Reviews and More

I usually love Stephen King novels, but have liked very few of the film adaptations that inevitably arise from them. Stand By Me, The Green Mile, The Shining, Misery, and Carrie immediately come to mind as the better ones. No, I’m not forgetting Shawshank Redemption; I didn’t like the movie, though the novella was fantastic.

The rest have been cringeworthy at best, and downright awful at worst. In fact, I’m having trouble deciding which is the absolute worst Stephen King movie I’ve seen. Is it Graveyard Shift? Children of the Corn? Dreamcatcher? Trucks? Really, there are a lot of candidates.

In the end, however, I think this dubious distinction should go to Maximum Overdrive, that horrendous 1986 fiasco starring Emilio Estevez. In case you haven’t seen it (and for your sake, I hope you haven’t), it’s about trucks and other machines that come alive and start killing people.

The plot was utterly ridiculous and boring. I tell ya, whoever thought audiences would enjoy watching a bunch of 18-wheelers decked out with Green Goblin truck accessories going on murderous rampages was way off base.

Not surprisingly, this was King’s first — and last — directorial effort.

I suppose we can take that away as the silver lining here!

Anyway, what’s your least favorite Stephen King movie adaptation?

Actor Brad Renfro was found dead in his Los Angeles home early on Tuesday morning. He was just 25, and joins a long list of other troubled young Hollywood stars who have met with untimely ends over the years.

While early reports contain no indication of the cause of death, authorities have said that Renfro was out “drinking with friends” the night before. In addition, the former actor was known to struggle with drugs and alcohol throughout his career, and had been picked up on possession charges a few times.

Renfro’s first major role was in the 1994 film The Client, starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. He has also appeared in such films as Sleepers, Apt Pupil, The Jacket, and Bully.

I’ll be watching for more follow-up reports to find out what the cause of death was. But in a guy so young, and with Renfro’s history, we can probably bet on drugs or alcohol being contributing factors.

While a lot of companies prefer to use e-mail marketing for obvious reasons, it seems that recently there’s been an increase in the number of businesses that are going back to direct mailing as a means of reaching out to customers.

One reason for this trend could be that people are a lot more likely to read a sales letter that comes in the mail. For example, I give all of my postal mail at least a cursory glance, and many times end up reading through an entire sales pitch if something catches my eye. Conversely, I just send all e-mail sales notices to my spam folder without even opening them up.

If I were running my own business today, I’d definitely want compare the two marketing methods to see which one delivered more results. For my direct mail campaign, I’d probably get custom postcards printed up, and send those out instead of a full sales letter. Postcards are cheap to mail, and are very inviting to read (since there’s no envelope to fuss with), thereby making them excellent marketing tools.

I know that VistaPrint offers cheap postcards that can be designed and printed right on their website. There are different sizes to choose from, as well as a variety of templates, finishes, and other options. Plus, the turnaround time is very fast, so the postcards can be delivered in about 3 days.

As I said, that’s what I would do if I were trying to market a product or service.

What would you do?

Agatha Christie is best known for her many spellbinding murder mysteries, but she occasionally departed from that formula. The 1941 espionage thriller N or M? is just such a departure, despite the fact that it features two detectives who have previously made a name for themselves by solving mysteries.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford are back once again, this time middle-aged with two grown children, and looking for something to do to help their country during the early stages of World War II.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The book opens with Tommy and Tuppence lamenting the fact that they’re viewed as “too old” to be of any use during the war. Tommy tried to enlist in the armed forces, but was rejected in favor of younger men, and Tuppence had the same experience when she tried to sign on as a nurse. So now they’re relegated to sitting around their home, while seemingly everyone else, including twins Deborah and Derek Beresford, are allowed to take a more active role in the war effort.

Then one day Tommy gets a visit from Mr. Grant, their former contact when they were doing detective work as a young couple. Mr. Grant has a position open for Tommy. Ostensibly, it’s a desk job doing mundane paperwork in Scotland, but as soon as Tuppence leaves the room, Grant reveals the true nature of the assignment.

Tommy is to go to a boardinghouse called Sans Souci in Leahampton, where it’s believed that two high-level German spies have set up shop in order to help plan a major infiltration. British intelligence agencies don’t know anything about the spies except that one is a man and one is a woman, and that they’re referred to only as N and M.

Since there’s reason to believe that even the British agencies have been compromised by Nazi sympathizers, Mr. Grant wants to bring in a trusted outsider to check out Sans Souci and see what’s going on. Tommy fits the bill. Unfortunately, due to the extremely dangerous nature of the assignment, Tuppence will have to stay at home.

Tommy readily accepts, though he knows that Tuppence will regret being left out. What neither he nor Mr. Grant realize, however, is that Tuppence was eavesdropping on their conversation when they thought she was out of the room. She then makes haste to Leahampton and settles herself into Sans Souci as a widow named Mrs. Blenkensop, and when Tommy, posing as a Mr. Meadowes, arrives, he has no choice but to allow Tuppence to help him on the sly.

The rest of the novel then shows Tommy and Tuppence getting to know the other boarders at Sans Souci as they try to determine which two are actually German agents. They make a few missteps along the way, are mistaken in several of their assumptions, and both face life-threatening situations before the identities of N and M are finally unraveled.

My Reaction: N or M? was a surprisingly engaging read from start to finish. I usually only find Christie’s murder mysteries to be page-turners, but this one was interesting, fun, and suspenseful all at the same time.

I think a lot of the credit for this has to go to the two main characters, Tommy and Tuppence. They’re such a great pair and play off of each other so well that it’s hard not to like them. Tuppence was especially good in this one, as she manages to outshine Tommy yet again. I loved how she was able to think on her feet while held at gunpoint at the end — even if the whole story wasn’t quite clear to her yet. She bought the time she needed, and escaped with her life.

For my part, I had no idea which male character was the German agent, but I guessed the female conspirator pretty early on. There were several clues leading to this assumption, including the way two of the other female characters were portrayed in such a suspicious light. I knew Christie was just trying to throw readers off the track there!

A second clue was the fact that a child was so central to the story. Christie wouldn’t have put that character in the novel if she wasn’t important. And finally, once Mrs. Sprot took dead aim and picked off the would-be kidnapper even though she said she’d never handled a gun before, I knew it was her.

Overall, I thought N or M? was one of the better Christie books I’ve read. It may not be a murder mystery, but it’s still an engrossing read. Definitely recommended!