BRENDAN RYAN'S BOOKLETTER

August 20, 2026

Hello Again Bookletter Pals,

And I suspect somewhat to the surprise of all of you a new bookletter arises out of the heat and humidity of New York City during the month of August. And I must say that a fine bookletter it is ...literally a splendiferous cornucopia of a wide-ranging variety of reading material. Unlike “normal” bookletters which focus quite tightly on mysteries and thrillers this will range across a broad spectrum of book types. And types of authors. We will feature new authors, old authors, deceased authors and maybe even a few whose name and occupation may not even be an author. Hopefully some of these will catch your fancy and cause you to read them. And for that crowd of you who normally just skim the bookletter ( I know who you are) you might want to pay a little closer attention to this one. Just saying.

And now herewith, the books:

1. Maeve Binchy --A Week in Winter

See, I wasn’t kidding. Maeve is no more of a mystery writer than the man on the moon. But

Maeve was a brilliant writer of broadly popular fiction and was based in a little town outside

Dublin, Dalkey by name, and the lead pub in Dalkey is a place called Finnegan’s. Maeve lived

next door and was often in said pub. As occasionally was a certain elderly gentleman from NYC.

Therefore, a personal fondness for Maeve. Maeve passed away 10 years ago but not before

she wrote at least ten wonderful books. This was the last one she wrote and it is a little gem. No

blood-soaked Swedish tundras here. But rather a small town on the west coast of Ireland named

Stoneybridge. An old mansion has been located there for years, falling into ruin until our heroine,

Chicky Starr winds up taking it over and chooses to turn it into a restful “holiday resort” by the

sea. Everyone thinks she’s nuts. And over the course of literally the very first week the hotel is

open we meet all sorts of characters in the guise of staff and guests showing up. Each bringing

their own baggage (literal and figurative) and we come to like them or not and what unfolds as

they coalesce within the confines of the refurbishing. Candidly I had forgotten how good a writer

Binchy was. She really was pretty world famous. This is not one of my little unique Irish books

read by six people. She was big-time and this book underscores why. Absolutely, positively no

need to be Irish to enjoy this delightful book. Let me quote the San Francisco Chronicle which

said “Binchy makes you laugh, cry and care. Her warmth and sympathy render the daily

struggles of so many people heroic and turn storytelling into art.” Very well said.

2. Ron Currie --We Will See You Bleed

Hopefully, you fondly remember a book from a few letters ago titled The Savage Noble Death of

Babs Dionne by this same author. It was a terrific read. This actually is sort of a prequel to that

and again features one of my favorite characters of recent literature namely Babs. The story

unfolds in late summer 1984 when the town of Waterville, ME is on the verge of collapse. “A

strike at the papermill has dragged on for a year, pitting neighbor against neighbor, leaving

everyone broke and exhausted. Of course, who should be the head of the union local but our

indomitable Babs. Who not to be forgotten, killed a man when she was just a teenager but of

course has since sworn off violence.” Just sayin. What makes these two books so enjoyable is

they take the reader to a part of the world we probably don’t know a lot about. Namely what’s

called “Little Canada” in Maine where French Canadians dominate and pretty much operate to

their own little drum. Another terrific book, the writing is just superb, the characters are

memorable and interesting and the realities of what happens when the town’s only industry

shuts down are brought very clearly, vividly to life. As the fly-leaf says “The men may be broken

but the women are furious, ready to do whatever necessary to take back Little Canada.” And
bad guys at the papermill abound to say nothing of pervasive drug gangs. A quote from C.J.

Box...“This book is darkly funny, shocking and unblinking ... who would guess there’s another

Godfather saga, but this one exists in Northern Maine and the principal in charge is named

Babs Dionne.” She certainly does remind one of Don Corleone. Of course, you can read these

two books in either order. Most recommended on every level.

