Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: Agatha Raisin has grown enamored with her handsome and harming gardener, George Marston. However, she isn't the only one and has competition from many of the village women, including newcomer Jessica Fordyce, a beautiful television actress who spent time there on weekends.  When George doesn't show up to a ball Agatha only sponsored so she could share the first dance with him, the detective goes in search and finds him in a pile of compost with a bag over his head she later learns once held venomous adders. She is hired by George's sister to track down the killers, but her investigation immediately turns up one thing that leaves Agatha heartbroken - George was a philanderer who had multiple affairs around the village even though he ignored her attempts to throw herself at him. Review: The book I have on reserve at the library wasn't available yet so, while waiting, I stuck with something familiar and checked out Hiss and Hers to see what happened next in th...

My youngest daughter is taking a film & theater class as part of her senior year of high school and needed to watch and analyze a movie mentioned in one of her lessons. Jurassic Park was one of those films and as part of helping her out, I wound up getting an opportunity to re-watch it for probably the 100th time. Here are some of the thoughts I had while doing so: John Hammond's (Richard Attenborough) choices in experts is puzzling. I'm not saying a paleontologist, paleobotanist and chaos expert aren't good choices. I'm just surprised he didn't bring in an expert on zoos and living predators versus two scientists who only know about dinosaurs from fossils. Plus, if I were his insurance company, I'd be questioning the use of two experts who rely on his funding. Oh, and why are his grandkids there?  Do their parents want them to get eaten? OK, so I am going to admit, the first scene with dinosaurs is cool.  Like I told my daughter, it is hard to believe this...

It was our fall bulk pickup week so, after spending a chunk of my evening hauling an old couch and some other furniture, we no longer had room for to the curb, I was tired out enough to not want to do much else. As a result, I wound up re-watching Child's Play for the first time in about a year before calling it a night. Here are some of my thoughts from that movie: Why did Chucky ( Brad Dourif ) stay in the box? To recap, murderer Charles Lee Ray, or "Chucky," is shot by Detective Mike Norris ( Chris Sarandon ) inside a toy store and uses a spell to cast his soul into a doll that is later purchased from a homeless guy by Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) for her son, Andy ( Alex Vincent ).  So, with that mouthful out of the way, why not just break out of the box before the homeless guy even came into the picture? Was there a delay on the spell taking effect or did he have another reason for waiting until he was in a child's possession (other than the plot, of course)? ...

I don't know if it's just the time of day or the fact the park has been slightly busier than usual, but I haven't had a lot of success getting photos the past couple days. Everything is either hiding or skittish to the point they flee the second I'm within range.  I did, however, manage to get a couple blue heron photos while I was out today. I'm not completely sure if it is two different herons or the same one in different spots but here they are: ______________________________________________________________ Here are some of my previous heron photos: Heron Photos Some Heron Photos Heron With Breakfast

Synopsis: When objects around town become suddenly and inexplicably magnetized, Dr. Jeffrey Stewart and Dr. Dan Forbes of the Office of Scientific Investigation are called in to find out why. They discover a dying scientist carrying an unusual radioactive isotope that was part of an experiment. Stewart and his team take possession of the isotope, learn it is alive, growing and will eventually be so large, it could potentially throw Earth out of orbit. Who's in it? The movie stars Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Jean Byron , Harry Ellerbe and Michael Fox. Review: It's been a while since I had time to watch an early morning movie, so I made sure to correct that today and eventually selected The Magnetic Monster. The movie was not what I was expecting it to be based on its title and unfortunately wasn't one of my favorites. I am always going to give movies points for uniqueness and in this case, the film did offer something somewhat unique by not having the "monster"...

My wife and I have seen the Paul Walker-led thriller  Joy Ride more times than I've been able to keep track of. It is one of those films that becomes our go-to when we can't find something else to watch. However, it had been quite some time since we did last see it, so we ended up picking it last night while waiting for our daughter to get done with work. Here are some of my thoughts from that re-watch: How much did Lewis' (Walker) plane ticket cost? The who premise of the movie only happens because Lewis cashes in his refundable ticket so he can buy a car and pick up his friend/love interest Venna (Leelee Sobieski). I can believe that. However, that car had a price tag of $1100 (I miss used cars being that cheap) and you have to figure there would be taxes, licensing fees, etc. on top of that. I just don't remember plane tickets costing THAT much in the early 2000s. Also, as my wife pointed out, for a couple college kids going home for the summer, they sure didn't ...