Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: After putting her life in danger to solve murders for the police and receiving no credit for her efforts, Agatha Raisin decides to give up her amateur sleuthing and instead open a detective agency. She finds immediate success and soon has a full staff working for her, including her new neighbor, Emma Comfrey.  While most of her cases involve missing pets, adulterous spouses and runaway teenagers, Agatha is soon hired by Mrs. Laggat-Brown to investigate death threats being made against her soon-to-be-married daughter and stops a murder attempt at a dinner party. As her investigation continues, the detective once again finds her own life in danger, both from the investigation itself and from Emma, who has fallen in love with Sir Charles Fraith and grown jealous over Agatha's friendship with him. Review: Our local library will be closed for a month because it is moving out of its temporary location and back into its newly remodeled building. As a result, I took the time to...

Marybeth was the most popular girl at my high school. This was mostly because of genetics. Her mom was a former beauty pageant winner, and her father was an underwear model. Marybeth got the best of both of them, including her mom’s blonde hair and her father’s piercing blue eyes. This is why it shouldn’t be any big surprise she was also the frontrunner and eventual winner of every high school honor you could think of, homecoming queen, prom queen, class president and (more the result of perverted teachers than actual intelligence) valedictorian.  Her charmed life continued after graduation. After a year of following in her father’s footsteps and modeling underwear in multiple catalogs, she moved to Hollywood and had a semi-successful career in horror movies. She couldn’t act to save her life, but she didn’t really need to because she was willing to show her perfect chest at the drop of a hat. That perfect chest once again on display. Only this time, instead of being on the latest ...

Synopsis: Two airplanes carrying shipments of gold are both forced to make emergency landings and are then robbed and their pilots killed by a gang of outlaws. Sheriff Roy Rogers investigates and soon suspects the outlaws are working for a local businessman seeking to drive the airport out of business with help from an inside man so he can purchase the land. Who's in it? The movie stars Roy Rogers , Betty Richards, Andy Devine, George Meeker and Trigger. Review: I overslept by about 15 minutes this morning, which both threw off my routine and meant I wasn't able to watch the movie I had planned on watching. As an alternative, I ended up selecting The Gay Ranchero because it was shorter in length. At first, I wasn't sure if I would like the film, but it turned out to be a halfway decent western. The main plot itself was about as predictable as you would expect from a movie like this. Even before Sheriff Roy (Rogers) had his theories, it was both reasonably clear who was ...

Synopsis: In 1958, wealthy shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf pays employee Tom Ridley $1,000 to travel to Italy and convince his son, Dickie Greenleaf, to return to the United States. Tom accepts the offer but instead of convincing Dickie to return befriends both him and his fiancée Marge Sherwood and learns to enjoy the luxuries money can bring. When Dickie, growing both bored and suspicious, later rejects him, an angry Tom kills his friend and then assumes Dickie's identity. However, he is only able to succeed with the deception for a short time before people grow suspicious. Who's in it? The movie stars Matt Damon , Gwenyth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett , Jude Law, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and James Rebhorn. Review: The first and only time I watched The Talented Mr. Ripley was when it was still showing at the theater back in 1999. Despite that, there were still scenes from the film I could remember vividly, albeit without much context. So, when I came across the film on one of...

Synopsis: Shirley Martin and her father run a cattle ranch that, along with others in the valley, is in danger of drying up after a mining company owned by Robert Weylan dams and redirects the only source of water in an elaborate scheme to buy the land at a reduced cost. After her father is killed by Weylan's men, Shirley attempts to fight him in court and, when that fails, works to find another solution that won't result in people being hurt or killed. Who's in it? The movie stars Dorothy Page, Dave O'Brien , Stanley Price, Vince Barnett and Warner Richmond. Review: I was undecided about which movie to watch this morning and ended up picking Water Rustlers because it was one of the first that popped up on my list and a class western starring a "singing cowgirl" seemed somewhat unique. After seeing the movie, my opinion of it is mostly positive. I will admit, I wasn't expecting all that much from Shirley Martin (Page), based mostly on when the movie w...

Synopsis: Impoverished Jack Coley works as a cat burglar to pay his rent and steals some jewelry and a briefcase from Nan Baker's apartment. What he doesn't know is Nan is an unwitting mule for an espionage ring her boyfriend, Alan, is involved with and the briefcase contained important stolen papers he threw out, putting both his and Nan's lives in danger. Who's in it? The movie stars Jack Hogan, June Kenney , John Baer, Gregg Palmer and Billie Bird . Review: I had planned on watching another movie this morning but since Stormcloud decided to join me by curling up on my lap, I instead looked for a movie that had a cat theme to it. The Cat Burglar was the first one I could find in a reasonable amount of time, so I gave it a try. It turned out to be a good choice. This is one of those movies that revolves around someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time and, in the case of Jack (Hogan), it was about as wrong as he could get with the notebook he winds up with...