3. Michael Connelly --Ironwood

Yup, him again. And I must say whenever I see a new Connelly I must go get it. This book is the

second in a subseries which features Sheriff Detective Sergeant Stillwell who formerly was in LA

but is now based out of Catalina Island. A locale for whatever reason, I always found intriguing.

Perhaps going back to the days of yore with the lyrics reverberating in my head of “26 miles

across the sea, Santa Catalina is awaiting for me.” (the Four Preps, 1958 ..yup, I DO remember)

. Despite being 26 miles away, Santa Catalina is under the jurisdiction of the LAPD. For whom

Stillwell was formerly stationed in LA and then was shipped out to the island sort of as a

“punishment” but he’s come to love it and it’s now in his mind, “his territory” and he will stand up

to the big-time bullies at LAPD HQ as they try to mess him about. And then suddenly stuff starts

happening...big deposit of drugs on the island, a violent shoot-out , missing young woman etc.

and Stillwell gets suspended for a bit. And who comes to the rescue but our other LAPD favorite,

LAPD Unsolved Cases Unit Head Detective Renée Ballard. Hopefully you remember her from

other Connelly books. No need to babble on further here. Thoroughly enjoyed it. As always,

easy to read and you can start with this one. Although I’d recommend picking up
Nightshade which was the first of the Catalina books. And that combined with this Ironwood is a

nice little bundle for you to tuck in your bag for a weekend. As I might say “There ain’t no bad

Connelly.”

4. Simon Mason --Missing Person: Alice

Hopefully you remember from my last letter the enthusiasm I showered upon Brother Mason for

his 5-book series featuring the two Detective Sergeants Wilkins in Cambridge, England. A

brilliant series. Don’t miss it. But then, unbeknownst to me, young Mason had another series that

was brought to my attention by Bob L. and is equally excellent. Features a lead character known

as the “The Finder” and predictably he spends his time finding people who are lost either of

their own accidental volition or more likely some nefarious folk who have snatched them. This is

the first in a series of three and the only one I’ve read to date. The venue is Sevenoaks, a rather

ta-ta suburb of London and we have a missing young woman. And then nine years later another

woman disappears. The Finder enters the game. Mason is a wonderful writer, that was clear in

the other series and continues here. If you like a really good mystery with some interesting

locale and dialogue, this is for you. The fact that my favorite Mick Herron said about this series,

“Brilliantly constructed mysteries ... Simon Mason has been mainlining Simenon for a while, and

it shows.” Honestly, these British mystery writers keep turning up and if you enjoy a good

mystery, which I clearly do, and if you’re reading this book letter you do as well, there seems to

be an inexhaustible supply of new and continuing writers. If you want to avoid having to read the

20-book series of someone like Peter James, Simon Mason would be a perfect solution

choosing either this 3-book series or the other five. I do like a quote from another British author,

David Peace who referencing this FINDER series referred to it as “The very definition of

un-put-downable.”

5. Louis L'Amour --West of Dodge

I told you there would be some be some different stuff in this bookletter. Let me backtrack here a

second on our man Louis. Back in 1986 he wrote what in my estimation is one of the best books

ever titled Last of the Breed. It had to do with a U.S. test pilot whose plane went down into hostile

Soviet Russia and he was captured. You may vaguely recall, if you’re old enough, the real life

happening when Gary Powers went down .. Back to the book...the central character of Last of

the Breed, U.S. Airforce Major John Mack survives captivity and manages an escape of heroic

proportion. A wonderful read and you really should go back and read that
if you missed it. It’s excellent.

So what book led me to resurrect Louis L’Amour who’s now been deceased for many years ?

