Blogcritics Author: Scott Deitche

Book Review: The First Daughter by Eric Van Lustbader

Scott Deitche — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:55:43 EDT

A fairly decent political thriller from a veteran novelist. Not the best, not the worst.
Eric Van Lustbader’s latest book, The First Daughter, is a sometimes taut, sometimes dragging political thriller with a heavy dose of religious debate interwoven into the plot. President-elect Edward Carson’s daughter Alli has been kidnapped and Carson enlists the help of his friend, and ATF special agent, Jack McClure. Carson is a...

DVD Review: Two Fat Ladies

Scott Deitche — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:10:43 EDT

Acorn Media hits another home run with the DVD release of the greatest cooking show ever.
“Now everybody loves a fish pie, don’t they. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t.” This is not the usual cooking show. In fact there has never been as entertaining, as informative, and as downright unique a cooking show as Two Fat Ladies, a BBC import that found fame on the Food Network after its run in Europe from 1996...

Music Review: Obi Best - Capades

Scott Deitche — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 03:04:49 EDT

Excellent debut digital album of lush, orchestral indie pop.
Lush synth-pop has been back on the indeed scene for some time now. It’s easy to dismiss the styling of the main purveyors as simply retro. But Alex Lilly, an LA-based song stylist and keyboardist best known as a singer for indie pop band The Bird and the Bee, mashes up Burt Bacharach with Serge Gainsbourg, churning out an improbable mixture...

DVD Review: Blue Murder - Set 3

Scott Deitche — Fri, 8 Aug 2008 08:05:04 EDT

Another excellent BBC mystery addition to Acorn Media's vast DVD catalgoue.
When a renowned up-and-coming footballer is murdered, the Manchester police send in one of their best investigators, Detective Chief Inspector Janine Lewis. With her no-nonsense approach coupled with a motherly instinct brought to the workplace from her other job as a single mother, Lewis pulls together her team through various versions of the...

Music Review: The Futureheads - This is Not the World

Scott Deitche — Tue, 1 Jul 2008 23:58:36 EDT

The post-punk popsters attempt a return to form with mixed results.
The Futureheads drew a lot of flak for their 2006 CD News and Tributes. Critics and fans cut their teeth thinking of new ways to say how the band abandoned the post-punk power and promise of their 2004 debut. In fact, News contained some excellent punk-pop. The song “Fall Out” in particular is one of the best Brit songs of the last few...

PBS's Mystery! Returns With A New Name, Look, And Host

Scott Deitche — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:30:48 EDT

The classic PBS show is back with a retooled format.
The introduction to the PBS show Mystery! is classic. Suspenseful music accompanied by Edward Gorey’s memorable animation introduced yet another top-notch British detective series. For over 30 years the show followed a singular formula for success. It has been home to some of my personal favorite mysteries, among them: Cadfael with Derek...

Book Review: A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander

Scott Deitche — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:01:03 EDT

A remarkable historical mystery, steeped with evocative imagery and complex characters.
The melodramatic historical novel is neck-deep in pomp, circumstance, class warfare, and stilted observations of lives far removed form our own. So many have been written that the sheer number guarantees the stale formula generates more snoozers than not. But there are a few that rise above the template. A Fatal Waltz, billed as a “novel of...

Music Review: Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Scott Deitche — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:05:31 EDT

Indie rock's major label faves return with a solid follow-up to their huge hit, 2005's Plans.
Is an indie band with a number one album on the Billboard charts considered indie anymore? Death Cab For Cutie’s last CD, 2005’s Plans, was their first for Atlantic Records and sold over one million copies. Their new CD, Narrow Stairs, entered the Billboard chart at number one, and three weeks later, is still in the top ten. But when...

Book Review: The Mysterious Receding Seas by Richard Guy

Scott Deitche — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 06:12:16 EDT

Though suffering from poor layout and lack of sources, an interesting -- if far-fetched -- theory.
Speculation and alternative history are two of the hottest genres in non-fiction. For every quack book of conspiracies, there is a legitimate one that advances the field. The re-evaluation of the historical record in light of new discoveries used to be the sole domain of archaeology, but with the success of Fortean-type books exploring everything...

Book Review: The Mind of a Genius by David Snowdon

Scott Deitche — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:00:36 EDT

An uneven addition to the espionage thriller genre - with intertwining parallel stories and the usual, and unusual, suspects.
In the post-9/11 world, spies and the world of espionage has become a far more serious affair, as evidenced by TV shows like MI-5, and the re-launch of the Bond franchise with Daniel Craig. The suave, rogue agent taking on the world has become scarce in fiction, relegated to an anachronism. But David Snowdon gives us the retro-hero in his novel The...