Watched "Sherlock Holmes" over this past weekend with my wife and family. Actually my wife and I viewed it twice, as we wanted to catch stuff that we missed the first time around. Wicked fun, cool effects, convoluted and intense storyline, and interesting characters--Sherlock and Dr. Watson, as portrayed here by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, are not the literary creations that most of us are familiar with. However, Downey and Law are an intriguing pair, with much witty banter and bickering throughout the movie, as they wend their way through a literally explosive case involving human sacrifice, magic, poison, multiple murders, a secret society, politics and a strange plot to take over the world. With boatloads of action, tremendously skillful fighting, and plenty of humorous repartee amongst the cast, the movie moves mostly at breakneck speed, and you don't really care if some things make sense or not, or if there are holes in the story. Rachel McAdams as the naughty undercover girl Irene Adler (who's being manipulated by the unseen Moriarty) and Mark Strong as the villainously evil Lord Blackwood are excellent in their roles, and it's fun to watch them interplay with Holmes and Watson. This film is a wild ride through Victorian London, with all its grimy back alleys and glittering restaurants and old cemeteries and magnificent halls of government, and replete with heroes and villains and damsels in distress, so hang on and enjoy this wonderfully entertaining picture.

Finished on 9/8/09:

EVIL AT HEART by Chelsea Cain, 2009.

I couldn't turn the pages fast enough, it just flew. This suspense/thriller/chiller has detective Archie Sheridan in the hospital, serial killer Gretchen Lowell on the loose, and dead bodies and body parts everywhere, not Gretchen's handiwork, but possibly a copycat or worse, a Gretchen Lowell cult. All the regulars are here, including Archie's colleague/friend Henry Sobol, and Susan Ward the reporter/journalist. There's plenty of gore, blood, and bizarre situations to give you the creeps, and the finale that involves Archie, Gretchen, and Susan is plenty exciting, plus the stage is set for the next book. A quick, fast paced read, but not quite as satisfying a read as the previous books.

Finished reading:

ON/OFF by Colleen McCullough, 2006.
Not the usual sort of book for McCullough, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's a suspense thriller set in Connecticut in 1965-66, concerns a serial killer. After body parts are found in a freezer of a noted research lab in Holloman, CT, Det. Carmine Delmonico, is assigned to solve these heinous multiple murders. Victims are all young 16 yr old girls who resemble each other and in how they are reared. Gruesome, terrible murders. Lots of suspects, and Delmonico becomes involved with Desdemona Dupre, who works at the institute. Plenty of suspense, red herrings, killings, family secrets, etc. I never guessed who the criminal was, and the twist at the end was a shocker to me.