Well, it turns out he left behind an unfinished manuscript to be titled Skyring Water and it was

found by his son Beau who has just now completed that book and released it. Predictably, I have

bought it and I am reading it. More on that next bookletter. But again, this is not about that book

...this is about West of Dodge. How did I come upon this? I was prowling one of my favorite used

bookstores in the Louis L’Amour section (yup, section..has written over 100 books),picked this

one up by chance and it turns out to be a fantastic gem. It is a collection of
about 10 short stories, all Westerns. Do I normally read Westerns? No. Do I normally go to

Western movies? No. Do I normally read short stories, No. But this was fantastic. Each story

was more fun to read than the next. And this really is L’Amour’s sweet spot. The way he

describes the Old West of the days of Cowboys, of Indians, stagecoaches, gun fighters, bank

robbers, etc. is brilliant. The beauty of this book is that It’s small and you don’t have to read the

whole thing at once. Pick it up, read a story and put it down. It does what the very best authors

do; transports the reader to a totally different time and place. You feel like you’re back in the

rugged Old West. An unexpected, wonderful fun read and certainly well off our beaten path.

Probably a lot more than you wanted to know about the doings of the L’Amour family but some

good reading materials.

6. Robert J. Harris --A Study in Crimson

No, not that Robert Harris...the guy who’s written about 15 of our most favorite books over the

years, This is Robert J. Harris; his thing is Sherlock Holmes. Now, generally I am not a big fan of

Sherlock Holmes. In fact, I’ve read very few of them. But this one struck me and it is an excellent

read. What Harris does here is brings Sherlock Holmes from the Victorian Era to the dark days of

World War II in London 1942 and NO he is not Arthur Conan Doyle who actually wrote Sherlock

Holmes, but he lifts generously from that author’s canon to make this story totally enjoyable. I’ve

always been a sucker for novels in London in World War II. If you are at all a fan of Sherlock

Holmes, I suspect at least several readers of this book letter would be, this is up your alley. Even

if you’re not, this is a serious mystery about London at the time of World War II. And what do we

have going on here but a bit of an “imitation” Jack the Ripper wandering about causing havoc

and additional terror in wartime London. As if The Blitz wasn’t enough. And in the course of our

novel, Scotland Yard reaches out to Sherlock Holmes “the world’s greatest detective and his

faithful sidekick, Watson.” A different, interesting book to read.

7. Claire Keegan --Small Things Like These

Now this is one of my GREAT LITTLE IRISH BOOKS. And Claire Keegan is way beyond just a

writer of Great Little Irish Books. She’s become a force as an author, but her books tend to be

short, massively powerful and brief. Here we have a story that takes place in 1985 in a small Irish

town and our lead character, a guy named Bill Furlong has a small family and is a small

businessman struggling to make a local coal business work. He is an ordinary, hard-working guy

trying to support his family and one of the customers for his coal deliveries happens to be a

local convent. And on one of his deliveries, he comes across a young woman. And at that time
not all things in Ireland were “cool”. What happens at that moment is the rest of the book and I

shall not reveal it here. But I promise, you will be totally caught up in the emotions and the “what

do I do now?” theme of the story. It is a wonderful bit of writing and storytelling. True confession,

as I was reading this book, I was about a third of the way through and I started thinking, “I have

read this before.” But then I knew I had not and the lightbulb went off. There was a movie made

about this book starring Cillian Murphy as Bill Furlong which I had seen and was absolutely

excellent also. So If you lean more towards film version, you might do that. I guarantee that,

whichever you choose, will please you to no end. As much as I hesitate to even mention this,

I do think Oprah chose this as her Book of the Year in 2024. Perhaps of more relevance, the

Wall Street Journal deemed it “exquisite.”

8. Anthony Horowitz --A Deadly Episode

Bynow, regular readers of this bookletter know I am officially a Horowitz Groupie. I love whatever

this guy does. And BOY does he do a lot of stuff. And I must of course mention my favorite

all-time television show titled Foyle’s War where he wrote every episode of every season. Here

we are back in the three book series all featuring Detective Hawthorne, retired and Anthony

Horowitz himself as a continuing character where together they wind up solving murders. As this

book begins they are making a major feature film of the first Hawthorne/Horowitz mystery novel.

