistling music. I know it finished in 1969 but I didn't see it until 1970, it's my blog, it wouldn't be the first time the truth has been 'bent' on the Internet.
5. Thriller (from the creator of The Avengers, Brian Clemens)
6. The Persuaders big budget Lew Grade series, Tony Curtis was great, so were the cars.
7. Doctor in the House (loved Professor Loftus)
8. Morecambe & Wise (Brit gold)
9. Doctor Who (Jon Pertwee episodes)
10. Doctor Who (Tom Baker episodes)