Except they are behind schedule, have run out of money...and oh, the star has just been

murdered. The headline was “Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne is dead” ...well NO, not the

real guy but the actor playing him in the television series. What confusion can this lead to? A

wonderful, Horowitz type tale with characters we know and the continuing odd interplay with

the fictional Hawthorne and the character Horowitz which makes for entertaining reading. And as

a bonus, at least part of the story takes place in the town of Hastings ... What happened there?

That was where Foyle was stationed and there’s even a paragraph in this book that says they

were filming close to the fisherman’s huts where Foyle had chased a racketeer while taking on

a gang of Nazi sympathizers and where the actress Honeysuckle Weeks (real name) knocked

the racketeer out with a dustbin lid. Personally, I love the fact that this book bounces in and out

of stuff like that. It is as always extremely well-written, highly entertaining murder mystery but

certainly on the less grim end of the spectrum of such novels. The other two in this series titled

Magpie Murders and Close to Death. Another trifecta of books you might want to gobble up over

a few days. I would read them in order.

9. James Patterson and Maxine Paetro --Private

10. James Patterson and Mark Sullivan --Private Paris

There’s one thing you can say with total certainty about James Patterson...he understands

publishing better than any human being on earth and knows how to successfully write and

market entertaining, highly successful books. And some not so much, in my opinion. And these

books are yet another Patterson innovation. It starts with the first book titled Private and in

addition to being the name of the book, that is the name of the world’s “most powerful

investigation firm” with branches all over the world and run by former Marine Helicopter Pilot

Jack Morgan. “It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion.”

When this book begins, Jack is at his firm deep into the investigation of an NFL gambling

scandal to say nothing of the murders of 13 schoolgirls when his best friend’s wife is murdered

and off we go. As a standalone, it’s a really entertaining, classic thriller read.

But then along comes Private Paris. Which predictably centers around the Private office in Paris

working on crimes /issues in that city and in so doing displaying a real knowledge of that city.

But wait, there’s more. What do I mean? There are about 20 books in this series, each of

the following ones centering in a city around the world. We have Private Vegas, Private India,

Private Moscow, Private Sydney, Private Dublin, Private LA, etc. You get the idea. What a

brilliant idea for a highly marketable series of mystery novels. Good on Brother James. I have

only read the two listed here and enjoyed them both immensely. They really were good, just

on a standalone basis. In part why I bring this to your attention is I have often found a great

way to prepare for a trip to a new city is find out who’s the best mystery writer from that area

and read a couple of his/her books. Well this series is in effect a collection of tourist guides all

centered around mysteries and other shenanigans. If you’re planning a trip to Downtown

Delhi, you might pick up Private Delhi. I suspect you’d enjoy the read and it would make you

a little more knowledgeable about the city you’re heading to. If you’re obsessive, you might

want to read every one of these but I think your head would explode. My suggestion is read

the first book titled “Private “and then as the mood strikes you and you want to visit some city

“around the world” pick the relevant book. They’re fun to read, well-written and very insightful.

11. Fredric Brown --The Fabulous Clipjoint

Okay, so this was written in 1947. While I was around, I certainly wasn’t reading mystery novels

at the time. How did this come about? Well, my pal Harry in London sent a clipping from, I

think, it was The Guardian that was extolling “the great writers of mystery novels of the past

many many years.” Not exactly the title but you kind of get the idea. And one of the writers

they singled out was this chap named Fredric Brown who has written a seven book series

featuring two intriguing characters The first one titled The Fabulous Clipjoint. As luck would

have it, The Mysterious Bookshop down on Warren Street in NYC led by the inimitable Otto

Penzler has published a series titled American Mystery Classics and what book is featured

prominently in said series? Of course, The Fabulous Clipjoint. In just a few days, I had a nice

new hardback copy of said book and off I went. And more than well worth the effort.

Set in “the rough edges of 1940’s Chicago”, a corpse is discovered, the police are kind of

dismissive about it and it turns out the victim’s son Ed and his “Carny brother” Am are not

quite so sanguine. Not at all. But this unlikely duo proceeds to diligently seek to unravel the

mystery of the murder. Part of what this makes this a particularly enjoyable book is that Am,

the brother of the victim lives and works in a “Carny” (aka Carnival)and we get an inside look at

all the tricks and stuff that goes on in the Carny. A predictably zany collection of characters.

And we have a totally wonderful mystery novel and a classic period piece .I genuinely can’t wait

to dig in and track down the next installments because I do love Ed and particularly the uncle,

Am. And if you happen to live in Chicago here’s a great way to visit your fine town’s past. And

this particular book won the “Edgar Award” for Best New Mystery in 1947. There are six

additional books in this series with the seventh title Mrs. Murphy’s Underpants written in 1963.

This guy Brown is a hoot.

12. Harini Nagendra --Murder Under a Red Moon

What? You thought you’d have a bookletter without a mystery set in 19th century India? Oh,

Ye of Little Faith. Yes, here we are back again in Bangalore in 1920 with a follow up to the very

successful and much-admired The Bangalore Detective’s Club. And here again our heroine,

Kaveri Murthy “reluctantly agrees to investigate a minor crime to please her domineering

mother-in-law.” She once again rallies the Bangalore Detective’s Club “a mixed bag of street

urchins, nosey neighbors, an ex-prostitute and a policeman’s wife” (how could that crowd not

succeed?) And hunt for clues in Kaveri’s 1920’s Ford. I must confess to being a sucker for being
able to be whisked back to the 1920’s ,a time when anti-British sentiment was prevalent across

India and a woman running about investigating a crime was a highly unlikely situation. I would

suggest if you did not read the first book, The Bangalore’s Detective Club you should do so. And

then this one.

13. Maggie O’Farrell --Land

I guess it was inevitable that I read this book. It was massively promoted by Barnes and Noble,
discounted to beat the band, written by the author of the hugely successful play, Hamnet and
all about Ireland to boot. I read it. It is indeed a “soaring historical novel set in Ireland in the
years before and after The Great Hunger.” A fascinating period of time and this lady does write
well. You may not find it the easiest book to read, just saying. But because I put it in here, I’m
recommending it. Very hard to summarize it. The lead characters back in 1865 are Tomas and
his reluctant son Liam who are “working for The Great Ordinance Survey Project to map the
whole of Ireland.” And who was doing this but the British. Predictably they were forced to rely
on the locals due to their different language. The fly leaf says it’s “spellbinding and varied as
the landscape that inspired it, Land, the book, is above all a story of survival for our times and
for all time.” Kind of a grand statement honestly. I did read it, I did enjoy it but I must confess
I’m having a hard time summarizing it. It was a hugely successful book but take it at your own
risk.

14. Reginald Hill --The Woodcutter

Hopefully the name Reginald Hill sparks enthusiasm amongst long-term readers of the book
letter as he is indeed the author of about 20 volumes in a series featuring two Yorkshire,
England ,Detectives, Dalziel (pronounced “Dashell”) and Pascoe. I couldn’t recommend those
books more highly. However, this book ain’t one of those. This is total standalone written back
in 2011. If you want a big fat-ass English novel, that is just a wonderful read written by a
master craftsman, grab this. It begins with a man named Wolf Hadda as a woodcutter’s son in
modern day Cumbria who becomes an amazingly successful businessman. Then it all falls
apart. He is tossed in jail, abandoned by friends and family and left to rot away in prison. Is
that the end of the story? Uhh not at all , not even close. Wolf comes back into the world and
what does he do? Is it all about endless revenge? Perhaps. Is it about “restorative justice?”
Whatever that means these days. You must read it to find out. Could not recommend more
highly. It’s off the beaten trail. If you’re not reading this book, you may want to recall that
“Dalziel and Pascoe” is a hugely popular BBC television series.

15. Annabel Monaghan --Nora Goes Off Script

Quite honestly, I cannot figure out how this book got into my pile of books to read. I suspect I
picked it up for a buck at some cheap used bookstore simply because “NORA" is in the title and
that was my mother’s name. Curious how these things work. This has nothing to do with
mysteries, thrillers or anything of the genre. However, it is an absolute pisser and a must-read.
In a less evolved phase of my life this might have been referred to as “Chick Lit” but then again,
you know I’m well beyond that. Whatever. Let me give you the essence of the plot. I will quote
from the fly leaf a lot because it is so clear...“Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better

than anyone. As a romance tv channel screenwriter - it’s her job. But then her too-good-to-
work husband leaves her and their two kids and Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash,

writing the best script of her life. When the script is picked up for the big screen and set to film
at her 100-year-old home with former “Sexiest Man Alive” Leo Vance cast as her ex-husband
Nora’s life will never be the same.”
Well, what do you think? Then it goes on and on. A total hoot. By no means our normal
territory but once in a while one needs to leap into a new plunge pool as they say and that
would be this. Couldn’t recommend it more highly. If you’re looking for a way to dodge
bloody headlines and endless chirping from various news programs. Also, some of the quotes
by various reviewers/authors (none of whom I’ve ever heard of) are absolutely brilliant. Here
are a few, “Hallmark meets Hollywood in this gorgeous fast and poignant read.” “Honey and
good-hearted – a romance for romantics.” “Left me feeling the way all the best romances do,
filled with hope and the feeling that true love always wins.” Oy vey. I read this and enjoyed it.
I must confess, I did and I think most of you will enjoy it as well. A little further perspective, this

is Annabel Monaghan’s first adult novel and follows on the success of a selection of her laugh-
out-loud columns which was published under the title “Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look

Big?” I think the terrain is well set here.
Now in an attempt to calm those of you who feel as though I’ve lost my mind and the book
letter has lost its raison d’etre let me now rapidly tick off five additional books that are each
written by long-time favorites and that hew quite closely to our normal territory. Given that, I
won’t blather on endlessly about each one. This is more, in a sense, a PSA to remind you that
there are books available by some favorite authors that you may have missed and will give
some reasonably brief descriptions.

16. Denzil Meyrick --The Relentless Tide

Meyrick has rapidly become a favorite and this series are just excellent classic British detective
stories. The lead character throughout all of them is Detective Chief Inspector Jim Daley and
they all take place in the fictional West Coast Scottish town of Kinloch. The usual local
characters provide ample color and interest and if you like being transported off to a cool little
place in a part of the world you probably will never get to you’ll really enjoy these. They are
great characters, the crew with the “precinct” is totally engaging and likeable and different and
the crimes range from your basic good old murder to serious World War II residue to hidden
treasure, etc. This particular volume, #6 takes place in the present day and underpinning it all
are three unsolved murders from Glasgow in the mid 1990’s when Daley was a young cop. Ties
them together with the current and it all hangs superbly. Meyrick is a great new discovery to
me. Very much in the footsteps of Ian Rankin. Just a wonderful series to tie in on and I’m sure
will last you a while.

17. Peter May --The Black Loch

Well as long as we’re up in the area of the Hebrides, why don’t we go to one? This is kind of a

surprise fourth entry into Peter Mays classic best-selling Lewis Trilogy and returns his much-
loved lead detective Fin Macleod. Three books in the series titled The Black House, The Lewis

Man and The Chess Man. You certainly can start with this volume but if you’ve not read the 3 I
just mentioned that it’s really a wonderful series and I think was made into a television series as
well. Peter Mays is one of the best writers of the genre and this is a worthy addition to his
trilogy. Some connectivity between this book and the earlier ones so you might want to read
them first.

18. Thomas Perry --Strip

Here we are with one of the masters of crime fiction namely Thomas Perry and we are right in
his sweet spot. And no, we are not up in some little strange Scottish island but rather right in
the middle of Los Angeles. This is a classic cops and robbers caper with lead characters
including “an aging but formidable strip-club owner Manco Kapak who’s getting robbed by a
masked gunman.” And then we have the predictably dubious LAPD Lieutenant Nick Slosser
who’s“Having his own troubles including worries about how he’s going to afford to send the
oldest child of each of his two bigamous marriages to college without making their mother
suspicious.” Well now. Classic Thomas Perry. A great fun read if you’re into classic crime
writing.

19. Donna Leon --A Refiner’s Fire

This is, I think, believe it or not, #40 in a series of books written by Donna Leon all featuring
Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice, Italy Police Department. Without question one of
the best and longest running series of all crime fiction. Leon is brilliant, Venice is a phenomenal
location and the cast of characters she surrounds Brunetti with at the Questura (aka Precinct) is
brilliant and continuing. As is Brunetti’s immediate family, in-laws, etc. The beauty of picking
up one of these books, is that before you even finish page two you are immediately again in the
middle of a crowd of friends whom you feel you’ve known for years.

20. Jack Carr and Ben P. Woodward --The Fourth Option

You know I’m a bit of an over-the -top maniac fan of Jack Carr’s books starting way back with
The Terminal List which is still one of the all-time great thrillers. If you have not read it, stop
what you’re doing and go pick it up. And his most recent book before this one was Cry Havoc
which began back in Vietnam and was sensationally good. This one is a new series and involves
a co-author and took a little getting used to. The lead character here is Chris Walker who is a
former Navy SEAL and a CIA Ground Branch Operative who is called by a wife of a former
teammate he lost in Afghanistan who has now lost a son to the opioid crisis and needs his help.
Walker operates out of a VW camper, and he has a hidden cache of weapons and then moves
on to take justice into his own hands exposing corruption and issuing a long-forgotten brand of
lethal outlaw justice. You get the idea. Classic thriller. Exciting read, I totally enjoyed it. If
you’re into this category of books (as opposed to say “Nora” see above) this has your name on
it.

Well, that’s it now for the books. As I look back over this list, I don’t think in 20 years of doing this, I’ve ever had a more diverse collection of readables. And honestly loved every one of them and otherwise wouldn’t have written about them.

Now once again, somewhat abashedly I will attempt to give a few television recommendations but given the amount of reading I’ve been doing and it’s been summer, and I’ve been outdoors, etc. I don’t have too many. Here then are a few:

1. Legends

This is a terrific British crime series that dramatizes the true story of a massive drug bust
conducted by the UK Customs office. Lots of deep undercover stuff. Set in the early 1990’s
with seven episodes on Netflix. An absolute excellent show with one of my favorite actors,
Steve Coogan featured as the guy heading up the caper.

2. The Ballad of Wallis Island

Quite simply, this is a hoot. This is not a shoot-em-up. No spies, no bombs going off just an
eccentric guy who lives on his own island, but who’s managed to somehow win the lottery
twice and wants to have a private concert of his favorite folk group on the island. What could
go wrong? Well, you can just imagine. An absolute fun show to watch on Apple TV.

3. Hidden Assets

This is a combined show that takes place in Ireland and Belgium but also with links to brutal
murders in Spain. Well now. Classic crime drama involving terrorism, stolen diamonds, small
time drug-dealers, great acting. Something like 18 episodes.

4. Small Things Like These

This is the film I referenced above when talking about the book written by Claire Keegan. The
movie features Cillian Murphy and nothing more need be said in my opinion. That guy is
brilliant. This is a seriously touching little film, but it will grab you by both ears and yank you
into it. You will not regret watching this.

Well, that’s it for now, hope you find some enjoyable reading and films herein. I certainly enjoyed reading all of it and enjoyed passing it on to you. Feel free to send an email back. Or not. Enjoy the end of summer.

Brendan

brendanryan9@gmail.com